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Building a Better Office
xjrfx asks: "I'm in charge of setting up a new office for my company. I want to make the place as worker friendly as possible, comfortable enough that long hours don't seem like banishment to a beige hell. I was hoping to get some input from Slashdot regarding past office experiences, good and bad. What amenities/factors cause you to love or hate your office? If you could create your perfect office how would it work?"
"Did you feel schizoid in open offices or claustrophobic in cube farms? Were you ever forced to be in an office when you would have been more productive on the road, or conversely have you ever had to leave the office to focus on the task at hand? What's more important; a foosball table or a fancy furniture system? Do you want the same desk space for your duration of your employment or do you want to move around depending on your projects?
Our office will be 40-45 people (15 engineers, 7 creative types, 15 biz dev/sales, and some support staff and part-timers as well), but I'm open to opinions from people from much larger or smaller offices."
Our office will be 40-45 people (15 engineers, 7 creative types, 15 biz dev/sales, and some support staff and part-timers as well), but I'm open to opinions from people from much larger or smaller offices."
If you could create your perfect office how would it work?
I'm a fan of Joel Spolsky's writings (see Joel on Software), so I was fascinated to read about the office space he has designed at his company, Fog Creek Software.
I like what he's built here because the emphasis is not just on catering to developers, but providing an atmosphere where great coding can thrive.
Sigs cause cancer.
I like being in the same room with others on the same project.
A window.
And Quiet.
LCD monitors are easy on the eyes.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Here are a list of things I've had and loved...
-Fast internet connection. Not only useful for downloading tools/patches/etc fast, but people will want to use the internet to check news, email, slashdot in the morning. A fast internet connection will help them get it out of the way quicker (right now we have a 5 floor building on on T-1 that also serves as a connection between buildings. I'm lucky if I get 5k/sec).
-Budget in money for free sodas/water/coffee. I like to go for a morning coffee run, but I'd rather have an espresso machine and some cold Coke's at the office
-Aeron chairs. Spoil my ass please. These things are more comfortable to sit in than it is laying down. I bought the one I used when I quit one of my previous jobs
-Actually, modern looking furniture in general makes the place look a lot better and makes it seems like your job is more important than it really is, making you a little happier
-Cubes offer good privacy, but you can feel cramped. The best experience I had was a big open room. People had their l-shaped desks against the wall, so you couldn't see their monitor, but you could see their face. Also, moving desks is never fun!
If at all possible, give everyone their own office. I feel 100% more productive now that I don't have to work in a cube.
-- Bryan
- Massage Girls in Bikinis
- Flying Fish IPA on tap
- La-Z-Boy Recliners
- Dual 2.5GHz G5s for all
- Sweet aromas all day
- Foot spas under all desks
- Killer game room
- And the soothing sounds of the dead all day long
Oh, you have a budget?People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
by demarco and lister.
Any suggestions I would give are probably covered there.
I'll create an amusing sig when I have something meaningful to post.
You want to get better productivity, let people work from home. It works great when you have the right people (people usually work more from home then when at an office IMHO).
Even if it's a crappy view over looking the slum of town, windows make the day go by so much faster. If windows aren't in the work area, maybe pictures and paintings of the outside world would help.
I've been working in a basement office for 2 years now and there are some days where I wish I could just look out the window and regroup.
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When companies shifted to cubes one of the reasons given was to allow easier interaction between employees. It works. However what was lost is a way for a person to get needed privacy to work on projects requiring concentration without the guy from two cubes down coming by to BS about the election.
I'd highly suggest some way to isolate your work areas, even if it's something minimal like pop up "go away I'm working" flags.
Start with an Aeron Chair! Everything else is just fluff. Oh and get one of those cool paintings of Dogs Playing Poker.
Of Yea? Well I'll go build my own office. With hookers and black jack. In fact, forget about the office.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I think Joel's setup was pretty much perfect.
seriously, a ms pacman in the breakroom would go a long way - they are not really all that expensive either...
First of all, I'd assert that fffice policies are just as important as office layout. If I'm told I can redecorate, then I'd almost rather do that than trading generic beige for something that some stranger decided is "artistic".
Here are ideas to consider:
No fluorescent lights. Try to provide full-spectrum sources where possible, and give people the ability to control how much light they work with. I have a big black insert in my window to keep glare off my screen and usually keep my overhead off too. Programmers and creative types are usually the most sensitive to this.
We have a couple people that are seldom in the office. We actually give them larger offices with a spare table and use them as mini-conference rooms while they're gone. And since they're seldom in, they usually have clean desks. (This assumes you have square footage to spare like that.)
If anyone in the office commutes by bicycle, a shower is a great thing to have. Appreciated by them *and* their coworkers. >:0
If you have a snack area, you'll probably have a microwave. Consider also having a toaster oven, or better yet a full size stove/oven. This makes it easier to fix whatever you're in the mood for. And I'm more likely to hang around the office if I can have what I'm in the mood for. (Microwaved bagels are right out, for instance). Ditto for an icemaker.
Have enough printers. Having to walk from one end of an office to another just to print a short doc is annoying. Make sure the printing facilities are split up and placed strategically around the office.
If you have creative types as mentioned, at least one conference room should be wall to wall with whiteboards (or smarter equivalents if you have the budget). I like to have two in my office alone.
Make sure there is good (and adjustable) air conditioning and heating. It's very hard to productive when you're too hot or cold.
At my current company we have an M&M jar on the front desk that gets emptied and replenished every couple of days. Nice for those times when you've got a munchie attack but don't have time before your next meeting to go get something. Doesn't have to be M&Ms, but just something along those lines.
In the Portland, Ore area and like card games? Check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandgames/
Next comes the offices. If you've got programmers, give them the offices, and let the directors and VPs, who are never in their offices anyway, have the cubes. Programmers need peace and quiet, and the ability to hang a "stay the hell away from me" sign on the door.
No flourescent lights, period.
Offices with doors. Decent lighting. Phones you can turn off. Read Tom DeMarco's "Peopleware."
One place I worked was in an industrial park, and they took over half of a building. The kitchen of the place was actually the remains of a failed industrial park-ish greasy spoon, and as a result we had a commercial gas range, two huge fridges, a deep freeze, a full complement of pots, pans, etc. It was great. Nothing like being able to just walk into the kitchen and make yourself a good non-microwaved meal to make one feel at home... Mmm. Still miss making steak for lunch...
Two words: air conditioners!
There are two huge and incredibly noisy air conditioners in my office (for the adjacent rooms). There are no windows because it's a basement office.
Never let yourself get stuck with the basement office.
GET THEM INSIDE THE VAULT!
hookers!
And a good flyswatter.
A past company I worked at had several good sized conference rooms, which is normal.. However, every wall in these rooms was a giant white board. Also, several un-official meeting areas had white-board walls too.. That was dang handy for trying to explain things to people at impromptu meetings. And please, take one Conf. room, and put a couch, TV, and comfy chair or two in. makes meetings much more relaxed and productive.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
How about not even in the office?
Equip your employees with a wireless laptop and a corporate account at the local Starbucks, Borders, or coffee shop hotspot.
I would love to work for a company like that!
I would like to bring my dog to work. Ideally he could sit in my office under my desk while I work. Or the company (university in my case) could provide kennel space so that I could spend my lunch break with my dog. I would be willing to pay a fee similar to the parking fee for such a service.
Here is what you do...you give them offices like the ones the CEO's have. Nice and spacious. And some windows to look out of for God's sake! Oh...and give them paid nap time....like the CEO's do! ^_^ Actually...I'm not sure if CEO's have nap time.
Red Bull gave me wings and I flew into the ceiling fan.
Be considerate. Don't put things that will distract people that may actually have work to do, and if you must, make sure they are out of earshot / eyesight / annoyance range. I'm as in favor of a rousing game of tabble tennis as the next bloke, but when I'm on a conference call, it made me feel like a kill-joy to have to stand up and ask people to quiet down.
And for the love of , no popcorn machines! I used to love popcorn. Until I had to smell it every day for a month while people got bored of the shiny new toy.
I heard light green is very calming, use some of the color studys to choose the right ones.
Are you actually building an office? That is, will you have a say in where walls and offices are constructed?
I am a fan of a floorplan that has offices at or near the center, cubes around the perimeter, and lots of windows. More light gets in that way and those without a walled office don't feel so much like a lower class of employee because they will be closer to the windows.
Also wireless and meeting spaces / conference rooms of various sizes encourage people to move around and collaborate.
pants optional
Also, make sure to design flexibility into the office. The more adjustable, the better. For everything. Minimize hard walls. Put wheels on almost everything.
The Philosophy of Liberty | lewrockwell.com
Windows (the kind you look through to see the outside world) are nice, too...
Eh. Do everyone a favor and HIRE an interior designer. They don't spend 4+ years in university for nothing. There are plenty of design studios out there that specialize in workplaces. Look one up, they will open your eyes too all sorts of things that you would never of thought of.
Many times they will also point out sources for fixtures and whatnot that are much more economical than the places geeks would go. And no graybar is not the place you buy your overhead lights. Oh and they are all current with the workplace safety / egonomic regulations as wekk.
Foosball/pingpong/whatever is definitely a great way to get your employees to get to know each other better. It gives everyone a target to focus their time on instead of spending a break outside smoking or browsing the web. Definitely a big plus if you ever want your employees to like each other (not to mention that it gives them an outlet for competitiveness other than stabbing each other in the back)
Also... very very important... DO NOT USE DARK COLOR PAINT ON THE WALLS. I was in an office last year that painted the entire office the same shade of blue. It was fine in the offices with windows, but the moment you closed the blinds or walked into a room without windows it felt like you were in a dungeon. Plus we were limited in our overhead light fixtures by a building wide energy saving policy (read: they used a non standard size light fixture that only accepted very specific, very expensive bulbs).
Says it all--if you put your coders next to your phone-talkers, well, your biz deserves to fail.
Remain calm! All is well!
I once toured a nify building in Melbourne Florida owned by Encso. Each floor had a ring of offices around the outside and a communal lab in the center. Everyone had plenty of windows and they a shared area to work together in.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
A good advice: don't put lots of women nor lots of men. Mix them all as good as you can. I would go against putting women in FRONT on men during some visions i still have from some past mini skirts during the summer but that's a totally different problem ;)
The comfort and happiness benefits of being able to sit down when you visit a colleague's working-space are great and few offices cater for it.
If you have an impromptu meeting, do you want to be standing or sitting on the edge of a desk?
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Have your own Monica Lewinski under each desk. Nothing like a blow to get your productivity up!
A quick comment here... If it is in your budget, try to include a room with some workout equipment. There was nothing better at my old job then releasing pent up energy and stress on the kick boxing bag after a full day of tech support. A treadmill and free weights are very nice too. Dont forget the shower!
My best office is at home, why? it has all a human being needs, a bathroom, a kitchen, a place to rest, all of them very close to my workstation so if i'm a bit stuck on a problem i can take 5 steps get in the kitchen get a cup of coffee and watch some tv for some minutes..then go back to work, so whenever i think of a great office i think it must look like (and feel like) a home.
At a previous job, there used to be a nearby diner that was rarely busy in the afternoon. I used to regularly go over there and drink ice tea for a couple hours while reading computer manuals.
At my current job, there really is nowhere suitable to go. The local public library is only half a block away, but it is only open a few hours a week and really doesn't have any good place to sit down and concentrate without interruption.
What I would really like is a reading room/library with comfortable chairs, good lights, both desks and coffee-type tables, no telephones, no computers, and good insulation to keep outside sounds out.
About the closest thing we have to that is a hot tub. It is comfortable, the lights are okay, and there are no telephones are computers in htere, but there are no desks or tables so if what you are reading slips, it gets soaking wet.
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Probably not an option but I love the fact that my work has relaxed hours. I am a definite night person and getting me up at 10am is harsh. I also love the free sodas and candy in the break room as well as the own office if possible. I also feel free to complete work in a more efficent mannor. Free soda and relaxed hours. Oh don't forget to add flat panels and no uniforms to the mix. Plain clothes is 10x better.
One word: Kegerator
;-)
Nothing like pouring a cold one at work
A Gamespy article has a nice quote predicting their downfall: Work should be a practical place to get things done - cubicles are reasonable balance between cost, privacy, and personal space. Having meeting rooms, bathrooms, and a kitchen is also nice. The traditional approaches to work spaces are done because they work well enough.
Moving to the US I found I really missed 'morning/afternoon tea time" turns out lots of really important informal communication goes on there .... so make a space and time at least once a day for people to sit down together and just talk
IMHO open plan is certainly best for a team of that size - split them up and they'll be several factions instead. But think hard about the sound deadening. Acoustic panels on the ceiling, and sound-absorbent dividers between desks if you have them butted up together. Phones that ring unobtrusively, and cut to voicemail after a few rings. And plenty of meeting space away from the office floor, so that people don't have too many desk-side conferences. Although, of course, eavesdropping on other people's conversations is one of the productivity bonuses of open plan. Jonathan
Beer fridge or a kegerator means happy employees.
- Having natural light instead of flourecent is GREAT, but it's not always an option (raining outside, winter daylight hours etc).
I honestly believe having the sun shining in your office has a huge positive impact on office morale than sitting in a damn cubicle with flourecent lights humming over head.
- Having non-overhead (and non flourecent) lighting whenever possible. I hate overhead lighting. I REALLY hate overhead flourecent lighting.
- Allow me to control the light in my area somehow. I like things around me a bit dimmer when I'm working on an important file or project.
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
2) Reasonable toilet accomodations. Information workers should not be required to operate a plunger while at work... Must be kept clean and fully functional with redundant fixtures.
3) Windows required - the glass kind. If not in all offices, at least in common areas that people have reasonable access to.
4) Meeting rooms with doors and blockable windows. Unfortunately, once in a while private conversations are necessary.
Aeron chairs??? Those things dig into your legs! OW!
Oh, and cubicles (it's NOT "cubes") offer the illusion of privacy. In fact, they do nothing of the sort. Everyone can spy on you, and everyone's sound bothers you. Big open rooms are a nightmare -- "grand central station" springs to mind. No, give me a separate, enclosed, real, no-foolin' OFFICE of my own every time. With a door I'm allowed to close, too, thank you very much.
One thing you didn't mention: quit it with the fascist network policies. This encompasses everything from logon scripts that overwrite your preferences in the registry to not having access to your own C: drive to "Unacceptable Use Detected" internet intercept screens. HANDS OFF, please. If you don't trust me to do my work, how do you trust me at all?
[Exhales] Sorry. Bit of a rant there.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Don't even think about doing this without reading "Agile Software Development" by Alistair Cockburn . . . even if you aren't doing software development!
In any office, communication efficiency is the most important factor in productivity. My father works at a college, I work in the financial industry, and my brother is a filmmaker. In all these diverse industries, communication is the essense of getting things done effiently (obviously, _just_ getting things done _just_ takes bodies).
Now for some personal preferences: I like to have a personal private space for photos, plants, doodling. I like to be able to arrange the space as I like, including the furniture. I like to have privacy in the space so that I can veg when I need a mental health break, or so that I can concentrate when I'm in a bad mood and don't want to deal with people. However, I also really enjoy working in an open area with other talented people. The open area must have lots of whiteboards, good network access (802.11g is good enough), lots of stationary supplies, large work surfaces, and ideally a good relevent reference library handy (easiest to populate this with suggestions from the people working there). Much as I like some natural light, too much can ruin work in the morning or evening when the Sun shines directly into a space - one way to solve this is to orient most windows to the North. A good number of real air-cleaning plants is a good investment too since humans are naturally in a better mood when exposed to nature.
Hope that helps.
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
- cube walls should be 6 or 6 feet high. Not 8 feet. Not 4 feet.
- glass panels are cheaper and more attractive than white boards in the meeting rooms.
- provide area in the cubes for informal congregration/meetings and encourage collabaration.
- the importance of good coffee/drinks/snacks cannot be overestimated.
- someone will eventually need a fax or copy machine. Don't forget to get one.
- if possible, let people pick their own desk chairs and such. Just go to Office Depot or whatever with a Company credit card.
1. Quiet, developers need lots of concentration
2. No time-clocks, hire responsible people, they will put in more time when needed
3. Telecommute, except for project meetings, brainstorming sessions
4. Do not mention "long hours" - that means you are:
a. Disorganized
b. Underbudget/understaffed
c. Going to "over work"/"burn" people fast
IMHO long hours are the result of somebody fucking up either with irrelistic deadlines or bad specifications or design.
5. Breaks - the development process sometimes requires you to take a break to think things over.
Aside from that, yeah, flat panel displays, fast cpus, lots of memory, fast internet access.
