[loup-vaillant]

Accounting. Open offices take less space, which is cheaper. The real costs are hidden, so they tend to be ignored.

It also looks good from the outside.

[Declanomous]

Yeah, the funny thing is that the accountants and HR all had private offices with doors that locked because they dealt with confidential matters.

[loup-vaillant]

In our case, even the higher ups have their desk in the open plan. Closer to the corners of course, but still. And I think this actually contributes to the delusion of harmlessness of this environment.

Having their desk in the open plan, they're more be inclined to think they are as affected as everyone else. Except they're not, because they spend way more time in meetings, and live on the manager's schedule.

As far as I can tell, the higher ups actually do mean well. I'm not sure what drew them to the open plan, but I think cold blooded cynicism explains only a fraction of their error.