Pod People

Zenbooth solo pod

Forget open-office configurations; the trend is toward privacy booths.

As Covid-19’s remote-work surge fades, some workplaces are quieter and odder than ever. Employees have returned only to park themselves in deserted conference rooms or sound-muffling chambers. Colleagues grumble about booth-hogging co-workers, and some companies have started enforcing time limits on them.

The pods, some resembling old-school telephone booths, have emerged as one of the hottest segments in the $24 billion North American office-furniture industry.

The portable booths aren't walled or curtained like traditional offices. The main benefit seems to be quiet.

Booth-inclined office workers say their needs have changed post-Covid, and they have a harder time concentrating among noise and distractions.

At CrowdComms, a U.K.-based maker of event technology, managing director Matthew Allen got used to working in near-silence at the office during the pandemic. When colleagues returned, their phone calls—even at normal volume—annoyed him so much he bought a sound-dampening booth.

Though it was ostensibly for the entire office, he soon moved in.

If employees merely want peace and quiet, employers can save themselves the expense of converting to a pod-office by allowing their cubicled workers to wear sound dampening headphones. Some business etiquette rules will have to change, but they have to be modified anyway as people battle over booth reservation times.

Have I mentioned that I'm glad to be retired?