- noise: a guy having is phone ringing the whole day sitting next to you is really bad
- light: coding with a window on the back is really bad sunny days
- temperature: summer, 40 degree C outside, no AC
... if it's not the temperature at the end of the day the smell will push people out
That were usually the first things you need to improve in a pretty standard office1. Cubes (single and double)w/sliding doors. 2. Common areas w/comfy chairs and snacks (free sodas/coffee/water a must) 3. Great Chairs (butt cramps are a *itch) 4. Fast Internet (when I have to look up something, I need it now) 5. Policy thing of Study time per day or per week(my pet peeve) 6. A window easily accessible(refocus the eyes) 7. Cube toys for all every three months. 8. Food (my office has a pot luck once a month) thats all for now
When the Dragon asks you to lunch, you might ask what will be for lunch before accepting.:)
It was wonderful.
However, now I live in Hawai'i and my lab here is kinda the opposite -- here I have an office which is completely surrounded with glass - but overlooks a beautiful landscaped garden - so it's worth it. Still have the rolling chair, no carpeting and incandescentlighting and locked door.
But let's just cover a couple big ones:
You spend about half your waking life in an office, and therefore you shoudl expect some level of privacy and a decent standard of living. The biggest infraction against this that many modern offices make is the "cube farm".
Cubicles are a great economical alternative to traditional offices, but you must give people ample room to breath, and ample privacy. 2 foot by 4 foot cubes with waist/desk-high walls is BAD. 6-8 feet on a side and walls that are neck to head high on the average employee is GOOD.
Additionally, it helps to provide ample privacy rooms. These are small conference rooms (actual rooms with doors and (possibly translucent glass) walls. They don't get booked for meetings, they're designed for impromptu use. When someone needs to make a telephone call that's personal in nature, or a couple people can see their discussion is getting a bit heated for cubeland and needs to be hashed out in private, or small impromptu team meetings, etc. This keeps distracting drama-rama out of the cube area, keeps people's privacy better protected, and prevents the distracting small team meetings in the cube-hallways that annoy everyone nearby trying to work.
Good quality white-noise generators help a little bit on the privacy and distraction fronts as well. Just enough to drown the distant din, but don't turn them up so loud that people can't willfully talk to the guy in the next cube over.
Lighting. Your employees use computer monitors. This means you don't want the outdoor light coming in through windows causing glare on their monitors, and you don't want nasty flourescent lights wreaking havoc in the eyestrain dept (hint: flashing light + flashing computer image = fried eyes). There are flourescents out there that are better than average for this, but the ultimate is anything that doesn't have a flashing frequency like flourescents do.
Hmm this comment is getting long, I'll be back later.
11*43+456^2
What amenities/factors cause you to love or hate your office?
privacy would be one of my greatest concerns. I would just hate working when someone would always hang behind/beside me.
The purpose of life is to find the purpose of life.
I work in a 96,000sqft office building that has over 900 employees working at any given time. For 3 years we had beige walls, carpet, desks, chairs, and computers.
Finally, they took our suggestions and painted the walls. We got bright vibrant colors, you wouldnt believe how mood boosting having color is. We also have alot of windows.
A really good tool for laying out office spaces is Visio 2003. I've used it to design my office as well as draft the plan for a house I'm building and plan the kitchen cabinets in the kkitchen. Wonderful product for the price. And I use it for software development (UML). Unfortunatly it is a MS product.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Chances are you'll want those half height cubes for the business/creative people and full cubes for the engineers. However when picking cubes do not make them so small you feel claustriphobic. My office is terrible because all the cubes are 5x5x(3 or 5). And the hallways between the cubes are about 3.5 feet wide. This doesn't allow for easy travel through the office. Try and plan it so people can manuver around without bumping into people or walls.
...to everyone when you don't have to spend 30-60 minutes each way each day to cram your way through freeways with insufficient automobile bandwidth.
Just imagine if everyone who could work at home did work at home. The few who did have to commute would fly along on a nigh-empty freeway.
And all the fuel saved...and the environmental improvement...and the lessened dependence on foreign petroleum...
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
However, number one on my list of light tips is NEVER EVER put a light source in the field of vision behind a computer monitor (eg. don't face your desk and computer out a window). It will force your eyes to continuously adjust between light levels while trying to focus on the light produced from the monitor and that coming from behind it. Always put light sources behind the viewer. Use diffused lights (eg. not a window) when possible to reduce glare, too.
Plants are also a benefit in increasing the mood of a room. I don't have any at work (yet), but the shelves in my home office are covered in plants, and I can attest that when they're not there (I recently had a mealy bug infestation and had to quarantine them) the room is not as nice of a place to be. And I mean real, living plants, not the plastic kind. If you're worried about maintenance, get succulents like hoyas -- they'll stay happy even if you forget to water them for weeks, and they have really cool flowers.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
Get a decent amount of huge green plants. They are generally very easy to keep alive and make the rrom much more friendly. They do a great job as seperators between desks so that you don't get the feeling to be under observation all day. The green is easy on the eye and people relate to them over time. I know it sounds funny, but it's true! ;-)
And then there's the obligatory open bar, couches, etc.
Get a good espresso machine, and people will look forward to getting into the office.
Well, at least it worked that way for a mild coffee addict like me. I also didn't need to leave the office for 40 minutes twice a day to go to the local coffee shop, so productivity was higher.
There are many, many considerations beyond those you mentioned. The layout has to conform to fire codes, there should be some flexibility to accomodate changing "missions" of the space, and - woof! - the average person's color choices are seldom optimum.
This is a pricey investment. It's worth interviewing a few designers who specialize in office environments and choose one you feel comfortable with.
Locate the office someplace interesting. Someplace amenable to discussions while taking a walk. My coworkers and I walk somewhere just about everyday (for lunch, coffee breaks, or just to get some air) and you would be amazed at how much a change in scenery can help you solve problems.
My office is in downtown Portland, OR and it is by far the best place that I have worked. Excellent book stores, street food vendors, coffee shops, and parks are very close.
Forget industrial parks and suburban strip malls. How boring.
The other interesting office I worked in was one that shared many office facilities among different businesses. There was a common secretary at the front door, common lunch areas, and common photocopiers and fax machines. There were many impromptu lunches and birthday gatherings that made the place an interesting place to spend your day.
If you are thinking about a better office, think socially rather than technologically.
-ec
- Give me a reasonably quiet place to work, where I don't have to be distracted and/or bothered by anyone on a regular basis.
- Give me a reasonably comfortable workstation with enough space to do my job comfortably.
The things that make us not like cube farms or open areas or what have you is when it's very impersonal. You have employees, not drones. Having the workspace fit the job.. period.
The best office environment was a small company where we had around 3 to 4 people per room with a full corner desk each. Also, everyone in the same room was in the same work group, project team. Plus, every room had nice big windows. There was free bottled water and coffee. People brought in plants for their desks.
The worst office is probably the one I'm in right now at a customer's site. Nobody in the whole company can see a window, except the receptionist by the front door. The colors are so bland I want to scream. The cubes are half height, and I can clearly hear a person's conversation on the other side of the 100 person cube room I'm sitting in right now. There are no plants (since there's no natural light). You need a special pass code to dial out so they can track your usage. Nobody even bothers with pictures of family or personal items.
That's it... I'm going back to the hotel... I miss my old job!
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I visited a design studio once, and they had an interesting setup. They had this bar (as in beer style bar) where they had setup computers on the counter. The rationale was, if you got tired from sitting down all day, you could walk over to the bar, and use a computer while standing up. I thought that was a really good idea.
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
If you are near Portland, OR check it out. Nicest place I've ever worked.
Highlights:
7 Acre reflecting lake
Covered walkways down the rows in the parking lots
Covered walkways between all buildings
Bronze satatues of atheletes just scattered around like they're doing thier thing
Sweet landscaping
Earth mounds hiding trafffic on surrounding streets and blocking noise
A feeling of seclusion
Cubicles who's back wall WAS a floor length window
Cubicles made of wood and glass in pleaseing colors
On site: Coffee people, cafe sandwich place
Normal Cafeteria
nice resturaunt
Occasional sightings of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods
Black granite bathrooms that made one feel like your were crapping in a freaking palace.
Lots of well cared for plants inside
ART, not motivational posters, just decent art on the walls.
Good desktop systems, nice printers
The most drop dead hotties I've ever seen sitting in the lobbies to greet you.
Cheap nike gear at the employee store
Seriously though. Do as much as you can to make people feel like they're not in a cubicle farm. Don't use those damn beige cubicles at all. Arrange them in interesting ways.
Go way overboard on plants
Have a designer come in and paint interesting colors, everywhere.
Make the carpets plush.
Good Luck.
You can help minimize the claustrophobia by choosing desks that go a little deeper, having space to your left ant right is good, but nothing says "crowded" like having a 19-inch monitor practically in your lap because the destop only goes back 24-30 inches. Of course if better desks are not availbable, consider LCD monitors.
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
... I just build OpenOffice.
Enough of the air tight, vacuum sealed buildings already. Windows you can crack open would be great. Of course it depends on the air quality where you live I suppose. Also, no beige anywhere. Where I work I can't even see a window and the crapper is right across the isle. Nothing like the smell of someone elses after lunch dump to motivate you.
I thought openoffice.org was already doing that.
Somebody put a mattress in it.
After I found out, I would go in there and lock the door sometimes, and nap for a half hour to an hour.
Considering I had an hour to drive to get home to Santa Cruz, it enabled me to stay at work when I got tired, instead of going home I'd catch a nap and then go back to work.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
IBM and an architectural firm did a lot of research before designing the Santa Theresa lab in the 1970's. The concepts developed were similar to Joel Spolsky's: private offices with doors, areas where people can congregate informally. As I recall, the Santa Theresa offices are 12x12 feet, smaller than Joel's 425 square feet. Maybe a past/present Santa Theresa person can add insight.
NOREX (www.norexonline.com) used to have a sample document on office amenities.
Working at Google isn't too far off. Did I mention that I love my job? :)
To start, have an open-environment in mind. Make it so people can move and work freely, without being bound to one certain spot. Make the environment comfortable, relaxing, and stimulating.
Therefore, I suggest:
Mobility:
* Wireless LAN and mobile systems
* Cordless phones
Comfort:
* Central air conditioning
* Bean bag chairs, hammocks, or some other comfortable sitting/lying device.
* A water cooler, along with coke machines, and possibly candy machines.
* Desks with removable cubicle walls
Stimulation:
* Artisticly painted walls
* Lots of caffeine (prehaps situate the new office near a coffee shop or ThinkGeek distribution center)
* Windows on the walls. Sunlight = good.
If all else fails, take a page from Google Jobs. Google has a very nice and relaxed work environment.
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
#1) natural lighting (or full spectrum) PLUS high quality polorized screens that go over the monitor's to reduce glare.
#2) Give each area a different "feel"
(eg. creative, lots of abstract arts, bright-flashy colours. Eng. Use a lot of DaVinici style 'art'. Include famous buildings and cut-aways. etc...)
#3) do NOT put up those stupid inspiration posters, unless you swap them around every week.
#4) Chalk-board in the restrooms. Call it the suggestion box and let them vent!!!
#5) Whiteboards, as many as you can fit in the "meeting-rooms"
#6) A relaxed dress-code on 2 days per week. (jeans & tee's if they want)
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Hammocks!
If you're in the market for business hammocks, there's the Hammock Hut. That's on Third. There's Hammocks 'R' Us. That's on Third, too. You got Put Your Butt There. That's on Third. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Matter of fact they're all in the same complex. It's the Hammock Complex, down on Third.
-Hank Scorpio
Sometimes cheap little touches can really make a difference. Think about getting a old style popcorn maker and an expresso machine.
vampirical
I wish we had better parking at my university. It takes so much additional travel time as a result of parking in scary tenement areas and walking several blocks, that whenever I don't have to go into my office, I don't.
I work in a small up-and-comming software company. We have only about 10 people in the main office any given day. I love it in the office because its so relaxed. We order pizza, get our assses kick in starcraft by the boss, etc. Otherwise the office is begie, with blue cubes, the complete norm.
I will say though, office equipment with personality is fun. Like our paper shreader that doesnt seem to stop shreading, it just goes till you turn it off. Lil stuff like that to make for a humerous day.
snowulf.com
Wearing a nightshirt, cat on my lap, mini fridge 30 degree lower arm radius away, DVD player playing "Firefly". Let the poor bastards telecommute. Both morale and the environment will benefit, everybody;s costs will go down, and a few PHB's can be relegated to the bread line.
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
and windows need mini-blinds or something, particularly to control heat and glare...
You guys hiring?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
My first job in software was for a small software company. It was mostly offices with a few cubes in larger rooms. I remember my first office was just large enough for a desk, bookcase, and chair, but I loved it. It didn;'t have any windows,and I was able to disconnect the ooverhead floursecent light, was there wasn't even a light switch. Later, during the dot-com boom, the company moved to "nicer" facilities. It ended up being a large room with 90 cubicles inside. Less than 6 months later, all of the programmers good enough to be hired somewhere else were gone. (I was out in 3 months). It was noisy, the flourescent lights were terrible for programming, and hard to get any work done.
My last job had some problems also. I had a nice office with no windos and even a door. THe problem is that it was the offices-in-a-ring- with-cuges in the middle plan. Programmers had offices, and testers and phone support had the cubes. After having that office for several months, I got tired of hearing 45 year old women running tupperware businesses out of their offices, or complaining about how their 5th newborn kid was making their boobs sore from nursing. I ended up going into my office and closing my door all day.
People claim that communication is key to a productive office. Go all out and buy everyone their own phone. You can even be magnanimous, and let everyone have email!
It's irriating as hell to be working on a difficult project and some jackass is calling over a cube wall to asking why there are lines under some of the letters on the windows menus. I actually prefer getting up and moving around, and have no problem walking over to someone's office to see if they can answer a question, or shooting an email to them if their door is closed.
Programmers have to concentrate. Let them. Put the sales jocks at the other end of the building where they can have conference calls with their doors open all day long if they want.
If you could create your perfect office how would it work?
Without me.
That is, by itself.
Alone.
I'll stop by to pick up the bags of cash weekly.
everything in moderation
The best-designed offices I've seen have enormous amounts (percentage-wise) of communal space -- nice cafeteria/kitchen areas, with lots of public (i.e. employee-accessible) dishes, supplies, whatnot.
People work together best when they have a comfortable space to do it.
I've also seen offices with semi-partitioned work areas surrounding a central communal space; i really like that environment. Of course, plenty of private storage for personal effects, large desk areas and line-of-sight to other employees are all good.
I like community, so to some this might sound like a cube farm -- but expanded greatly to give employees the space they need to spread out and do their work.
--------------------- -me, Crusher of those who are Foolish (don't be foolish)
No point paying high-salaried professionals if their computers, or internet connection, or old equipment is limiting them.
For a few days I consulted at an office that had soda fountains in a couple rooms. The normal range (like 5 or 6 choices) that you'd find at any fast food restaurant. Pepsi would come every so often to bring the new syrup and other stuff necessary.
in the long run it's cheaper than free soda cans, no much waste and it's something different.
Everyone who worked there loved it, and so did I.
Rather than paying for fancy furniture, perks, and all of that - create an OA5 organization (See The Dilbert Principle) and spend the money somewhere else (like maybe more developers)
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Sure cuts down on the printing costs too when you run the ppt right there or open up files and schedules during meetings to update them live.
In response to the question of creating a more comfortable office I recommend getting LoveSacs for your conference room, waiting room, wherever seats are needed that don't need to align with a desk!
Go to LoveSac.com (it's not a dirty website) for more information on the product line.
The Oversized Foam Sacs are like gigantic beanbags that instantly mold to your body and are the most comfortable seat.
I work for LoveSac and our office is the best! There are 60 employees that love it. Our turnover rate is nearly 0%...I believe it is in due part because of the core value that the company lives by is making lives more comfortable.
At our corporate office we have individual laptops...we plop into the LoveSac with our laptop and can work for hours. It's an incredible work environment. We have 3 different conference rooms-all LoveSacced out. Every vendor that walks into our office feels the love and doesn't want to leave...that's the only problem...people feel so comfortable, sometimes it's hard to get people to leave.
Best of luck creating the perfect office. If you have questions or want more info. email me at amber @lovesac.com.
I guarantee comfort and an office that everyone loves!
I think that it's great to work with company. I hate to be alone in an office all day. But let the people make their own decisions with whom they want to spend all day. It doesn't really matter much if to be in the same tea from what I experienced. It's just nice to have someone to ask for a second opinion from time to time. More than 4 people in an office can get noisy when on the phone, though. It's really all about the coworkers. work can be a lot of fun if you work with the right people...
