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Offices vs. Cubes For Developers?
k12boy asks: "The company I work for has just announced that we're going to move our corporate headquarters (locally, but to a new building) and our facilities folks are currently searching for the new space. My intuition tells me that the developers on my team would be a lot more productive if I could give them offices (even shared) instead of the cube space they currently have, but I don't have any data to back it up. Does anyone have a pointer to any studies that prove me right or wrong?" Studies aside, can anyone think of a time that programmers actuallly did work more happily or productively in cubicles? Might there be advantages to more open workspaces compared to closed office doors?
I have worked at least a year in every permutation of office vs cube, and shared vs not. Obviously a shared cube is the worst and a solo office is the best, but I personally _much_ prefer a solo cube to a shared office. I think having to share an office (or cube) puts a significant amount of social pressure on a person to interact with the other person, and also makes it much difficult to have private conversations or to avoid hearing the private conversations of the other person (or the not private conversations of the other person). For me it is a night and day difference between sharing and not sharing, whereas cube vs office is not that significant.
Peopleware
I work in an open arrangement. The benefit is I can shout to whomever I want to ask a question. And I might get an answer but from someone else. We had great moral for a while and were very productive. Two things spoiled it. First we moved to a room that just did not have the same layout ie. no more Razor track or dart throwing corridor. Also the room has a lot more traffic since a lot of people use it as a short cut.
Second is as moral was great and caused people to feel better and hence moral got even better the flip side is true as well. So as the group's moral slide it caused at rapid decline. This led to less productivity and people putting in less to no overtime.
From my experience from being a programmer, architect, manager, etc. is moral. I don't really think people care were they work as much as they feel like they are helping to build something and get rewarded rather than enriching a select few aka Enron.
Case in point. I worked as a programmer for a company that moved HQ from the first factory to a small 3-story building. Sure the building was nice, quiet, etc. However in the move the executives were now on their own floor. They were more isolated. The company went from outrageous growth 4-digit to double-digit growth. Why because the employees that did the day-to-day work felt that now they weren't part of the company but enriching a few executives (this was made worse because few people were promoted from within). You use to walk down the hall and poke your head into the CEO's office. Now it required card key and an appointment or getting lucky enough to run into him. Moral plummeted and so did the revenue growth.
Take care of your employees and they will take care of you.
Not anonymous just not stupid when being negative about my employer
Read any book on managing programmers, and you'll discover that programmers are much more efficent in an office than in a cubicle.
Read: This article
Basically programmers need concentration to work, and being in a cubicle all day mean that they are constantly being interuppted.
Not good!
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Two witches watched two watches.
Which witch watched which watch?
This site: http://12simplesecrets.com/management.htm says that the productivity rate is 2.5x better for people in offices over those in cubes. They draw on several other studies to come to that conclusion.
:) And having one with a real wall that has a window on it is the best. I do find that now that I have my own office I tend to get a lot less done. Nobody to look over my shoulder and see I'm not on task.
My personal opinion is that as long as the walls are high and thick enough to block some of the other person's nasty choice of music and hang up cabinets, then cubicles seem to be ok.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
They dont scare me but the marketing geeks do. Saw them hack a company apart with their stupidy once. Never again! I have only met one sales person but the rest were more problem then their worth.
Over the years I have see this office format work well.
1) Single small office big enough for two computer but one person normally but in emergency two. Non glaring light. Enough light to keep them from going blind and to read printouts. And cool to there liking. Also a small bookshelf. Decent chair and desk.
2) Non fancy cofference room that can take the whole team with out overflow problems and mutiple computer to allow hasing thing out. Include a white board projector whatever works.
3) A quite place just to let the mind rest. You cant keep reving it up all the time. A small garden does work wonders. There is one Anime studio in Japan that has a quite garden on the roof. Works wonders.
4) Use email for all normal traffic since it lets the recepiant answer when they can and keeps the question foccus. Phones when typing would be hard or impractical. Small mail box for dropping off picking up thing that cant be NETed around that is "outside" the office.
5) A place to crash. IE to get some sleep on long mightmare project. Nothing fancy. The small office would do. Still have my old airbed and pillow from one place I work at. Came in handy. There are always these insaine schedules and thing go wrong no matter how thing are layed out. I rather have a programmer that's on a roll or been working long hours just to get a few hour sleep then have them drive home and maybe never get there.
6) The head programmer may have a bigger office but is geared to small meeting of him/her and no more than two other people. Small table and two chairs and the normal std office. Good for quicky meeting. More then that size it cofference room!
If a team need open cubical to manage then there are major problems. IE poor orginization. Sorry contant instant communication just does not work. Everyond should know what to do and do it. If problems arise then the cofference room is the best place to handle it. Can handle from 2 to its design capasity. And in a pinch forms a spare programmers room or a different crash and burn room. Its funny but the Travel Channel has a report that people feel more "secure" not in open areas but more intimate areas. It was in spending money at Casino's but is appliable here also. Guess it the old survival skills of the mind gets split with the lower logic worring about dangers.
One last thing is a sign that leads into the programmers area stating the following:
Danger: Marketing Geek stay out! Tresspassers will be eaten!