This is true, but it won’t matter.

We all deserve offices. But it gets worse: We’ve been told that our small squat in the vast openness of our open-office layouts, with all its crosstalk and lack of privacy, is actually good for us. It boosts productivity. It leads to a happy utopia of shared ideas and mutual goals.

In the current climate, it’s very easy for some MBA to prove they saved x amount of dollars by eliminating offices, thus fitting more employees into a certain space. But it’s harder to prove productivity loss and it takes more time.

It’s just as real, mind you, and devastating. But harder to quantify.

Thus, the MBA gets a bonus for saving $200,000 rent a year, but meanwhile your best people leave over the next few years to go to places that have private offices, and your other employees – those who choose to stay – their productivity drops 20%, losing you $500,000 over 10 years.

But hey, the company “saved” $200,000!