- The ability for multiple lighting zones. I prefer to work in the dark with nothing more than the glow of my monitor. My boss likes to have all the lights on and all the shades wide open. Plan for this.
- A library of good source materials and reference manuals. Having a 3-copy-O'Reilly-library would be much more cost effective than 15 people owning the same book.
- A place to sleep for an hour. If I had a place to sleep for an hour in the afternoon I would have the motivation to work until 8pm every night. Otherwise, I'm gone at 5 on the dot.
- A good calendaring system, office directory, and CRM system.
- Ergonomic keyboards and chairs.
- A bike rack in view of the front door/receptionist. Monitored areas are less likely to be burglarized.
- Allow everyone to put their own music on their machine and share it out via the iTunes sharing feature. This is what we use at work. This allows people to keep their own music, but check out the tastes of others without doing anything illegal (at least without intentionally doing so). Music is a key feature of my work.
- Make sure everyone has comfortable headphones for their music. No speakers.
- Any 'piped-in' music should be low enough to be background noise. It should never be allowed to be heard on the other end of telephone conversations.
zork% mv *.asp
283 files eaten by a grue
service dog != annoying shih tzu
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
As mentioned elsewhere, Aeron chairs are wonderful - but that's only part of the body-comfort issue.
The workspace as a whole needs to be ergonomic.
I swear by a split keyboard - my wrists are happier.
Adjustable height monitor stand, keyboard tray and footrest. Every person is different, so one desk height doesn't work.
A few other personal items:
- Silence. Quiet computers. Closed offices are great, unless they have to be shared. "Personal Space" that is respected. I had a large office, it was noticed and various prototype machines have consumed my free space. Now I have people wandering in to use these machines. Its distracting and invasive.
- Temperature. You just can focus when the temperature is off. (I tend to doze off or get cranky, depending on my energy levels..)
- Real light.
- A thinking-space/activity. When coding on a problem for too long, its great to have something totally distracting in anther space. At the very least, you can wander to just clear your head, or take a true break (pool, video games, etc, work great).
- Couch. After working really long days or on a really hard problem (especially when eating supper at work), I can really use a 15 minute lie down. Sometimes I like lying down to relax and clear my head, othertimes, it just lets me put all my energy to focusing on a problem.
a nice theme for an office ;-)
"He's a real midnight golfer"
I too am currently designing the 'perfect' office. I was given the task of designing the new design studio for our company. It also had to include a showroom for our products as well as a meeting room for customers and sales.
I found the most important thing was consideration of the use of space. One can not design an enviornment without getting input directly from the people who will use it.
What one person likes or finds friendly, another may find annoying or unfriendly. Simple things like are corridors or pathways wide enough for two people to walk side by side or pass eachother without one having to give way to the other. Or, are ammenities that are used on a regular basis easy to reach yet inobtrusive, such as the printer. Will there be regular informal meetings that require a central table or private rooms?
Aside from all the suggestions of windows and no cubicles, walk through patterns, work flow patterns and usage patterns should be researched first and once those are as correct as they can be, making it bright, or pretty or anything else is easy, at least the space will be useable. Oscar Wilde said "Uglyness is the result of someone trying to make something beautiful, while beauty is acchieved by those who aim at making something useful".
I fortunately have a background in design and thinking about the little things has become second nature to me through years of experience. My best suggestions would be to hit the printing room and grab a package of A4 paper and print out a floor plan of just walls and things you can not move, then draw in bulk areas of work space slowly refining them over a number of drawings. These don't have to be pretty drawings or even useful to anyone other than yourself. Just try to see what goes where, who does what and how your paths make life easier for the majority.
If you need to get final approval from someone, please for your own sake, only give them 3 - 5 semi final top view drawings showing no more than boxes for desks and outlines for everything. Then let them choose the one they like the best before going gung ho choosing floor covering and paint colours.
The worst thing you can do to yourself is give them too much detail and too many choices as they will ineveitably pootch screw the whole thing by taking bits and pieces from each and move them around causing you to think ' if they were going to be this nit picky, why the hell didn't they just do it all themselves?'
Take your time and back up your stages with written explanations or notes as to why you did something the way you did and how it makes for a good work enviornment.
Best of luck I have been on this for the better part of a year and we are still about 3 months from choosing a final design. As I work for a Japanese company, once the final design is chosen, I doubt that it will take more than 1 month to complete the build. But there is the nature of Japanese firms, total consensus before any action, then swift action. What a nightmare up to action but damn inside a week everything gets done and it is a sight to behold.
Hope this helps.
flinging poop since 1969
is everything. I remember a study that had people doing the same job tasks with a different layout of tools and resources. It turns out the least bored and most productive people didn't have everything at their fingertips, but had to move from "station to station" regularly in order to complete some aspect of their task. Apparently the physical activity and slight "break" from being in one exact spot seems to cut down on non-productive behaviors associated with dealing with boredom.
I remember reading a similar study that correlated higher productivity and worker happyness with workers being able to take short breaks to play computer games or take quick naps.
employees are going to waste some time regardless of how you try to prevent it. If you actually cater to the needs of your employees they will be much happier, more loyal and more effective.
What he said. User-controllable lights are a must. Ask people about their light preferences, and group your people accordingly.
If you work with papers on your desk all day, or a telephone and a Rolodex, you're probably a "light person". If you say things like "I hate a dark office! I can't work in a cave!", you're a light person.
(Light Person Symptoms: 3.0 GHz PC under the desk with 21" monitor with fingerprints all over the screen, the contrast and brightness both cranked all the way up, but running at 640x480x60Hz, and that's just fine with him because all he uses his computer for is PowerPoint slides)
If you work with a CRT all day, and use IM and email, you're probably a "dark person". You can't work in a lit room, you need to see your screen. If you say things like "Fuck, I hate the glare! I can't see a goddamn thing in here!", you're a dark person.
(Dark Person Symptoms: 3.0 GHz PC with the cover off and assorted computer guts splayed all over the desk, and a 21" monitor that gets a daily spritzing of Windex every morning and has the on-screen adjustments have been perfectly tweaked for razor-sharp convergence at 1600x1200, because every fucking pixel counts - not just when using Photoshop or paging through reams of code, but when fragging his cubemates at 5:01 pm!)
Group the dark people together and the light people together. Don't believe the bullshit from light people about how a "dark office" makes people sick and unproductive. Don't believe the bullshit from dark people about how a "light office" makes it impossible to read the screen. Just acknowledge that these two types of people are different, and provide adequate space for both.
Every employee takes ownership of a lava lamp and a plant when they start their job.
Whilst I have to recommend lava lamp especially, it is said that the health of the plant and whether the lava has gone cloudy (if you leave it in the sunlight) affects your promotion chances.
I'm not kidding.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
Having a group of people who are working together all sitting together, and able to act like a team (i.e. chat) without annoying everyone else is massively important. Consider easier-to-move furniture so that you can move everyone round between each project so that people are sitting close enough together.
Apart from that, have enough space, and accept that there isn't a perfect arrangement for all people; some people want loads of desk space while others want a smaller desk in order to have more space for spinning round on the chair, leaning back and so on. Some people will want to hermetically seal themselves in a corner and get stuck into the work while some want to bounce ideas off collegues. Let everyone help decide how their bit is laid out, and don't look for the perfect layout to be imposed on everyone.
Oh yes. Most offices don't have enough rooms for informal meetings.
In soviet russia stale jokes recycle you!
Seriously, I hate those fucking things. Drab, immoralizing grey-colored pieces of shit plastic that offer the illusion of privacy. You realize quickly it's an illusion whenever someone walks by and stares over your shoulder at whatever's on your monitor. Or depending on how they're facing, people peek over the sides and gawk while rambling about stuff you really don't give two shits about. And the minute you try to personalize them by bringing some *gasp* COLOR into your miniture world via posters, you get bitched at by management for inappropriate material. Wow, an 8x11 of me snowboarding in CO is inappropriate? Good thing I left my Barely Legal in the car.
As someone else already posted, L-shaped desks against a wall in an open environment is awesome. Take down the barriers, you MBA fucks! If someone really needs their own space, give them a personal office. And while you're at it, put as many windows in as possible. And hire an interior decorator...just because you furnished your house for under $400 with piss-stained Goodwill furnature, King of Decore you are not.
Make the place friendly, open (with as much natural light as possible), and comfortable. Granted the dot-com is dead and not everybody gets to play with pinball machines and ride segways around the office...but that doesn't mean your office environment needs to be modeled after Office Space.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for SEGA. ..."
Read the appropriate section of the book Natural Capitalism by Hunter S. Lovins. Green Buildings and Bright Workers Go for lots of windows (natural light), proper temperature, low noise, and you'll see a good jump in productivity. The rest of the book is a great read, too.
What's going on?
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
I agree about the computer thing. I personally hate over zealous admins that lock the hell out of everything. I mean, sure, there's a place for it. But often times it simply pisses people off because they feel as though they aren't trusted and it makes them dislike their work enviornment just a litle less.
Most people won't fill their machines with bullshit. And the ones that do are pretty easy to detect, and those are the ones you can lock down.
And I agree with one of the parent posts - you should have a fast internet connection. People love fast internet connections, and it just makes everything move a little bit smoother all around.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Set policy for availability of meeting rooms. These rooms have client priority; these rooms have code/design inspection priority.
This is where all the real work gets done in terms of design and getting a whole team on board. White boards. Digital overhead projectors connected to a PC- so you can BRING UP THE CODE you are arguing about (or so you can netmeet and telecon and show power point presentations). My work has these and I love them to death for netmeetings, distance pitches, and code perusal.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Well... If you would quit installing Gator maybe we could loosen up a bit.
There've been a lot of great responses to this so far. I definitely appreciate whiteboards, a large desk with lots of cabinet space (for the zillions of books I keep around as references), and a decent kitchen. I'm also big on whiteboards with a wide array of colored dry erase pens.
It's also nice to have plenty of spare phone and data ports everywhere, or at least have the spare cable run to support it. It doesn't cost that much in cable to just run them through the walls, and it saves a lot of frustration if you need to add a jack for someone's laptop. The office I'm in didn't run a lot of extra wires, and I had to setup a small switch to use my laptop. :(
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
Let people have an office or cubes with high walls. Look, if people want to get together, they will. If they want to share, they will. The thing is, in an open area (which is usually the idea of a manager who WON'T have to office there), you can't concentrate. If you don't respond to every talking person, you get a bad rep. You get paranoid, anyone can walk up behind you. It leads to gawkers, who just walk up and watch you work. What the HELL is that? Would you do that to anyone? And you can't stop them.
If you have closed areas, people will or will not get together and have time to concentrate. Look, the most money grubbing company in the world decided to give their programmers private offices, Microsoft. Do you think they'd do that if it didn't make them money?
Frankly, I take one look at "open pit" areas and think I wouldn't want to work there. And the best people with an option won't.
I think they should put managers in pits if it works so well and helps collaboration. Don't managers have to collaborate, "see what works," "share", etc bullshit? It doesn't or they would. It's just cheap and allows the slave owner to walk up and down like he's controlling the slaves.
No matter the office design you come up with, the people who work in it still have to spend around a third of their lives there. That's enough hours that you shouldn't expect one design or decor will suit all. Therefore, your management needs to be mentally flexible enough to allow the employees to alter the space to suit themselves, within reason, of course. Just don't let the "within reason" be an arbitrary judgement by some faceless manager that gets delivered to the employees "through channels" or you'll end up with resentment for both the inflexibility and the perceived sham, and not just in the one employee.
We all know a really good office is hard to design. I have been the CEO of a company three times when we have had to design a new office. Everybody knows the Wind Up problem (A programmer get distracted and it takes him 30 mins to get back into the swing of things.) That is why companies like Microsoft give there programmers separate offices. In addition, one of the important things is interaction. It is too easy for programmers to hide from the rest of the team. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the programmers have to pass through over areas of the office. Companies like BMW and the architect Richard Rogers make sure that there is only one way into the office. Also, put things like kitchens so that people have to walk through over parts of the office to reach them. Sure, it is important to make sure that programmers do not get distracted - but it is also important to make sure that they interact with other people over the "Water Cooler". A software company is not just about programmers. Some people like sales - graphic design work better in there in there own open spaces [just do not put them together]. Senior management should be near the centre of the office - not in a corner office. Therefore, people have to interact with them. Spend money on good design - good lighting - no strips. Save money on having no draws - people do not use them and they double the cost of a desk - use shelves instead.
I like being in the same room with others on the same project.
The "everyone in the same room" philosophy works wonders. At our office, it's one big room. Everyone has identical desks and nearly identical computers - the boss sits among us (if you were to walk in, you'd have no idea which was the boss's desk). No cubicle walls. It makes for a very egalitarian work dynamic - without cubicles or offices, everyone's equal. Communication is a snap, we can just talk across the room with each other. If we absolutely have to see what's on each other's screen, simply walk across the room.
What's best is it basically eliminates the need for company meetings. If everyone works in the same large space, I've found that everyone's on the same page on projects. There's no need to organize everyone into one central place like a boardroom for a meeting, because everyone works in the same shared space to begin with.
Of course, we're a small company (about ten people), but my boss has always said that if we grew to be 100 people, he'd like to have the office set up the same way.
I've worked in a cubicle setting, an office setting, and a one-big-open-room setting, and the latter is by far the best at buliding co-worker comraderie.
...bed or comfortable armchair is a must!
There are actually professionals - called architectrs and designers - who specialize in this kind of thing.
Contrary to popular disbelief, design can make a huge impact on people, psychologically influencing them, and can make you more or less productive; more or less happy, etc.
I would say that offering enough space for each person to do their work goes a long, long way in improving the productivity of an office. Natural lighting is also a very positive thing, as are interesting colors. Banal, white or beige walls seem very antiseptic to people and do not promote much that is positive.
So don't block off those windows (don't let the damn bosses hog them), allow the light to spill into a communal area, get rid of the fucking cubicals, but still partition the space to give people privacy, add some plants and paint a few walls with low-key nice colors (not bright red!), and you will be well on your way to making a nice, comfortable office.
Oh yea, free drinks are always welcome.
you mention beige - well don't use it! Propably the best place I have ever works allowed use (with some approval) to paint our offices however we wanted to. This makes a suprising difference. Also, I really like group spaces but make sure everyone has their own office. And this may sound simple, but make sure everyone has plenty of fridge space. Let people live in their space.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
- private offices for everybody, with a window hopefully overlooking something green (it'd be also nice to have plants in the offices if at all possible)
- air conditioning individually adjustable in every office
- good soundproofing between offices so that it's possible to play music (at moderate levels) without disturbing others. Extra soundproofing can be made available off the worker's 'workspace budget' if needed
- individual customizations for workers' PCs, some people can't work (pain free) without specific keyboards, or prefer specific mice, whatever: a $50 investment for years of productivity is worth it (again, from the 'workspace budget')
- individual customizations for workers' offices, people come in different heights, shapes and sizes and while chair A might be perfect for a worker, it might be a torture device for others. Aeron for everybody is a waste, plenty of cheaper chairs that work just as well. Same goes for desks, some people like them tall, some people short: ergonomics is the name of the game. (again, from the 'workspace budget')
- high quality heavy window shades/drapes/... nothing worse than trying to code with massive sun glare on your monitor.
- incandescent lighting in all offices, makes the environment so much nicer to be in than fluorescent.
- 'common' room(s) with 3-4 workstations for when people prefer to hash things collaboratively (vnc or something similar to be used to access each worker's individual PC)
- at least 1 small meeting room (small = 4 seats) for every 8 workers, at least 1 medium (8-12 seats) for every 16 workers or so, and at least 1 large (fits everybody), if you don't plan to have many 'all hands' meetings just make it off the cafeteria/common area as not to waste space
- completely enclosed and secured network room ('room within the room') there should be no need for anybody to go in there besides your IT staff, but it's nice to have it in a semi-visible place (with transparent windows) as people like to see shiny blinky lights
- a sizeable cafeteria/common area with some couches, a TV, a foosball or pool table, a kitchen, fridges, microwaves etc. a TV sometimes is free teambuilding (esp. nowadays with the Euro soccer cup going on)
- a good admin/facilities person who is on the ball and keeps supplies coming in on time and things running smoothly in general.
these are just off the top of my head: it's amazing that so many bosses don't realize just how much more productive and efficient their workers could be if they just were put in the 'right' surroundings... hats of to MS in this case for their 'one worker - one office' policy (as far as I know).
-- the cake is a lie
Kitchen area: Nice to have, especially with sink, stove, microwave, tables and even dishwasher. Segregate the kitchen area. No one likes the smell of microwaved fish. Free coffee / tea is a nice touch along with a water cooler with hot and cold taps.
