Feeling too exposed at the office? Office Partition Walls help divide and conquer the need for personal space in open office settings with multiple workers. You can build dividing walls to break up a large area, or use them as a “wrap” around an existing desk to create an instant cubicle.

Available in 2 heights, you can purchase 42”H Free Standing Office Partitions (3.5 feet tall) –or– 66”H Free Standing Office Partitions (5.5 feet tall), depending on the amount of division needed. Both heights are available in widths (24”, 30” and 36”), while the 66”H panel offer three additional widths in 48”, 60” and 72”. In the 66”H offering, there are three widths (24”, 30” and 36”), with glass sections on top of the fabric, so you can mix and match for virtually endless layout possibilities. Check out our Accessories section and add a Shelf and Shelf Brackets to optimise storage.

The 21^st century has introduced a great deal of change to the concept of the traditional business office as we’ve known it. Ever since 1964 and the advent of the Herman Miller Action Office system, everything was cubicle partitions and divided offices.

But once we added members of the millennial generation into the mix of employees, many companies have been emboldened to rethink their workspace and bring people closer together and face to face into what has become popularized as the “open-plan office” or “open office”. Tear down those walls!

It was a great idea in the beginning. And ironically, exactly the same as it was prior to that great cubicle invention by Probst in the ’60s. It was one big happy room with rows and rows of desks, working and functioning together. Facility managers and business owners jumped at the chance to return to this layout, realizing that aside from encouraging better co-working by bringing everyone together, the open office came with other worthy advantages.

For example, lower costs! If everyone is sitting together at their own work desks in one large room, there is no required investment for office partitions! Not to mention the resulting lower HVAC expenses; it’s far easier to route air vents (and lighting … and fire sprinklers… and carpeting… and…) to just one room with no division.

Additionally, these companies’ check signers truly appreciated seeing lower numbers on their rent checks each month, as another clear benefit to the open office was the reduced amount of floor space/square footage required for each employee. No longer were they in 6x6 cubicles, and most were certainly no longer inhabiting their own private 8x10 (or larger) private offices. This also certainly makes it easier for the managers and directors to keep an eye on their team when there are no walls. It’s a win-win situation, right?

But a funny thing happened (and there have been numerous articles about this). We saw it firsthand with many of our contract office customers who spent thousands and thousands of dollars on benching workstations to fit this great “new” idea of the open office plan. In less than a year, most of them came back to us asking for solutions to help cut down on all the noise and distractions.

It turns out that the open office might be great for co-working interactions and brainstorming sessions, but once someone gets on the phone for a sales call and suddenly nobody else around them can focus on writing or thinking or creating or ANYthing other than the loud conversation going on a mere few feet from their ears… people start to rethink their choices.

Luckily, we are prepared with an affordable solution. Office Panels can be customized for a wide variety of functions to help break up the office space a bit and return some sanity to independent work and the ability to quietly focus.

With the simple addition of a Foot Kit, you can take any single panel and place it anywhere as a freestanding divider between two spaces that should be separate, like a mini-wall. Or, build bigger! As long as you make sure you add a Foot Kit and Top Bracket at least every 8 feet for stability, you can connect multiple panels together in a straight line for as long a wall as you need. You don’t need to purchase any additional hardware for this approach, as the connections are already built into the sides of the panels!

But what if you need something more than just one straight wall? What if you really need office partitioning to create “rooms” with 3 or 4 connected walls that don’t currently exist in your space? No problem. All you need is to add connectors (displayed with panels of matching height) to your order.  Depending on your need, you can join the panels in an “L” configuration with the 2-way connector, a “T” configuration with the 3 way connector, or an “X” configuration with the  4 way connector.  Voila! Instant privacy.  When you connect panels with connectors, there is no need to order the Foot Kit.  When joining panels of different heights, remember to add the needed quantities of the Filler and End Caps (3 height options).

A kind reminder to pay attention to the sizes specified and that you select a connector with matching height to your panel.  The panels represented in the above links are 42”H panels.

Aside from functioning as room dividers, these panels can also provide separation on a smaller scale by behaving as desk dividers, when wrapped around individual desks that share a common space. If you only want a little bit of separation but not a total block between employees, then go with the shorter 42”H panels – this is just enough height to help define individual workspaces while remaining low enough to allow eye-to-eye interactions while seated.

If it’s more independent focus you’re after, then choose the 66”H panels, which are tall enough for full privacy when seated, and even when standing for all but the tallest of people. Measure the existing desk ahead of time, and choose the right panel widths to match exactly around the front and sides of the desk for a tight cubicle-style wrap, or select wider (or additional) panels to give a little extra elbow room around the desk, essentially creating a mini-office.

However you choose to build it, a good cubicle partition can go a long way when it comes to returning a little peace and privacy to your team members. And you’ll likely see the investment come back to you tenfold in your bottom line once focus and productivity have been restored.