When I worked in that kind of environment, I frequently (most of the time) found myself migrating to an isolated conference room in order to focus. It’s also really hard to get anything done when you’re on edge because you feel like you’re being watched, whether true or not. Having meetings in the open would be super distracting too - I like to meet in private to both manage the flow of project information, and also to not distract coworkers that are busy working on their own projects. I find it hard to tune out conversation if I know the subject.