Cubes: Cubes are OK, but put in high walls. Few things suck more than 4' walls on cubes so not only can you hear your neighbor, but you can see them picking their teeth after lunch. Offices are great even if you have to share with 1 to 3 people are OK.
Sunshine: Arrange the office so that the sun shines in even for the most lowly. A view for everyone would be nice, but usually not possible.
Speaker phones: Nooo! Speaker phones in cube farms are the devil's work.
Storage space: Have enough storage space in each work space.
Conference rooms: A few conference rooms for small meetings or as a place to go to sort out a problem away from the farm. Speaker phones in conference rooms are good instead of at desks.
Supply cabinet: One that actually has supplies is nice.
I've worked in "Open Plan" environments where there were no walls or dividers, just a vast sea of desks or work stations.
I've worked in "Cubical Farms" where each individual prairie dog had his or her own burrow to nest in.
I've worked in "Office" environments where we all had out own offices with walls, doors, and ceilings.
I know my preference, an office is my first choice, and a well defined and closed in cubical my second.
Thing is, not everyone likes that environment.
Some folks actually like the "sea of desks in a large room" with no divisions at all. It helps them feel connected to their peers and helps them to share.
Others prefer to never see a peer, to work from home, to not set foot in an office.
I'm really not at all sure that people who are so psychologically different in their needs for workspace can compromise on just one single plan for "the office experience."
As an engineer I would often need unbroken stretches of concentration with zero interruptions to plan out a job or to work on some fine detail that just would NOT cooperate. When I was doing tech writing, interruptions were the LAST thing I wanted.
Being one buoy in a sea of desks wouldn't allow me that.
Other times I would welcome the break of someone stopping by to chat about their and my latest triumphs and defeats.
For me having an office, like the one I had at Bell Labs where 95% of the time my door would be open and you were welcome to a cup of coffee and some freiendship, but 5% it would be closed and you were NOT welcome, was the absolute best.
Second to that was a good, roomy, cubical with high-wall dividers to keep distractions away, and a yellow rope with magnets on the end to string across the opening to indicate "now" was not the time for a chat.
A lot will depend on the type of job(s) being done in the office, and the personalities of the people doing them.
I even worked one place that was a low-wall cubical farm where you could see most everyone, but there were some shared offices where you could sign up and shut yourself in when you needed the privacy.
Good luck on trying to find the one best way, but I don't believe there is one.
Take care,
Tom
In the workspace, lighting is often overlooked. Comfortable ambient lighting is one of the best ways to go, and have been impressed with Steelcase's.
Steelcase.com
There are also some chairs that provide back support there too. Spending money on these items does increase productivity, and if i remember correctly, there are some good case studies at steelcase.com as well.
Good Luck.
1) Let me decorate
2) Offices or cubes, just make it ergonomic
3) Aeron chairs!!!!!! They're worth every penny.
4) white boards *everywhere*
5) Geek/creative conference rooms with bean bags, couches, etc. Let the outward facing folks use standard, boring conf. rooms
6) Use natural lighting where possible, non-flourescent lighting *must* be available.
7) No, I do *not want to move*.
8) Lots of power outlets and extra data/voice jacks
9) Offices and cubes are both cool, what do *your* users prefer? Anything but a big, open area works for me.
10) Lots of desk space and shelving
11) BIG monitors and/or dual monitors for desktop systems.
12) User-friendly voice mail
13) Windows for as many folks as possible
14) All rooms must have at least one interior window to let you find people wherever they are.
15) A real kitchen
16) Enough, close by parking spaces, bike racks, etc.
Make a transparent proxy server and restrict slashdot.org. Because we all know that Slashdot is a drain on time in the workplace, especially those of you who post during work! That should lead to uh, increased worker comfort and productivity...
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
Start with real offices. Relative to the costs of the employee, what does real estate cost you? For the most part, programmers need flow, and flow can't happen if there are the sounds of other activities going on around you (from phone calls to loud typing).
I currently share an office, which beats cubes, but it also means we both have to agree to needing the flow to have our door closed, which means that if one person needs outside suggestions the other person gets less work done that day.
Run the cables in the walls. Make the place look finished. Computer folks in general have a tendency to drop cables from the ceiling or tape 'em to the floor, and while we think it's no big deal that little bit of clutter does have an effect over time.
The offices can be small if you have an extra conference room. Because unless you have an extra one will always be booked, and you need a place for people to go for impromptu meetings and brainstorming sessions. So build one more conference room than you think is necessary (and certainly one more than your architect/interior designer thinks is necessary).
Lots of big white boards, and a shelf to hold markers and erasers (you'd be amazed at how many times the eraser is perched on a narrow shelf and falls off regularly). Use a digital camera to take pictures of the whiteboard.
Don't overlight the offices, and don't underlight the common areas. In one building I worked in, someone complained (while it was being built) that the offices weren't going to be bright enough. So the builder halved the number of lights in the halls and doubled the ones in the offices. Made the halls feel like a dark alley, and nobody ever turned on all of the lights in their office.
Don't put a coffee pot on every corner. The act of getting coffee isn't just about drugs, it's about the social interaction that happens when people from different groups meet over the coffee pot. So do one, and make it centralized. And as everyone else says: Make sure the coffee is good, strongly consider a commercial service.
Make sure that the cooling system allows you to close the door on the machine room. The office should look finished, and open machine room doors make it feel more like a garage workshop than a comfortable place to get work done and not be distracted by loose wires and tasks to do.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ya know, it might just be some personal expereicen talking here but ummm......
A BEING ABLE TO LOOK OUT A FUCKING WINDOW ONCE IN A WHILE JUST MIGHT MAKE ME A LITTLE LESS VOILENT GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!
Just a little sunshine, that's all I ask. and not the liquid kind the white coats keep bringing me.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
worker friendly - long hours. Surely you must see the inherent contradiction?
I would put on the walls some posters or enlarged photographs of beautiful natural scenes such as lakes, mountains, rivers, trees and so forth. These have the benefit of tricking the subconscious into believing it is in a wilderness environment instead of an office, thus creating a more calming and relaxed atmosphere.
in other words, WHO CARES?
Let the folks chose the OS that they want to run. I would guess that a few of the designers want to use Macs; the developers Unix-Linux; and the business folks Windows. You wouldn't make a carpenter use a screwdriver all day--these are the tools that these folks know, and know how to use, and have to sit in front of all day.
It doesn't have to be an administration nightmare--there are support guys that know two, or even all three. So you can catch the top two with a good admin, and maybe contract out the third.
--
$tar -xvf
...in a dark, quiet place. If you want people to stay all kinds of crazy hours, give them a nice place to take a nap. And LET them. The mind needs to recharge. Five hours of work followed by a half an hour nap followed by another five hours of work is usually much more productive than twelve straight hours of work.
-----Chaz
(posted as AC to avoid public humiliation)
I don't know if it's just me or what, but the bathrooms can make or break a place. Sometime mid-afternoon, after lunch has had some time to settle in, I usually feel the need to use the restroom. If the office I'm working in has good bathrooms, I'll just go on in and do my business, leaving me comfortable and productive for the rest of the day.
The office I work at now has one of those tiny cramped bathrooms with absolutely no sound-proofing. The only thing separating my bare ass from the female coworker next door is about two pieces of drywall. You can literally hear a pin drop in this place, so I have never had the courage to risk some embarrassing bathroom noises. That results in me holding it in until I leave, which is usually earlier than I have left other offices. Plus, I'm super un-productive for the last hour or so as I have to direct 100% of my energies toward clinching my ass cheeks.
Every time at work that I end up having to use the restroom, I end up walking out feeling really pissed off with the company (no pun intended). Spend the extra quarter! Its your ass too anyway!
You know, how you design office space should be dictated by the kind of work you do in the space. For instance, people who have to meet with people and discuss sensitive issues either need a real office with a real door, or they need a place where they can go for that kind of privacy. What I've seen is that, if people need privacy, they need an office. On the other hand, if much of the work you do is "collaborative," then nice-quality cubes that allow for some "prairie dogging" and hollering are not inappropriate. When I worked as a news reporter twenty years ago, we had nice, insulated, fabric-covered cubes with mixed fluorescent/incandescent lighting, adequate space, plenty of drawers, etc., and, even though I could hear everything going on in the newsroom, I was able to concentrate on what I was doing. So, the main thing I would say is: give people enough space that they don't hit their elbows when they spin around in their chairs, and give them a light source that they control. Make surfaces soft to absorb harsh sounds, and carpet the floor. Give people a break room with a fridge, a good coffee maker, a stovetop and TWO microwave ovens. And, of course, there must be at least two network ports per cube/office, and lots of electrical outlets. Colors are a personal thing, but medium blue and grey seem to wear well over the long haul for many people.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
1. Ergonomics (good chairs and adjustable desk surfaces that accomodate a mouse, some adjustable non-flourescent lighting)
2. Quiet (those that don't want quiet can use headphones, additional soundproofing helps too)
3. Some way to occasionally see the daylight
4. Adequate meeting space
5. Technical library
6. Dual monitors for productivity
(no text)
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. My current place of work provides none of those things and I really hate them for that.
Games! Video games are cool, but to me ping pong and/or pool are more important. But some sort of games where you are moving around, or at least not sitting at your desk, help a great deal with fatigue, both physical and mental.
Company cars ready to chauffeur employees from work and home - imagine their relaxation at being driven to work in the morning in a nice smoked glass car with soft music and maybe some internet access for the morning slashdot read, then when they get to work they might actually do work instead of reading slashdot (psychologically they will have left slashdot behind in the car) then driven home away from crowded buses or trains and without having to deal with traffic. It might not be that expensive - especially if you car pool and shift the start times around.
:\
Wakes up...
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Remember that in many (if not most) companies, implementation, QA, admin, security etc. is just as much of a creative function as coding. Keep those people stimulated and comfortable too.
I've seen alot of good software severely marginalized when the coder was seen as the sole creator.
If you are in the southern States, you will have to go with florescent lighting if you want a reasonable electric bill. Choose T8 bulbs at color temperature of 6500K. Most of the people bitching about florescent bulbs are exposed to T12 bulbs with funky phosphors. T8 operate at several kilohertz versus 60Hz of T12 and output more light per watt. The 6500K bulbs give a very good approximation of northern light, typically better than you can achieve with most incandescent lights. Check with the local utility on rebates. Our campus in Austin was refitted with T8 bulbs for an after rebate cost of $5 per fixture. Price included 2 bulbs, electronic ballast, mirror reflector. Reminder: southern States run A/C at least 9 months/year.
The only problem I've had with that setup was in an office where corporate communication was primarily by scuttlebutt. If your office works that way, you positively need to take the productivity hit that a cube farm has to provide a better communication channel.. maybe give every employee a set of noise-deadening earmuffs or something to try to get back some of the productivity loss.
Welcome to the net of 1000 lies. Upgrades are scheduled soon that should bring us to the 10,000 lies mark.
In a small company, it's reasonable to say "either trust me, or get rid of me". I used to work in a 5-developers-and-a-secretary company that was like that, and nobody abused the trust.
In a larger company (the one I'm in now has about 2000 employees), you have to assume that there WILL be employees who will be stupid, who will be malicious, etc., etc., so you probably NEED to have some central control.
And that is one of the reasons why I GREATLY prefer working for small companies.
So those who do, can, and those who smoke something funny can be out of sight and red-eyed all afternoon...
Finest word processor ever.
Number one, splurge on Aeron chairs. I used one at a consulting job I was at last year. Dear GOD I want one. They only hurt if you're wearing shorts and have hairy legs. Since I wear slacks even as casualwear, that's not a problem for me, and it shouldn't be for the bluejeans set, either. Being able to position myself perfectly to the computer, have my back in just the right place, not have it squeaking under me like the POS I'm sitting in right now, I was easily twice as productive just from the chair, because I could stay comfortable and focused for longer.
:-)
Second, don't lock people in their own offices, and don't put them out in one big pile of desks or cubicles. Most development is done by multiple people anyway, so put two people per (spatious) office, specifically two people who are working on the same or related projects. It's nice to be able to ask the guy a question about what he's doing by turning around rather than walking down the hall. It's also nice to be able to take an impromptu break and chat with him about whatever is on my mind for ten minutes, then get back to work. If you're going to be doing any team-development (eg, eXtreme Programming) anyway, this will make things logistically so much easier, while still balancing socialization potential and get-the-hell-away-from-me-while-I'm-working behavior.
I'd also suggest some decorations. I used to spend a fair amount of time just looking at the map of the city that was posted over the water cooler, just for the hell of it. The ability to zone out at a painting, tapestry, poster, or something that requires brainpower to process (complex patterns) is very good exercise for the brain, just as it is for a baby's brain. Maybe some of those computer-generated 3D poster things?
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
scare me. Really makes you wonder when they'll just go crazy and start killing other people/animals.
hate is the result of fear.
A workplace with a management staff that understands the importance of life outside of work that sets realistic deadlines allowing for projects to be done while working 40 hour weeks with sufficient staff.
That would be the best workplace.
What? me bitter? no, never.
In my office the ceilings are 16ft. tall. The owners offices and confrence area walls do not touch the ceiling and are angled. we have colors of red, green, blue and brown on these walls. Our cubicles are made from large wooden shipping creates placed in somewhat of a random fashon. There are tv's (with out outer casings) hanging over the reception area, yes they do work. this is in an advertising office. So anything is possible.
I can't use my sig - my computer can't read my handwriting.
1)Real walls
2)Real door
3)Window/natural light
4)Controlable lighting
5)Do not Disturb button on the phone
6)Place for people to eat lunch together
I'm an independant contractor the vast majority of the time so I use my own facilities, this consists of a setup at home with a DSL line and an 802.11g spread out over the property (it's a relatively isolated place and my server room is at the top of a hill so the RF reaches all the way to the edges of the property which is about 5 acres).
I like to work from home, I have nix servers and development boxes hooked up to that DSL line and sometimes I will go outside in the field and just lie down and work through my laptop, or any of the other rooms in the house as well, loungeroom with the tv going in the background, kitchen, whatever, I never find myself it seems without a PDA or laptop, and I just wander at will over the property and do my stuff as it's required, I have pet cats and there are horses in adjacent fields, they serve as a pleasant diversion and I enjoy their presence.
Further to that I also have an open slather iburst (1mbps, but the coverage doesn't extend very far past bout 40km out of central sydney)connection and GPRS, if I want to go somewhere, do something, at any time, it makes a huge difference to just be able to *do* it rather than thinking "oh, I have to be here at time x in order to get this code done or log into this system or wait for a phone call or email or whatever"
The times when I'm actually required to be onsite and make use of client facilities, a beige box and a flat piece of desk + monitor, it's really quite amazing the amount of difference I feel, I'd like to think I could shrug off that mental encumberance, and I probably can, but with the freedom to move as you wish, it is certainly a superior and helpful option to have at your disposal.
Lots of people hate cubicles for some reason.
I like them.
I like having my own little area. I like being able to put up things on the walls and set up my own personal space. I like the privacy, even if it is less then a "real" office.
I worked in an office that was a sea of cubicles as far as the eyes could see. But it wasn't bad. It was devided up into "pods" with three or four desks in each square. You still had communication with people around you, and worked closer with the people in your pod, and still had a level of privacy.
I mean, it's not like I wanted to surf porn sites. But it's no fun having people watching what you're doing all day either.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
+1!
We just moved offices into something a bit nicer, and since it's only the three from the dev team in here we can have the lights off and the only light either sneaks in from the door that connects us to the rest of the building, or the nice big window that lets some of that "natural light" stuff in.
Of course, if you have a dark office you have to deal with the crap of people constantly wandering into the office with witty comments like...
"wow, dark in here"
"you guys like the dark or something"
"this must be where the mushrooms live"
"wow, it's dark in here"
et infinitum
I really want a 1,000,000 candle spotlight to point at the door in cases like this. It's fine for the first few times, but after the 50th person who wanders in with a "dark in here isn't it" comment, you really want to kill someone.
comfortable enough that long hours don't seem like banishment to a beige hell
Make it as comfortable as you want, but the best thing you can do is minimize the long hours. You're attempting to treat the symptoms without addressing the disease.
I've worked in a number of different IT environments and am highly impressed by the company I am presently working for, mainly because of the owner/managements committment to charity work.
The office has several display areas with updates on a number of child sponsorship projects, similarly a number of local charities are well supported.
I feel much happier about working extra hours etc when I can see that there is a high level of social responsibility being displayed by the management.
God was my co-pilot, but then we crashed and I was forced to eat him.
I share an office with 6 others and I am the only programmer. Everyone else does technical writing and training. Our setup works very well: everyone's desk is in an open room. We can easily bounce ideas off of each other and have general stress relieving chats. If you want privacy you just plug in the headphones and no one bothers you.
