Now that Charlie is gone, it sure would be nice for BNY Mellon to re-evaluate it’s open office seating policy. I’m sure this arrangement works well for some small to midsized organizations, but in the BNY Mellon world, it just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. The bank haphazardly deployed open office seating with no regards to which teams actually collaborate with each other and which don’t. The result is that you have teams and individuals shouting and yelling over each other, and the distractions make it impossible to Stay focused on your own work. It actually reduces productivity while increasing risk at the same time. There was one time I witnessed hr recruiters working along side software programmers in an open office seating arrangement. The hr recruiters were on the phone with recruits of course. You could hear everything they were saying on the phone. I felt like I had to cover my ears! You name it, I heard it: phone numbers, addressees, wage offers, etc. They say the weakest link in any secured environment is always the people. Man ain’t that the truth!
What would the coronavirus do to the workforce if an infected person is sitting in the middle of an open office arrangement? Whole departments could be infected in a matter of weeks. For these and many other reasons, BNY Mellon should re-evaluate work from home and open up more opportunities for employees to take advantage of that.