Open plan and the secret ballot

Having recently succumbed to the Open Plan Office, the MJA team have grown used to knowing just that little bit more about each other. After a couple of weeks spent in silence with the occasional stifled exclamation, furtive internal office emails and hasty retreats from the building to allow hushed conversations on mobile phones, we grew to like the new arrangements. Personally, I think it's important that we fully experience each other's childcare disasters, partners' nicknames, banking problems, travel plans and favourite humming tunes. So much so that I frequently function as a relay station for those hearing-impaired among us who miss things. But, how to have a secret ballot in the new environment...

Competition was, as ever, fierce. Four distinct categories emerged (snapshots, X-rays, "research" and stories) but only two prizes could be awarded. The 21 finalist entries were displayed in a prominent place and the voting began. As often happens in these situations, a solution to the privacy problem presented itself via a complicated "decoy" arrangement, with people loudly declaring their preferences then voting quite to the contrary, so that when the votes were counted and clear winners emerged everybody had to act surprised.