We also have free domain over our computers. We have a "you break it, you fix it" policy that seems to work well.
I don't know how I lived without these. I have two 19" inch flat panels. My laptop's digital-out is connected to the one on the right. The laptop's analog-out goes to a switchbox which goes to the one on the left, along with my desktop systems. I have a dedicated keyboard and mouse for my laptop, and another keyboard and mouse for the switchbox. Most of the time I'm switched to the laptop, so I have dual screen action, with my local apps on the right screen, and VNC or Terminal Services or X or whatever on the left, so I can basically use two PCs at once. But if I need to switch to another PC for whatever reason, then I can still use my laptop because the second keyboard and mouse is available.
If you are using windows, an awesome piece of software is UltraMon, which will add a second app bar on the other monitor, and stretch wallpaper, and add buttons to every window to switch displays, etc. doing everything that Microsoft should have taken care of.
This is by far the most important part of my setup, since I'm staring at the frickin thing all day.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Put lots of plants there. Plants are great! They look good and they recycle the CO2 into oxygen for us. It's important to have beautiful things around and it's even more important to have nice, good quality air to breath.
A distinctive mark, characteristic, or sound indicating identity
Use glass walls to let natural light flow throughout the office. I worked for a radio production company. Working in an audio studio was way fun. It was also in the center of the building to minimize noise from outside the building. In addition to soundproofing, the studios were built with one window each. Both studios faced the conference room - which had a large frosted glass window that looked out on the hallway. The conference room had on its outside wall large bay windows that let it tons of light. The frosted glass windows let light flow through into our otherwise dungeonlike studios, making us feel ever so much better. The office also used little flourescent lighting. Incandescent light is more direct, and is also more natural as well. --*Rob
nothing like slammin' a push shot to make your day a little brighter.
My preference is for my monitor to be side on to the window. No glare from behind, no bright lights in front. And to be on a different set of lights from the troglodytes, I mean artists. Ever wonder why PC games use colours (1,2,1) and (2,3,2) (out of 255) as contrasting textures? It's cos artists (and many coders) live in utter darkness. So let people have different lighting, otherwise they will be irritable and less productive.
3G card + Laptop + Hyde Park
My "office" of choice. Durng summer anyhoo.
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
I work at Symantec Corp. in Springfield Oregon. We just recently built this site about a year ago and I think it is very nice. First off, the building has a long hallway down the center that has treest every 12 feet or so, not real big ones, just like the little ones you see in the mall and whatnot. The building itself is actually two buildings exactly alike just kinda smashed together with the aforementioned hallway in the middle. Above this hallway lies a large open space separating the two "halves" of the building above. Interrupting this space are bridges across the gap and at the top is a building-length skylight. VERY good feng sui. Obviously it being symantec, the colors are black and yellow. The floor is carpeted with tiles so if anything gets spilled or a section is damaged, you can remove individual tiles. The tiles have a patter of what look like rows running through them with the rows alternating in direction checkerboard-style. There are also a lot of windows, which is nice because even though you're stuck in a cube, you still see daylight and it feels like you're not enclosed. HOWEVER, after only a year, my acute allergic nose is hinting to me that we are in the process of acquiring sick-building syndrome, so make sure the windows can open, at least on a second story, to help alleviate any problems like that you may find. Also, we have a lot of "whacky" furniture all over the place. Nobody ever really uses it, but it definitely livens up the place and makes it at least appear more "comfortable". So I'd say, go with a lot of art nuveau, a simple floor plan and let a lot of light into the building. Additional architecture (such as our pathways across the middle hallway) really make the place feel "cooler" and more interesting. Another thing you might want to think about is the naming of conference rooms and such. On our first floor, they're all named after rivers and on the bottom floor they're all named after mountains. Nobody else has noticed this I think, but after careful observation of the floorplan I have decided our genius architect named the rooms on one side of the central corridor the names of the rivers in the order that the roman empire conquered them, and the other side's rooms based on the rivers with the largest volume of water in the world. On the top one side is mountain RANGES, ordered from longest to shortest and the other side is MOUNTAINS ordered from tallest to shortest. Things like that are very interesting, in my opinion, because they give you something to think about and make you say "huh...interesting" Anyway, just my thoughts.
OEÉæÁÄZÝÈA OEÉæé_CX
I thought this thread was about building yet another "better" office suite...
Plants. Not only do they look nice and improve the air quality, they make you smarter!
yeah, here is some info on those... Aeron Chairs Suck
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
But your dog made you do it right?
We get that all the time...
I got sucked into building new offices for my company a couple of years ago - what a pain in the ass. Everybody wants something different. Here are some of the things that turned out right. (It's shorter than the converse).
1. Sound insulation in the walls
2. Carpet on the floors -no wood concrete or tile.
3. Solid core rather than hollow core doors
4. Electrical outlets 6 inches above desk height.
5. No more than two people per office.
6. More ethernet jacks than people, same with phone.
Just remember everyone is going to be pissed off about something - as long as you are the least pissed off - you win.
I share an office that's adequate for two people and I have a window and that really works wonders. You're not alone, but you're largely shielded from the rest of organization. People come in and out but nobody can stare into your office just by standing up. A window reminds you there's a real world out there... (no, webcams don't count. =))
I suggest the first place to cut would be the bikinis for the massage girls.
1. Top notch chairs. Nothing hurts more than sitting in a crappy chair that looks good but doesn't support you worth a damn.
2. Ergo keyboards. I can't believe people still prefer the old style.
3. Excellent flooring or carpet. If you walk a lot, and I do, the level of underlay on the carpet can make a difference between agony and a great day at work.
4. Plants. Real ones.
5. Natural light, i.e. glass walled offices and lots of windows.
6. Noise reduction on the ceiling to keep down the office chatter. Better yet, my own office.
7. LCD monitors to cut down on eye strain.
8. Showers for when I ride to work.
9. Music.
10. A manservant to fetch my slippers, prepare my brandy snifter, count my money in one of those funky counting machines and to arrange for my trips to the Caymans to meet my investment advisor.
The best environments I've ever worked in were when everyone in the same branch/group/team were in one room with no dividers.
--
If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
Big
Lucious
Hooters...
Think lots of power, lan (VOIP/Data), whiteboards, deskspace and footroom everywhere.
Give everyone a trolley/shopping cart.
Rotate, Rinse, Repeat.
Designation: Commercial office buildings in the U.S. are often designated as "Class A", "Class B", or "Class C". Generally, if you can afford not to, you don't want to rent class C space. B is cheaper than A, but the differences between A and B can be subtle and the only way to tell what's right for you is to visit the space and ask lots of questions.
HVAC: Make sure you have adequate localized control over the heating/cooling environment. Many leased office spaces have too few thermostat circuits per floor (sometimes only one), which means that everyone either freezes or roasts. Remember that computers and people generate a lot of heat. This is something you want to discuss in detail with the building manager. Many buildings turn off the air conditioning system on nights and weekends to save money, but it can make the building uninhabitable if you have lots of heat sources.
Security: How secure is the building? How secure is your suite/floor within the building? Do you want security guards at the front desk 24/7? How about keys/access codes, etc. Make sure your suites lock separately. Ask if the cleaning crew and the delivery people have access to your suite. If there is a common mailbox area for all tenants, request to see it and make sure it's secure. Ask if any mailboxes or suites have been broken into within the last 6 months. Make sure your employees can have convenient after hours access without sacrificing security.
Parking is important.
Mass transit: Is the building close to mass transportation (bus or subway or commuter rail lines)? This is important to some companies.
Power: Ask about the power capacity of the office space. Realtors often tell you they don't know the answers ("All that amperage and voltage stuff is gibberish to me, I'm just a realtor."). If the realtor doesn't know, have them put you in touch with the plant maintenance folks. You really do want adequate power for your suite and specifically you want to look at the power circuit layout, so you know whether you can put a sufficient number of computers in without constantly tripping circuit breakers.
Physical network infrastructure: Most modern office spaces are pre-wired for at least 100mbit Ethernet. But you want to make sure you can wire each department into their own subnet, etc. Make sure you ask for detailed information on the physical network infrastructure (how easy will it be for you guys to set up your T1, do they use Cat5 cable or something better (or worse)).
Telephone infrastructure, unless you are using VoIP./
Furniture: Aeron chairs look cool but they are way overrated in terms of comfort. Look at Steelcase instead (they are not cheap). People tend to be very picky -- it's best if you can offer a choice of 3 different chairs to everyone.
Server room: Make sure you have an adequately sized, separately cooled, securable server room.
1. I used to wonder whether it's just me that flat-out refuses to work in cubicles. It turns out, after discussing the subject with people for several years, that it seems that it's just me who will actually walk away from a job if management tries to force me to use a cubicle. But without exception, I found no one who believes that working in a cubicle doesn't decrease their productivity. It's just that most people need the job more than they are willing to give up the paycheck.
2. If you absolutely must force people to share offices, don't force people to share with members of the opposite sex. In fact, don't even allow it.
3. Don't be a cheapskate. Provide free sodas. Provide meals for those who work late.
4. Let people do their own thing unless it clearly violates someone else's rights.
5. Don't impose software on people; let them choose their own except in cases where things absolutely have to be done a certain way.
6. Always remember: people are your most valuable resource. It sounds corny, but it's true -- and one disgruntled ex-employee can do you damage from which you might never recover.
There are a few factors I would look for if I was designing an office layout from scratch.:
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
If you have to have cubes, or even if you don't, buy everyone a set of Beyerdynamic DT 531 headphones. These are not only some of the best headphones you can buy (around $150) but they are completely open so that you can hear what's going on around you while listening to music. As such, you don't have the desire to listen overly loud and you don't get that "in your head" feeling that most headphones give you. For working it's perfect.
Music is a big way to personalize your work environment and I guarantee you that everyone who works for you will be shocked at how great the experience of using these 'phones is. It's at least as good as the first time you work for someone who gives you Aeron chairs.
A fully-stocked bar, live music, and a nice selection of hookers. God I love my job.
My company provides free soft drinks/juice/coffee... It doesn't cost very much, and it's amazing what it does for the workers!
Michael.
Natural light and the ability to see outside are a big help. I used to do IT support in a cubicle type situation where I wouldn't see real light or even know what the weather was for 10 hours. Sometimes I even missed daylight totally as Id start before dawn and leave at night !
Setting the fresh-air component of the Airconditioning to something more than 50% would be nice too. I don't like everyones disease being recycled, even if it is environmentally friendly !
I'm not even sure fulltime network admins are even needed. I've worked in several jobs where the admins would be sitting around, playing Thief 3.
Personally, I don't care if resources, including my machine are locked down or not. (I've worked in several environments of each) If I cannot work, however, the clock is ticking with a lack of productivity. I make it known, then sit back & wait. It's no different than paperwork in a large environment. When time spent filling out paperwork becomes an entry on a timesheet, something is wrong.
As far as Aeron chairs go, they are very customizable because of all of the various controls. There is a BIG drawback. For those not familiar with the Aeron, although most people reference it, there may be some who don't know about them. It's like sitting on a big piece of soft, pliable, plastic mesh. What happens to the sound of a car when you take the muffler off? Exactly. You either learn to hold it, expel it quietly (sometimes it's not very easy), or get up a lot and walk to a place of privacy. A standard chair does not have a problem in this area.
I agree about the computer thing. I personally hate over zealous admins that lock the hell out of everything. I mean, sure, there's a place for it. But often times it simply pisses people off because they feel as though they aren't trusted and it makes them dislike their work enviornment just a litle less.
This is a tough one. I've been a sysadmin in a couple small companies. I started at the company I'm at now (family business), and locked down the network a little bit, but users could install software, and change things a fair amount. What happened was eventually systems were becoming totally unusable as adware got installed, and all sorts of other garbage people were trying out got on there, and the system would need to be redone. Since my primary job wasn't being a sysadmin, this made me do a bunch of extra work.
I then went over to a software development company, and as we grew, I took on the role of sysadmin there as well. Initially I tried a mildly locked down environment with software delopment from Win2k server, and it was a nightmare. I took it off within a day because the programmers all hated it, and it was easier to install manually on the few support staff systems than it was to create packages.
When I came back to my current job (which is not a computer company), I decide it was time to redo the network. So now it runs on Samba, and the workstations are locked down so that users can't install software, and a few registry changes are forced at login. I also use wpkg for software deployment, which is a huge timesaver. Most of the security, however, comes from the permissions on network shares and folders.
While this is what the grandparent poster hated, I can totally understand why. The amount of time I deal with dumb problems of users screwing up their machines has dropped to almost nothing, and I only get a few people annoyed ocasionally that they have to get me to install software for them. (Well worth my reduced time). I think for the most part they understand too, because our workstations are basically never down.
Most people won't fill their machines with bullshit. And the ones that do are pretty easy to detect, and those are the ones you can lock down.
But then it's after-the-fact. You now still have to spend time reimaging and configuring the system. Then you lock it down, and the user is angry because they can't make changes like they could before and like everything else can.
Speak before you think
TFT's not CRTs, unless the exployyee specifically requests it.
'Nuff said.
This guy is way out there
If you already know who will be working there, like the people themselves, sit down with all of them and hammer out what they'd like to see in the office and rank what they feel is most important. Granted, it may be difficult to get them to agree on every idea, but a staff who feels like they have input even at the minimal level will generally work harder for you in the long run.
Get good climate control, too.
Ever heard of Spoonerisms? "Master Of Puppets" was taken already... And it's not a church leader, spelling is wrong. And you can't paste muppets.
Due to lack of disk space this user has been discontinued
I have worked in both cubes and offices - the thing I love most about an office is the door and the privacy. With a cube, invariably you have people talking around you, and it can be maddenning. If you go with cubes, try to set up traffic patterns so that there isn't any areas of "easy conversation" - junctions where people naturally and spontaneously congregate to "chat" or talk about something. For those areas (bound to occur no matter what you do) - try to keep people's desks/cubes away from them, or try to make them natural meeting spots (so that people go to them, and away from others).
Lastly, try to find someway to allow people to avoid the "over the shoulder sneakup" - nothing sucks more than to feel like someone is standing over your shoulder watching you work - even if no one is there. Allow for monitors and desks to "face out", so that the employees have their backs to the wall, and nobody can sneak up on them.
Finally, allow for a lot of cable drops and plug-ins, as well as a way to organize the cables (whether in an office or a cubicle) - nothing says "unprofessional" like a rat's nest of cables going everywhere...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
If possible make sure you have adequate ducted air, not just blown around through the drop-ceiling if you have one. On really hot days, the air conditioning in the building cannot cope with the amount of heat in the building, and the temperature slowly rises to a very uncomfortable level. Being able to use a fully auto espresso machine and pushing a button for the coffee drink was a really nice thing. It took a lot of mess out of the coffee area and was handy for those late nights. The place I work at now just has the worst tasting coffee that I have ever encountered.
I worked for a now defunct company that stocked AGT among other drinks and snacks and I always felt guilty going home. They also catered lunch everyday, and dinner during crunch times. :)
Meeting rooms:
1. no chairs
2. work table set to standing height for papers, etc.
3. all the walls are whiteboard.
With no chairs, meetings are exactly as long as they need to be, and no longer. Yes, I *have* worked in this kind of environment, and it works great.
It takes more space to implement - sometimes a lot more space. But it's a great way to alter the psychological effect of an office.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
You might be a muppet. Here are some ways to find out if you are one: The Muppet Test.
That warm feeling in the bottom of your heart knowing your doing your part to ensure the continuance of the systematic exploitation of children in third world countries! Yay!
No really. It was a very well behaved parrot. Only swore at the marketing types.
OK, I made that last bit up.
Now the one thing I really want is windows that open. Even if they close automatically when there is too much difference between outside and inside. Most of the year, the air in most office buildings is worse than the air outside.
In hot climates perhaps they could set things up to change the air completely overnight while its cool so at least its nice inside at the start of the day.
Squirrel!
"Take your kid to work day" is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Nobody gets any work done on that day. The parent who brought the kid has to watch it all day, and if they're not watching it, the kid's off bothering everybody else, preventing them from getting any work done.
Unless it's some Indonesian Nike factory, kids don't belong at work.
I don't know if you've done this or not, but whatever you do, actuall ask the people who are going to work there! Their opinion matters infinitely more than ours. Try to let me know as much as possible what is going on and why. Let them have as much say as you can and still stay sane (because let's face it 45 people are going to have 45 different opinions!).
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
when our agency (yes, part of the State, and all that it implies) moved last year, we had a big debate about the ceiling. Some of us came from dot-bomb world and pushed for an open, black-painted ceiling with simple suspended lights.
