A number of spontaneous activities occur during the workday that require the need for private spaces within an open floor plan. People need to take calls ,unexpectedly talk to a colleagues, engage in a heated conversations or conversation that should be kept private.

Although in some cases these conversations can motivate collaboration, in other cases, these conversations will cause disruptions to others.

It may be inconvenient to have to travel a distance to a conference room  for a short spontaneous need. Inconvenience encourages people to ignore etiquette and disrupt other workers.   We recommend telephone rooms and/or very small conference rooms dispersed in and  around the open work area so that these private areas are easy to get to and convenient.  In contrast, we would not recommend that these private areas be concentrated in just one part of the office.  Workers will be more likely to use the facilities to just take a short call or conduct a fast conversation if they are brainlessly in close proximity.

Open office plans give rise to a host of issues regarding noise, distractions, and privacy that needs to be addressed.  Knoll has provided a whitepaper on  establishing guidelines for appropriate open office behavior.  See below:

ules for Etiquette in the Open Office | Workplace Research | Resources | Knoll.