Anxiety in open-plan office

[Daren]

Hi all.

I have a problem working in an open-plan office, in particular where I sit.

I sit at a bank of four desks, all at 90 degrees to each other. The barrier between each desk is not high enough to block the view to the people sat at the adjacent desks. Two of the desks are empty, and one next to me is occupied.

This may sound strange, but over the last few years I've started to get really anxious when the person next to me is at their desk - whoever it is (a few people have sat there over the years, and I've moved around too).

Even though they're not in direct eye contact, I can see them in the corner of my vision. I start to get really anxious, my breathing rate increases, and I feel I have to constantly engage with the other person. It's affecting my work as I can't fully concentrate on it, and I usually get headaches as well, as I get worked up into a state. I feel really tense, and I'm sure the other person can pick up the "tension" between us.

There's nothing wrong with the people sat with me, they're decent people, so why do I get like this? It's only happened in the last few years, before that I was fine.

I hope there's a way out of this, I hate feeling like this and want things back as they were.

Thanks for reading.

 

[kayelle]

I have something similar to this in college, when I'm in lectures or labs. I actually discussed it with my psychologist last week, because I wasn't attending much because I had so much anxiety around the other people in college.
We came to the conclusion that it's the fact that I feel so seperate from them. I feel different and isolated, because I'm a repeat student so I don't really know the people in my class, and so I'm really aware when that I'm on my own when I'm around them, and I feel really different and cut off for them.
Which means that, to get over my anxiety of being around these people, I need to make friends with them, which is pretty much the hardest thing for me to do! But if you were friends with these people at work, you would feel more comfortable around them and you wouldn't be anxious when someone was around. You wouldn't have to worry about what they were thinking and how you were acting, because if you're comfortable around someone you can have comfortable silences, especially if you're both working.
I know that's pretty much the hardest solution, but it really makes sense, I think.

Good luck anyways, hope I helped in some way.

 

[sabbath9]

I get the same anxiety at work too. I'm an introverted, highly sensitive person (HSP) so I've come to accept these uneasy feelings. Fortunately I don't have to share my cubicle with my boss anymore. I have my own cube now, but I still get annoyed / anxious about my cube neighbors. I use earbuds to listen to my fav tunes and focus on my work.

I wish employers would realize that some of us work best when we have our own office or quiet space to work in. Some of us just can't work when we feel others are watching us. Although most of the time this feeling of being watched is just our minds playing tricks on us.

 

[jennismortal]

Toughen you up is what open-plan offices do. I absolutely love them. Most of the most enjoyable episodes of my working life have been in open-plan offices. If I'd had an office of my own I'd never have heard my combustible colleague on the next desk giving a distinguished critic a paintstripping torrent of abuse on the phone.Seriously, open-plan offices are the best. Away, fear. Away, primate territorial anxiety. Tear down those gonks, I say, and breathe the air. You have nothing to lose but your life.

 

[cwby]

I know what you mean.

My issue is not at work, but at home. I feel threatened when my neighbors are in proximity to me and my yard. They aren't bad people. I haven't been nice to them in the past because when I feel threatened, I lash out verbally, even though I know it is unreasonable. Make friends with them. I know this may be the solution, but boy, that scares me!