Others (dare I say the more traditionalist), pushed for a "regular" dropped acoustical tile ceiling. In the end, management <sarcasm>in a fit of Solomon-like wisdom</sarcasm> decided on a compromise. So now we have what is euphemistically known as The Open Grid(tm), or what we call the worst of both worlds. It's the grid-work of the suspended ceiling with half the tiles taken out.
Not only does it not suppress noise like a full dropped ceiling, it also brings the crappie, glare-producing overhead florescent lights that always seem to reflect off your screen.
It all became a moot point when Clear Channel Broadcasting moved their Morning Zoo(tm) broadcast to a studio one floor above us. Their noise effectively drowns out our ambient noise so well that everyone wears headphones all day and uses IM for all internal group communication....
-Privacy and freedom from distraction:
Cubicles grate on my nerves endlessly for two reasons: one, the desk is often positioned so that in order to work you must keep your back to the "door", thus taking paranoia to a whole new level; and two, the nonstop sound of footsteps moving past your cube is guaranteed to shatter whatever train of thought you've been riding.
These two feed off each other, since if you hear footsteps and you're not already looking at the entrance, you have to turn around every time. Plus, the lack of a desk between you and your visitor seems to leave you at a disadvantage in confrontations, since you're sitting down. Put in real walls or don't put in walls at all - what sort of message does it send when the conference room is nicer than the offices?
I hate fluorescent lighting with a passion. Try to put in different means of lighting, but in any case add light switches or allow employees to put glare shields or drapes around their spaces - programmers and other nocturnal beings are especially sensitive to bad lighting.
-Trust (the company trusts its employees to handle themselves, and the employees trust the company to look out for them)
Don't use web blocking or filtering software. It may be true that people will surf the web when they should be working, but blocking and filtering sends the message that you don't trust them to use their time wisely. The company won't go bankrupt if someone checks their webcomics during lunch. On that theme, doors: trusting people not to goof off all day.
If business is bad and things are tight, don't look to the office budget as the first place to shave money from. A dip in stock seems distant to employees, whereas the lack of soda has an immediate and demoralizing impact.
Storage cabinets that lock are a must, especially for a programmer's treasured collection of books.
Again, light switches (trusting an employee to control their own environment).
-Comfort
Cookies and random, unlooked-for goodies are a huge plus, as well as coffee/soda alternatives (like hot chocolate and tea).
Once again, ye gods, the fluorescent lighting. On a bad or sleep-deprived day, those rods and their incessant whining, buzzing drone bit into my brain like an auger. There are many alternatives out there - please make use of them.
Colors! Please, please, please, some colors! Real, vivid colors - no wimpy pastels or grey-blues or (god forbid) beige. Windows and plant life (not the cheap rental kind - everybody knows that one) and again windows. There's a lot of free decorating right outside.
Convenient printers/copiers/faxes/restrooms, as well as computers to test code on. Also bookshelves for employees to store their own literature (I find when on lunch or waiting for some reason that a quick read is an excellent way to keep my mind fresh and awake), perhaps even providing reading material (real reading material, not just the company newsletter).
Readily accessible/changeable climate control. Long and hard were the days of shivering or baking - if the rooms are not at the right temperature, it's extremely hard to think.
Really, the best workspace is the one that's as convenient and comfortable as your own home. If you couldn't live comfortably at your office, you can't work there, either.
Please!
Seriously, unless you're trying to maintain some sort of artificial professional distance between you and your underlings (or superiors if you're a secretary), consult with your users. They know if they work in pairs, trios, have cross-functional needs (2 engineers, 1 creative on any given team), or if all 15 engineers work alone and only need to talk with sales every month, while the creative guys are the support for sales.
Start by evalutaing the space you have, and the company needs. Make sure you have some expansion room if you think your company can become healthy inside of 5 years. Make sure you don't have to turn the break room into an office if you hire that 16th engineer. If your company (or division, or branch, or what have you) necessitates customer NDAs -- or might ever, don't go with any kind of open cubicle arrangement. Even if you do lots of intercommunication, enclosed single or double offices provide a degree of privacy that makes the employee feel trusted. Consider making your offices or spaces such that nobody has to sit with his or her backs to the opening (door or otherwise). There are plenty of metrics for productivity that don't involve sneaking up from behind someone. I've seen studies inside of my company that concluded cubicles didn't save the space anticipated once you factored in the space requirements of break out rooms so people could actually have some discussions.
Furniture is less important. Give everybody a whiteboard and handle ergonomic needs as they arise. Consider using LCDs (if color realism isn't necessary) for clarity and space efficiency (energy savings are exaggerated, although measurable). Have some flexible policies regarding people decorating their own spaces, and you're probably set. Some people covet windows, others loathe the day-star entirely.
As with any problem, a customer is involved (this time, your workers). Consult with your customer and make sure you understand the problems they think you'll solve. Listen to their suggestions on how to solve the problems, but make no promises until you've worked something out. Julius Caesar always asked even the lowliest of troops for advice before a battle-- he always had other plans in place, and the troops' advice rarely had any impact at all, but the illusion was that he cared about their opinions. Because they felt like their opinions were valued, they fought harder and won many battles that they should have lost by all accounts. If your workers feel valued, they will work harder for you.
There is no text, but the filter doesn't like that.
I read about this in a book and thought it was an overrated suggestion. Then I tried it in my own office and was amazed. When you're sitting down at a desk and your desk does not face a wall, you don't automatically feel like you're.. well, up against a wall.
It takes more space to implement - sometimes a lot more space. But it's a great way to alter the psychological effect of an office.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Maybe it won't be as important to your company, but treat the grunts (coders, graphics people) as though they are at least as important as your sales people. I work in the advertising department of a large, death star owning, cable company... cough Time Warner cough cough. The culture has developed into a very lopsided mess that makes it very difficult to be a team player. The physical space is designed for paper-pushers... bright overhead lights, normal walls don't go all the way to the ceilings, too many cubicle walls, creative people located too close to administrative types... Even in an imperfect world, you should be able to provide different atmospheres for your "departments". Sales, customer service, administrative personnel, and the like can have their brightly lit "office" space. We rasterbators like to have a space where you can put stuff on the walls, play music, and literally "think outside the box". Likewise, dress codes and break schedules should be a bit more flexible for the people who need to get into any kind of creative "groove". Nothing puts the hurt on my right lobe like sitting in a bright white room, wearing clothes that are uncomfortable, listening to the demented ramblings of sales people trying to "upsell" a client. Fortunately, I have taken over an unused TV studio for my space. It's overkill, but having a 25x40 office where I can close the door and make as much noise as I want is much less stressful. Plus, scrubbing through chunks of video repeatedly has a tendency to make non-vidiots nearby want to hang themselves. Also, don't do what we did... Our fearless leader (all the way at the top) spent $23 Million on just HIS office in NYC. Meanwhile, the poor bastards creating the company's product out of thin air have had our salaries pretty much frozen. To add insult to injury, the completion of said office made all of the big news networks, Newsweek, most of the industry rags, and our utterly pointless company magazine. Nothing will demotivate the people who pull your product out of their ass faster than unbalanced compensation. That said, I'd like to apologize for using "think outside the box", "upsell" and "groove" in this post. See, I told you I was located too close to the office drones... Time to sharpen up my demo reel. Oh, and for the love of God, make sure there's free coffee. I think my contract actually states that I'm allowed to kill one coworker every 30 minutes until there's a pot of coffee on. Also VERY IMPORTANT: Let your people have some input on what equipment they're going to have to use! Letting middle manager/number cruncher types try to select CGI gear is like having my grandmother help you shop for porn... Not that her taste is bad, it's just that she's probably not real up to date on the good stuff. Nothing says "Your job is unimportant and the appearance is even less important" louder than trying to convince the art department that $75 worth of software from Wal Mart (I shit you not) is going to do the trick... Direct quote after I picked my jaw up off of the floor: "What's the problem? It says here that it comes with 250,000 stock photos...". I'm sure that, to some degree, the same could be said for all departments, but it's particularly important to properly equip the people who make the product and its image.
Someday a real rain is gonna come...
MAME Cabinet! :)
We had one at our old office and it really helped cut down on stress.
maybe dogs just don't like you cause you smell
I work as a linesman for a power company so I've been attacked more times than I can count by those damn things. I've ended-up having to have surgery after three of the attacks.
Damn... if I were you, I'd be carrying around some type of weapon. A large knife would be good for taking down vicious dogs.
There was no excuse for someone to have an animal like that. What sort of nut would want dangerous animals in an office environment?
As a cat owner, I would like point out that this is one big thing you don't have to worry much about with cats. When was the last time you heard of someone being killed by a cat? They can give you some bad scratches if you really piss them off, but nothing deadly, and they never attack people for no reason like dogs do.
Danny: "Why do they always paint hallways that color?"
Rusty: "They say taupe is very soothing."
But all kidding aside, what colors make for an aesthetically pleasing work environment? I know I've walked into a certain yogurt chain which paints everything red, green, blue, and yellow and felt nauseous. So it's easy to say what's bad, but then what's good?
Cubicles, no matter how they are laid out are just that, cubicles. No real walls, no real door, no privacy. They also alway, always seem uncomfortable and uninviting to me no matter how they are colored/designed.
One of the things that architectls always say makes a building great is provacy. Give each individual their space, and give them a door that way when they want to make a phone call, talk about business, or just be alone, they can and any noise that they make is not forced upon others. The idea of having my own office rather than an all-too-temporary place in a massive cube farm is that I can really feel that it's mine, that it's secure, that it's safe. That makes the whole experience of being in it that much more appealing.
In my experience even sharing an office with a cowerker is vastly superior to sharing a biw warren with a dozen random individuals.
Some people have suggested a full gym, but just having a shower in the office is good enough for most people. I like to work out or run in the morning before work and it saves tons of time when I can come in and take a shower at the office. It's also great for people who exercise at lunch or bike to work.
Along a common theme with several others. LIGHTS: Mine is much too bright and no dimmer. All white paint doesnt help the matter :(
And
HEAT/AC: My office and another new one are smaller than the showroom also on the same circuit and much quicker (too quick) to react to changes. If the air needs to be on mine is cooled below comfortable before the main room is affected :/
Also:
POWER: everywhere. I got this right as i got to design the circuits :) There is an open outlet up 2 ft and over 2 ft from my right hand right now in addition the usual ones behind the desk. Great for plugging in chargers or something for the day.
FURNITURE: I am prejudiced and like the desk i built (u-shaped desk of 2" oak laminate). Tough choices here i'll let others thrash this out ;)
As far as the office environment, the best
place I ever worked was Sun Microsystems.
I was at the E. Palo-Alto Complex. The best
thing was that every full-time software
engineer had their own office with four walls
and a solid door. Some of the contractors had
to share an office but even some of them got
their own.
Note to management... if you want your
software development staff to increase their
productivity and increase the quality of the
work they are doing then ditch the cubicles
and build real offices.
Hire a pro who has done offices you like and even more important: are liked by the people who work there!
It is possible to design GREAT looking offices that win design awards.....that are counterproductive. I refer you all to the wonderful book: "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman for examples.
I once hired "professionals" who designed aworkspac that was both inargueably ugly and difficult to use; it was an expensive mistake but the folks we tried after that did an excellent job with a difficult space. Quality varies.
I've always hated offices where the only arrangement for your computer was to have your back to your cube door so people can sneak up on you, intentional or not. Its hard for me to be producive in that sort of situation.
Or at least the option for incandescent. With dimmers. Indirect or non-glaring fluorescent if you must. Proper, decent, non-irritating lighting and be sooo important. Nothing i hate worse in an office than row after row of bright, harsh, cold, glaring fluorescent. Just my 60 Hz worth, of course.
Good job for sticking it out and actually begging^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hasking for help/advice for something you have obviously proved you are worthy of performing or forced into tackling. Not that I'm attempting to put you in your place or anything. More like a complement on a asking a much needed question.
;)
For the past 3.5 years I have worked my first major corp. job. I haven't been corrupted yet (hopefully never), but have learned so much about the corp./business world. Including forming a few itchy office environment preferences.
#1 problem in office environments, cubes. They serve their purpose, but almost seem to encourage diversity. Also aiding to the slowness of communication (information takes longer to gather). Solution? Get rid of the cubes. Simple eh? Not really. A barrier must still exist between woker. Something the mute noise travel, but not block the reality that they are in (TOO MANY PEOPLE TO COMPLETE SIMPLE TASKS, heh).
#2 Lighting. If possible, avoid fluorescent. It just too dammaging in many ways. (forgive me for not ref. any url's. Alittle lazy right now) One can get very creative for lighting now days. Research!
#3 problem... Stairs vs. Elevators. Don't make the stairs wider and the evelator counter lower in hopes of people using the stairs. Comes on, that's just dumb.
#4 Conference rooms. Make sure you have plenty. Even small ones. Nothing like seperating yourself from the farm when you need to read/code/etc. or be on a conference call and hate using a headset.
Which brings me to my next point...
#5 Wireless LAN. Oh yes, defiantly a must. Being a smoker and all, I love the alternative to a conf. room for reading or whatever by enjoying the outdoors while working and "breaking" at the same time. Make sure you set things up correctly though. Wireless network traffic could be the downfall of your "secret weapon".
#6 coffee/breakroom/kitchen/etc. Dedicate a room (read, room... Not a hole in the wall corner near the copy room.) Put in the works if possible. Stove/oven, a couple microwaves (incase some screws up the popcorn), fridge and seperate freezer. Oh yeah, and stick to Folders.
I own one. IMO they are quite overrated. Common problems:
1. The armrests don't stay up, no matter how hard you tighten them. And if you tighten them really hard the screw tears into the composite chair material.
2. The armrests aren't NEARLY high enough for a tall person sitting with good posture, even on the largest Aeron model.
3. There are lots of weird little nooks and crannies in the chair, and disassembly is far from straightforward. Once the chair starts collecting dust it's really never clean again.
4. The internal resistance mechanism tends to be cranky and on a lot of the chairs, the chair won't hold the position you set it to. When it slips from this position, it won't do it slowly, it will POP free, sending the user flinging forward. This is exciting.
5. It's absurdly expensive.
These problems aren't universal but the longtime Aeron owners I know have all seem to have experienced at least a couple of them. I'm sure there are other problems which I haven't seen or just forgot to mention. The funny thing is that when I point these things out sometimes, I'm usually attacked... by people who don't own Aerons.
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
A comfortable coutch not in plain sight, and a shower. Perhaps, additionally, one could remove fluorescent fixtures, and replace them with incandescent lights. Additionally, make sure their CRTs/LCDs have enough real estate to be productive.
Cheap options really. Some stuff you can get an a yardsale and being second hand just adds class:
-- wireless
-- a real lounge with poofy lounge chairs to work in, and with either skylights or a large, north-facing window for ambient light
-- coffee "lab" with full-function espresso machine
-- a pool table
-- hi-quality LCD monitors throughout
-- stylish whiteboards everywhere, floor to ceiling to look like wall panels, for ad hoc meetings and planning
-- Aeron chairs (yes they really do save your ass)
-- hardwood floors (carpet stinks)
-- a combination of open area, cubes and secure offices to suit individual tastes and changing needs
-- a large fish tank with a cleaning contract
-- an orange cat
-- a yellow dog
and that's just the environment. There's also recuring cost items like a fully stocked fridg, a small functional kitchen, free soda, etc that people seem to crave but for my part I don't care about food and drink. Comfy chairs, good lighting, some way to get a stretch and visit with coworkers.
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
Physical exercise keeps your people alert, healthy, and happy. They need a shower and someplace to change.
If your workgroup is entirely male (or the sole female member isn't much to look at), find some way of locating the group near a group that has some attractive members of the female sex (like marketing). Or hire a cute secretary to make copies, get coffee, etc. for everyone. Employees shouldn't have to feel like they're going to work in some repressive gender-segregated institution.
Light Person Symptoms:
:P
Then again, maybe the person that wants general lighting just can't stand having his eyes strained any more than necessary considering he's halfway to being legally blind already. Maybe the intense lighting from ONLY the monitor gives the person headaches. And maybe fingerprints on the monitor pisses him off just as much as the so-called "dark person".
But you're just trying to make this a race thing aren't you!?!?
The office I am in just switched from Folgers to generic, which I would call a step in the wrong direction.
If you care about your employees/co-workers, you buy the BEST you can budget.A large group of the disgruntled pooled funds and bought an auto-brew, auto-shutoff 12 cupper, 'swiped' a rackmount UPS/battery/power conditioner, and set it up in someone's cubicle.
Each week, someone brings in a different type of coffee. (Today's blend was Royal Kona Christmas Rum...mmmmm...)We'll never drink that generic kark again!
Put the engineers along the outside walls and have some nice BIG windows. The one thing I hate is not seeing the sun for so long. Especially in college where all my classes were either in the basement (no windows or sunroofs) or at night. I missed the sun for so long.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
this is what separates a company that really cares about its office workers from the companies that just pretend to care. On your first day at Pixar, you're not even allowed to log in until the ergo consultant has done your 'fitting.' adjustible chairs are great, but what about trackballs, keyboard trays, desktops, monitors... adjustible furniture is great, but most office workers won't have the chutzpa to come in on the weekend and put bricks under the legs of their desks to make the tabletops the correct height.
there is plenty of information published about how to keep people comfortable for long periods of time, but bodies aren't identical, and what's true for one person isn't true for everyone in your office. If people are going to sit at their desks for hours at a time, you can be a big hero by taking some time to make sure each person has what they need to be comfortable in their new space.
oh, and lighting is important too... flourescents suck.
on a personal note, this is my 3rd week in a new office environment. Last week, my carpal tunnel flared up for the first time in 2 years. I asked if we could get furniture moved, and got the "4 to 6 weeks" answer... so I came in this weekend with a power drill and adjusted the height of the desk in my cubicle to make it 6" higher. Our office planner SHIT herself when she noticed, but now I have room underneath the desk for my knees and my keyboard tray AT THE SAME TIME. My new chair still doesn't fit correctly- the seat pad is too short for my legs, and the back of the chair is too low to support my back (i'm almost 6' tall and the buttpad is only about 20" long.) I'm sure they spent like $800 each on these chairs, but as far as I'm concerned the money was a waste, becuse it just doesn't FIT.
After 2 weeks in this new cube-based "open environment," my biggest complaint apart from the ill-fitting furniture is the noise. we've got bare walls, and I can clearly hear a whisper from 100 feet away. If I have to listen to the goddamn secretary in the next row to the north have one more conversation about her stupid bible study group, I'm going to chop her up and feed her to the guy trying to stick to the Atkins diet two rows to the east.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
And for the love of god, no dedicated place for the computer itself to go. I've only been the family sysadmin for a few years, yet I can't even begin to count the number of times that I've been down in the basement working on my mother's computer, which is stuck in this tiny little niche with only a single tiny hole for the cables. It's impossible to do anything to that damned computer.
/me spits
If I need to plug something in, anything, I can't see back there and therefore have to pull the PC out. When I put the thing back in after changing hardware, I've got to plug in every damned cable without being able to see what the hell I'm doing. Hell, ever bent a pin on the PS/2 plug for a keyboard? How about a french one that's just a little bit hard, just a TEENSY bit hard, to replace?
Other problems with that damned desk:
-It's too small.
-There's only space for one ATX computer, while I need space for two, leaving the other one sitting on top of a filing cabinet (KVM is taken care of by a KVM switch)
Her next computer is a laptop.
First and foremost have comfortable chairs. If you can't be comfortable sitting then you aren't going to get much done.
For an individual or team that requires more space, you can easily join two cubicles into one or rearrange the cubicle walls.
Cubicle walls are a LOT cheaper to implement than hard walls.
If you use tall cubicle walls, at least 7 feet, you gain some advantages:
Privacy - employee can confer with others without being distracted or distracting others (it's amazing how much noise you can put up with, but it doesn't take much visual input to distract you)
Wall space - employee can hang personal artwork, and have more space for shelving and storage
Pride of ownership - employee feels "this is my space" instead of "my boss lets me work here and is looking over my shoulder"
Add in a door for extra privacy
And it's still cheaper than hard walls.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
I'd say you need the right mix of people. You can have all the best tools in the world, the fastest computers, the best designed seats, pot-plants galore but it takes just 1 person to make your job a living hell... especially if they are higher up "the chain" than you.
My network admin has everything blocked except port 80, didn't allow ANY downloads except text files (it took me two days to explain that RPMs were fuck all use to anyone else in the network, since my coworker and I are the only two Linux developers and we needed them for our job), and has a truely restrictive windows policy (happily he's windows only and hasn't the faintest idea of how to lock down our Linux boxes. The fact that we didn't give him our root passwords might have something to do with it too. ;)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
In the department where I used to work, as a contractor, it was like this:
- No contractor may have their own office, even if there is space available.
- Full-time employees must have their own office, unless they volunteer to share with the riff-raff.
- If you are running short on space, convert a conference room to office space and cram in as many contractors as will fit, even if it violates the fire code.
- three people sharing one 6' x 9' office is perfectly reasonable.
- 30" x 30" is a perfectly reasonable amount of desk space.
- Do not supply any kind of partitions or cubicles for shared office space
If it's good enough for Microsoft, it's surely good enough for you too!
Starbucks Coffee
Incandescent lighting only
Comfy chairs
Large marker board / conference room
Free diet soda and bottled water (no sugar comas allowed).
Amazing magic tricks
If you must use fluorescent lights please be consistant. There are warm and cool fluorescent lights and nothing can destroy a decent paint job than changing the kind of fluorescent light you are using. Most designers will chools warm lights because they are more pleasing to the eye. Unfortunatly once it is out of the designers hands the administrators will change to cool lights because they are cheaper. There is nothing more annoying than sitting in a room and watching the wall change color half way because the lights are warm and half are cool. My final recomendation is halogen with dimmers though.
A couple years ago I heard a talk from an executive from one of Australia's bank (can't remember which one). She talked about how the bank spent a few million dollars on the office design for a five floor building (I think) and how successful the design was on affecting how the workers worked.
There was a couple things she did that were of note. Apart from having the obvious aspects of having a well lit and plessant work place. The building was designed to facilitate communication between the different departments of the organisation that wouldn't usually communicate. This was done by having a coffee shop in a cetral aspect of the building (in the middle of the middle floor). There was a large stair case that was centrally located which meant that people could easily move between floors. People from different departments would meet in the coffee shop (accidentally or on purpose) who would otherwise not see each other but would depend on each other. In the informal setting of the coffee shop they would talk to each other about their work which built organisational coherence and changed the adversereal nature of the departments within the organisation. The building also had an abundance of informal meeting rooms (some without chairs or a table) and some formal meeting rooms, which meant that people could meet easily and communicate more readily.
In terms of having an office design, I think it is most important to facilitate communication. The organisation will need to work as a whole which is much greater than the sum of its parts. Ideas need to evolve by diverse groups of people talking to each other. Informal meeting rooms automatically lower bariers and tention between people which helps in having successful meetings. The office needs to resist peoples ability to build walls around themselves and fortify themselves beuracratically.
Good Luck!Yet another ironic recursive statement.
Just because your company went with the lowest bidder for your office system doesn't mean that its all has to look like that. A lot of planning and esthetic design goes into office systems.. Check out some real office systems manufacturers ..
Not All cubes look like the cookie cutter cubes that your're used to...
KNOLL
Herman Miller
STEELCASE
Haworth
It looks like you are the bouncer in a whorehouse. Or, wait, you aren't the gay part of the workforce, are you?
I understand the economics of cubes, but I think they should be limited to no more than about 12 to a room, with soundproof barriers between these "cells". You could have cells populated by teams, or by type of work. Ideally, people should be able to apply to go to the kind of cell they work well in -- the "quiet" cell or the "talkers" cell.
Also, invest in good monitors and switchboxes -- I currently have three screens crammed onto my desk, two are low-quality and difficult to use because of my limited layout options. A switchbox would actually reduce equipment costs, but someone just doesn't quite see it.
CNN
Comfort range is 70-75F (21-23C).
Do not set your heat any higher than 70 degrees, because once it gets warmer than that, a warm draft is uncomfortable. Below that, it feels great. Don't go any colder than 68 degrees or the employees will whine incessantly.
Do not set your AC any colder than 75 degrees, because when the ambient temperature is below 75, the AC provides a cold, unwelcome draft (not unlike your boss looking over your shoulder). Above 75 degrees, the cooling breeze of the AC feels fine. Fudge it up a bit in extremely hot weather to ease the shock when entering/exiting the building (i.e. -- if it's over 100 outside, set the AC to 78 or 80 -- but never go higher than 80).
(I cannot stand to go into a restaurant where they have the AC cranked way down.)
Put a few disconnected "dummy" thermostats here and there so people feel like they are in control. Only you will know which one is the real one.
One other point: allow small heaters and fans at the desk (and plan your electrical system to support the heaters), to satisfy those who are not satisfied easily.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
The best working environments are those peopled with good staff, both technically, managerially and socially.
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
It's that simple. I've always preferred working in smaller companies for lots of reasons, but one of them is the fact that smaller companies generally don't work in sealed air-conditioned neon-lit glass walled towers.
I do the same and love to watch the puzzled look on their faces when I tell them we haven't paid our power bill.
The classic is to look at the glowing computer screen, look at me, back to the screen *scratch head* wander off into the lighted areas of the office.
Enough exits to sneek out of work and a private office so no one notices, A few cron jobs to send in
assingments and you should be good for going to the beach on realy nice days.
We could take a look at google for this one: in house chef, dogs, games, great lighting, and hot women.
people work better in bed...
my cat attacks me all the time. i feel like a battered wife.
Don't use windex to clean your monitor. Repeated use of amonia will remove the anti-glare coating.
But you allready knew that...
Take a lesson from the penitentiary folks. Razor wire, vertical window slits, tables chained to the floor and institutional heat-tray snacks really maximize the techs/sq.ft and teach those ingrates who pays the bills...
Sporks make great wi-fi antennas.
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
One thing you could do is to instruct your workforce not to have annoying habits, as this can get on the nerves of other employees. Here is an article with reader-feedback that explains just how annoyed people can get by other people's habbits, and lists examples of things which annoy other people. This should be required reading for anyone who wants to work with anyone else. Are there more such places on the web with examples of that which annoys?
How very presumptuous of you to believe that I am not a network admin now, that I don't have to deal with spyware issues, and that I "install gator" on machines.
Dumbass.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
But, trust me on the kitchen, and put a full size fridge in it. Whether you put good stuff in it for people is up to you but it does tend to increase productivity in unexpected ways.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I am very surprised that evveryone says what THEY want, but no one has mentioned that CONTROL over your environment is a key pyschological factor. If you feel that you have some control and power, you will be a better and more productive employee. I am also very surprised that no one has mentioned ergonmic furniture for typing; I constanlty go into biotech companies with 150K/yr execs with desks that are not set up for typing. The point about cube farms is not that they are productive or nonproductive; it is that the bosses have offices; egro, the cubies are less imp, have less control over their environment; this leads to loss of self esteem, etc.. perhaps an exagerated example, but it makes the point. The other thing is that you can divide people into focused productive people who don't really care that much, and non focused people who do .. many of the most productive people i know would not notice if you painted there office scarlet one night; they are focused on getting their work done.
So, the ideal workplace would have a range of environments, ranging from unfinished brick with wires on the floor,where people who are so inclinded could drill (literally) holes in the walls, to dark beige caves; people would get assigned to what works for them.
If you want to set up a user friendly work environment you need to get Windows XP and Microsoft Office.
You can't beat Outlook for Contact and email Management (particularly for a smaller business).
also, kill all the HR weenies! :-)
Put Everbody Together in One Room. Give Everybody an Office. Make sure it's OK to read /.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
If you're building any sizable office space, you NEED good HVAC zoning and control. This means that there are sensors and balancing controls all over the place. I.e. The HVAC system needs to be able to change it's airflow to meet your load needs, and the temperature sensitivities of your employees. Otherwise, half the staff will be too cold and the other half too hot, and lord help you if your server room is too far from the main trunk.
It also saves money, by not requiring you to assume that people will wear sweaters (or open a windows.)
This is not a political statement. This is not legal advice. It's a frick'n Slasdot post. However: I'm Running For
You want indirect (incandescent or natural) lighting for anyone who spends all day in front of a CRT/LCD. I've been sitting in front of one myself for 15 years now, and I never had eyestrain/headaches when I had my own office and could turn off the flourescent lights and just have a simple single halogen lamp with a dimmer to give off a nice soft glow bounced off the ceiling. If the monitor is brighter (but too much) than the ambient light, it is much easier on the eyes.
Everything else is a matter of personal preference, so good luck with that.
"Ayn Rand is a bloody socialist compared to me." - Robert A. Heinlein
It's the people there, and their attitude.
The most comfortable chairs in the plushiest offices with the most fantastic views where the people are backstabbing political lunatics will never measure up to a place where the roof leaks, the furniture is broken-up with a partially-blocked-by-a-dumpster view down the lane where people are honestly caring about each other.
I think that the office should be made to be comfortable for the employees, but not to the expense of professionalism. I mean, it depends on what sort of business you are doing and how much access the customers get to the office area.
:) If the customers aren't getting access to an area, and having a fun work environment is adding to the productivity (meaning: if the air hockey table is getting more time than the work at hand is, the table has got to go), then that is fine.
If I were hiring a lawyer, for instance, I would not feel comfortable hiring one who has hammocks strewn across the office, and who plays foosbol on breaks. The same goes for a bank. Since they are depending on their reputation and professional stature to gain business, it is in their interest to maintain a traditional, professional look where suits and ties are a must. That might seem unfair, but it is in human nature to expect a certain level of professionalism in certain jobs, yet to grant leniency in others. It is more of a case of what the customer sees versus what they don't see. Out of sight, out of mind.
Now, that aside, I like the way that Google has their office set up. Their corporate offices, I am sure, are more professional, but the way Google has built its business model, it can have all of the fun things that the Googleplex has to offer, and not suffer a loss of respectability. They appeal to their core demographic. Who hasn't dreamed of the Hammock office with bean bags? With Google, somehow, that is alright. The bean bag chairs, pianos, street hockey, on-site dental, free meals, etc. (I encourage everyone to check out the pages of information on Google's 'Plex) that you see at the Googleplex really makes Google appear to be a fun place to work. Of course, my Google job offer was a work from home one (which I turned down due to having other plans. Before you all scream WHY!?, read here), so I would not have gotten the chance more than likely to work at the Googleplex, at least initially.
Anyways... indeed one of the most stifling places I have worked had the brown walls and shared office space. It was constantly demoralizing because the whole operation felt rinky-dink, even when were doing big business with the government and military. I mean, it was a fine place to work, but a bit more personal office space for the engineers, the semblance of technical savvy by the administration by allowing us to get computers with more than 32 Megs of RAM, new chairs when the old ones were worn/broken, and brighter lighting would have improved things drastically. I think that having new things come in gives the feeling of growth... when one sees older office equipment (I am not suggesting constantly buying the latest and greatest... I am just suggesting there be occasional improvements made) that have been "well-loved," it gives the whole operation a second-class feel not only to the employees, but to the customers.
A good office to me doesn't have to be the Googleplex (although that is uber-cool). It does, however, need to have replacements made when things get worn (chairs and computers being the big over-looked items), brighter lighting (with dimming option), good cleaning staff, bright colored pictures on the wall that don't look like some cheap $5 print picked up at Wal-Mart, some plant life, carpeting, windows, adequate personal space, a closeable door for private meetings, reasonable personal effects allowed (such as pictures of loved ones), access to caffeine (be it soda or coffee) for the engineers, non-scheduled breaks for the engineers (we carry our work in our minds and that doesn't just shut off on the hour... we stare at computers and think all day long. Our breaks should be at our discretion, as some of the better instances I have worked they have been), a modern feel, and access to buying the office supplies that each person feels they need. If this guy
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"We are Linux. Resistance is measured in Ohms."
Quite simply, hire a design professional or architect. They're the ones trained in progression of space, ergonomics, lighting, accoustics, color, materials, and environmental psychology. A good work environment is much more than Aeron Chairs and free sodas.
Not anyone can design good websites (*cough*) or write good software (*cough*), so please don't think that anyone can design 3-dimensional space.
I'm sure all you web developers cringe when you see all those "home website designer" packages at Best Buy just as we do at the design-your-own-dream-home ones. We're barraged by bad design just because someone thinks they can save a dollar or two by doing it themselves...
After all, how hard could it be?
;-)
I am deathly allergic to cats, you insensitive clod!
--- A man with a briefcase can steal more money, than any man with a gun. [Don Henley]
Yea, those are what you need to START a good office.
:P
Oh wait, my employer already gives me that
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
It just so happens that my "Intro to Speech" textbook had an example outline, with some great info on this subject.
Here are some links to both research and justify spending extra money (if neccesary) to secure natural lighting, or other appropriate lighing.
Daylighting Performance and Design
"Beyond the Bulbs: In Praise of Natural Light," article
"A Literature Review of the Effects of Natural Light on Building Occupants," PDF
I wish I could include the full outline or transcript of the speech, it really has the numbers needed to justify to the beancounter, but I'm unsure on the (c).
-PHiZ
Pretend I said something meaningful or insightful here.
Somewhere to go and sit and unplug with a book or a magazine or to just close your eyes for 15 minutes. Doesn't have to be much, I don't mean like a dotcom era rumpus room with pool table, air hockey, and furniture from the set of Friends, just someplace quiet and somewhat comfortable. The sort of place a person can go during their lunch break and just relax away from the beeping microwave, their co-workers incessent prattle, and away from their desks. Make this area a no-business chat area, and keep the boss away. A comfy couch or a couple of chairs w. a footrest or ottoman, and adjustable lighting would fit the bill nicely. I wish I had the above at my job.
Artwork: The company has hired a part time curator to bring in new art exhibits. There is not a place in the building that does not display some series of sculptures, paintings, photographs, or whatever. All of it is modern art, so although everyone may not appreciate it, it certainly makes for good conversation.
Furniture: All of our furniture is on wheels. The desks, the cabinets, the chairs (yes, Aeron), the printers, etc. All of the office spaces are completely open. No one has an office, including the CEO of the company. Yes, it can make things a bit noisy, but in the end it is white noise and easy to ignore.
Technology: The computers we use are not outstanding, but they let us get our work done, and are suited to our needs. For those of us to work with spreadsheets, they are enough to run Excel, Outlook, and other programs just fine, but you'd never be able to get a decent game running on one of them. Yes, we use the Microsoft Office suite. No, I do not care about how much better Linux is, and I don't think that we are looking to move to an open-source system. Take that argument up with someone else, in some other post. We use all of the features that Office, particularly Outlook, offers to us. Conference rooms are booked through Outlook, and schedules are visible to anyone with a company e-mail address, making it easy to pencil in meetings. VoIP phones make up our telecommunication network, allowing cheap local and long distance calls to our clients.
Food: Everyone has access to some standard office kitchen with soda machines, microwaves, a fridge, etc. We also have a cafeteria open, preparing fresh food for breakfast, lunch, and late lunch. No, it is not free. This is not the dot-com boom anymore. We do not have excess money to spend on things like free espresso machines, etc. However, all of the food is subsidized. For example, a (good) cheese steak, french fries, and soda will run you $5. We are not talking about small portions, either.
Dress: The dress is business casual. The only people I have seen wearing a tie are people coming in to interview for a job. Well, and our CEO - he is apparently fond of bow ties. Friday's are jeans day. All of this keeps the atmosphere comfortable, and can really help blur the line between peons and upper-management in a very good way.
Location: We are about 30 mintues north-west of Philadelphia, just a minute off 422. I could not find a good picture of the campus to share, so you may have to do some Googling of your own.
I am sorry for going on like this, but I wanted to put it out there that an outstanding office was very doable.
Well, you can start by getting rid of Clippy, and -- oh, wait....
i think maintanance may be just as important as the initial setup. Just make sure that the janitors wipe the tables and vacuum regularly. most of the time offices are just so dust and keyboards are so greasy - not a nice environment to work in.
:D
But about the initial setup... maybe having a soundproof room where coworkers can jam during a break would be cool....
my blog
Provide a VPN.
Even if you essentially expect people work in the office, giving the option to work remotely will cut down on lost productivity due to sickness and absenteeism. Letting people get out of the office environment and still work will keep morale up and also help attract and retain good people. When a minor cold keeps someone out of the office, you won't have to lose that day of work. Also, if your personnel needs start to exceed your square footage, people can start working off-site entirely, coming in only for meetings.
I work for one company now that is entirely 'virtual.' Teams occasionally meet in person to stay on track, but then retreat to opposite corners of the country. The amazing thing is the office politics are essentially non-existent.
Software development is the communication of an idea from the buyer to the seller, and from the seller to a computer. This kind of communication is best facilitated in part by conference rooms where everyone can participate with their laptops.
Unfortunately, every single conference room I've been in where all of the participants bring laptops involves a deadly tripwire field of power cords and ethernet cable. The power/rj45 jacks should be underneath the table, not against the walls.
While I don't know much about sales and marketing, I bet each of those groups benefits in part from conferencing also, and could use conference rooms that were modern information worker friendly.
IMO, the ideal office allocations, going around the edges, is: engineers, support, marketers, kitchen, equipment. In the middle goes clerical and management, and only from there can you reach accounting (which is against a barracaded edge). Why is management in the middle? So they can have a better chance in hell of understanding what's going on in the rest of the company through osmosis. Upper managers? They're located off-premesis so the rest of the company can get actual work done.
I speak with the authority of one who once had such a thing, and now cannot even see a window.
So, what do I use to clean the monitor? Strangely enough, the manual has instructions for dusting the case, but not cleaning the actual screen.
I've just been using a soft cloth, but it isn't entirely effective.
Since it's likely they will be dealing with photography, pantones, and printed material, 18% grey walls would be ideal, with 5500 degree industry standard lighting.
When I had a multimeda company, our main common work area had tall, deep tables. They were tall so that we could comfortably work on the computer while standing, making it easy to go from station to collaberate (we had tall drafting table style chairs so we could sit). They were deep so that we had pleanty of room for the monitors, keyboard, and large Kurta/Wacom Tablets.
Every old-school engineering firm worth its salt had beer in the fridge. About the beer disappeared, the firm had generally lost their edge. 'Course this is *real* engineering and not software, not sure if the same rule applies.
meh
I'm sitting in the office tonight, about to depart after long hours, so I'll look around and tell you what I like. First off, I work in a very small startup investment bank, so we're all finance types, and all techies as well.
Corner desks are great because they give you that much more flexibility. We've got a couple offices that seat two/three people and they have modular deskspace with very low cube-ish partitions for those who face each other (my back is to one guy, so there's no partition there). The corner deskspace is a great way to do things rather than straight, and doesn't take a lot of extra space. The larger areas that seat two-four people who can spin their chairs around and look at their colleagues but who don't have to look at them all the time are great and flexible.
We've got a conference area that's pretty formal but still relies on low two-person couches and chairs to seat people so it's very flexible, and clients love it. We're an investment bank so we don't really have the foozball table stuff, but we do have an area separate from our conference area that clients don't typically see that has more casual stuff, which I think is really important.
We print a lot, and so convenient printers are REALLY important--you don't want to have to run down the hall every time you print a draft of a report or you'll go nuts.
Chairs are also important. I thought I was going to cry when I had to leave the Aeron chairs I had in my office space at school, but fortunately we've got excellent chairs here, too. If we didn't, I'd go totally nuts. I sit here for twelve hours a day, you know?
You've got to have convenient open filing space. Nice racks that you can file current stuff in so people don't leave it all over the place, but don't have to put it in a drawer or cabinet, either.
Ultimately, I think the option but not necessity for interaction has been the most important feature in offices I've worked in. At the trading floor at fidelity's fixed income site, everything is open, the traders and portfolio managers sit in groups with low cube walls (so you can see over them sitting) and no cubes dividing people unless they're facing each other, and the analysts all have open offices around the room so they can be yelled to (or at) conveniently. As an intern on the phones at a major credit card company, and later doing operations work for them, we had cube walls high enough that you couldn't see over them and only flat desk space in front of us and I think it definitely damaged productivity.
Good luck.
Read jack phelps dot net
Right on! Lighting has always been my biggest gripe. Best just to stick with individual offices that have a window.
Noisy a/c is very tiring - quiet offices are much more productive. Ideally get a place where you can have open windows sometimes, not relying entirely on forced air.
Position people where they can feel some privacy, e.g. not with their backs to open doorways, and not face-on to people walking towards them.
We have one office here where the occupant sits facing everyone who walks to the john -- at the last moment there's a left turn, immediately before hitting the unlicky guy's desk. I can't imagine a worse place to sit (except maybe in a toll booth)
Monitors shouldn't be totally visible to everyone around.
Private offices are great, but if they're not possible then semi-open-plan works well -- corrals of four people that allow for eye contact while sitting, divided by partitions which allow eye contact when standing. And plenty of plants. Use meeting rooms when necessary, only enclosed when essential. The best company I worked for used this, with even the CEO and CFO in the same style corrals. It made for excellent relations through the whole company, and the company made a LOT of money too.
Ok, I dont have that...But I have everything that I need. I work in a small, software house in New Zealand, and here it works well...
We have free soda,
We have a free coffee machine (Beans, not instant-mud)
We have kitchen facilities,
We have a pool table, a dart board and "ping-pong"
We have an open office, two desks together, loosely couple by project.
Everyone has the same style chair.
There is a non intrusive radio playing all day.
Directors sit in a "fish bowl" (Out of the kitchen as it were)
Everyone has a PC that is capable of doing their job.
Everyone has VMWare too
We have fast internet access (Well it is NZ, so this becomes another story!)
And Friday is beer o'clock day, company funded.
If a small company can do this....?
Hey There,
...
...
...
I loved my last office.
And it wasn't the arron chairs that did it for me.
I loved the fact that I could re-arrange the items in my cube to my hearts content.
The cube was 12x12.
I was able to pitch half the desk area
and replace it with book shelves
and a guest chair area.
We also had closet/fileing cabinet combos.
I didn't like that so much.
Took up a lot of space for what it was worth.
But it was mobile too.
So I put it in the isle way
out of my cube area.
Eden.
If only management was as comfortable as my work space!
Regardless.
The other major selling point
wide isle ways.
Ours were as wide as our cubes were.
Cheers,
-- The Dude
You shut the fuck up or we will have to hurt you. Don't ever fuck with the sweet sweet deal that is network admin!
If something exists that does not need a creator (god) then why must the cosmos need one?
I recently started work as a computer security consultant at a "Megacorp" mostly working on location with Fortune 20 clients. The client provides the work space, so often there is little or no control over the work environment. Yes, I do have a nifty shared cubicle at the home office (hoteling system), which I _haven't_ _yet_ _visited_ (60 days since I joined), so that doesn't count.
/., or making a personal phone call with the Sr. Manager sitting next to you), the lack of ergonomic chairs (conference table, remember?), and the general mess of everything gets on my nerves.
My present work location has 12-14 of us in a conference room that seats 10 (we've dragged in a 6x2 table to accommodate the overflow), with network cables snaking over the table to a router that has a really noisy fan. We sit literally shoulder to shoulder, spreading our laptops over the conference table, with our power adapters snaking into a chain relay of power extension cords - the conference room has a total of 4 power sockets!!
We share 6 phones amongst us, and at any given point in time, there are at least 4 people on the phone, at least one of which is guaranteed to be on speaker phone.
The room is shared by a Partner, a 1-2 Sr. Managers, 3-4 Managers, and consultants; guess who's the loudest? The Partner; like hell you can ask her to shut up.
The clients keep dropping in for a visit all day, and since we share phones, if you sit next to the main line, you do nothing but answer calls all day.
We are not allowed * to have a printer of our own, so we need to sneak over and use the client's printers when they aren't being used by them.
* Actually, we do have a printer of our own that prints 2-3 pages a minute, and just down the hallway sits a monster that spits out 60 pages a minute. Guess which one I prefer?
So tell me, is it really my fault if I hate to come in to work?
The lack of privacy (try reading
Besides, the project is really time critical (or so I've been told, I suspect all projects are like this), so we get in at 7 AM, eat lunch at the desk, and get back to the hotel room at 7 PM. I fly back home on Friday evenings, if the weather is bad flying out of O'Hare, I'm lucky if I get home by 2 AM Saturday morning - dragging 2 laptops, a suitcase and the mandatory suit; only to fly back on Sunday evening or really early (4AM) Monday morning.
So quit whining will you?
VERY IMPORTANT:
Have food on hand. Good, nutritious meals, not candy and junkfood snacks.
For FREE to the workers. As much as they want. Catered supper for large companies (especially at project crunch time), snack room stocked with frozen and dehydrated meals. Free soda and bottled water (not JUST coffee). And so on.
Don't even THINK of putting in a vending machine with a token payment.
For the price of a dinner you get an extra four hours of work from a significant fraction of the employees who partake.
Having food handy at all hours mean a programmer will work long sessions several times per week, which is much more efficient than stopping after a day's work then trying to figure out where you were the next day. A catered dinner gives team members a non-stressful time to talk over work issues, as well as an incentive to stick around.
HP pioneered this hack, with one of the founders' wives keeping a 'fridge stocked with sandwitches and serving lunch.
I've been at several companies which had the tradition, then had a change of management. One of the first things the new clueless manager did each time was try to cut costs and stop the "raid on the company treasury" by cutting the food. Stopped the dinners, replaced nutritious with junk foods, instituted a subsidized token payment on the formerly free vending machines, etc.
It was like cutting the workforce by 30% without cutting the salary expenses.
Take away the dinners and the employees go out to dinner AND DON'T COME BACK, rather than working until near-midnight. Take away the nutritious food, and they go out for lunch. And so on.
The startup mentality went away. People worked like they were at a "regular company" rather than a garage shop - despite repeated pep-talks from management. Attrition started. Company productivity even in the working hours remaining went 'way down.
Food for the workers LOOKS like a significnat expense. But it's a drop in the bucket compared to staffing up by another 50% with people as expert in your own field as your existing employees. The costs aren't even comparable.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Aeron chairs. Best. Chair. Ever.
My good looks paid for that pool, and my talent filled it with water.
camouflage
Ale and whores. (And manwhores too for those of us who like men.)
read the bunni comic
the difference between a space and an average, or just down right bad space, is the detail. Sometimes it worth paying someone to get this detail right. Like an Archititect, (the building kind) even if most programmers have read "a pattern language". The biggest hint is keep it clean and simple. Then add the human touch. Start with a clean base colour like off white (cream to grey, not biege) and colour with texture, like timber, fabric, plants. and lighting. Let the staff bring there own touches to it, with art work, lighting, music. the challange here is not to let one person dominate the space and to still have a unified image for the company. In many ways a good office will be similar to a good home. thinking about the parrallels between the rooms in a house to areas in an office can be a good start. Remember you don't need walls to divid space.
"Call us when the New age is old enough to drink" Beck
The worst work environment I've had was with the IT group of an options trading company. The entire company (something like twenty-five traders, fifteen IT, five management) worked in the same room. All one big long space, traders at one end, IT at the other. I was sort of an offshoot of the IT department, since I was a temp doing their website, and I ended up in the middle. It was the noisiest environment I've ever worked in. The traders shouted at their phone and at each other all day long, and I had an external door right next to me that people kept going in and out of, letting it cold Chicago winter air.
Having been so miserable there, I started to realize what was important to me: a personal space, with enough privacy that I can successfully ignore everything going on around me. I don't mind cubicles as long as there can still be interaction between team members. Another job I had used clusters of four cubes (especially good for teams of four) with windows in between them. The windows weren't right next to you, but if you leaned back you could talk with your neighbor. Very good for working.
Don't forget the perks though. Another job I had set all of its cubes up around a central foosball table, and there was at least one game every afternoon (though I'd prefer a pool table myself). And yet another job had nightly Quake3/Unreal matches.
Food is also key. Free drinks are a must, and free snacks help a lot too. Keep the fridge stocked with soft drinks and bottled water (and don't forget to have plenty of diet soda options -- geeks don't get much exercise you know). Keep the drawers stocked with hershey's kisses, etc. or whatever holiday-themed treats go with the times.
Sometimes give the workers a special treat! The terrible job environment with the traders wasn't the worst job experience I've had because of the perks and treats. They had the free food/soda. But the best thing was that once they held a Glenlivet whiskey tasting! Lots of fun....
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
I work in a store, but I do have some ideas about how a good office is set up. First off, I like being able to move around (based on my assignment for that day). It does give a nice feeling to the day in general. When I work at customer service, I am stuck with a few network terminals running off of an old IBM AS/400 Machine, as well as a cheap IBM PC running NT 4.0. Sometimes, when its completely dead, I want to go play a game of solitare or something. But, the system is so limited, all I can do is open up the main screen for the store. I guess my point it to not limit the computer network so much that all a person can do is their work (but limit it so that a person doesn't just play all day), and use a server with software that is less than 24 years old (no kidding, the login screen says (c) 1980!). Also make the equipment cosmetically pleasing (don't use just plain beige towers for the computers, use the black or darker towers for your systems, and if it's in the budget, get LCD displays instead of CRT's). One final thought: if it's a nice day out, maybe set up a small courtyard or something (if it's possible) and allow people to work outside over WiFi on laptops. I'm sure that it would be a morale booster to work and get some sun at the same time.
Is a small room, just for making phone calls too personel for the cube enviroment.
I didn't relize how much something like this is needed until I was going through a family crisis I didn't want anybody to no about.
Just needs a small table a phone and a chair.
that said, color is good, real plants are good, comfortable chairs, nice pictures. Free sodas go a very long way.
Speaking of chairs, find a supplier that will bring chairs in, and let the employees try them out, and pick a color. Employees are expensive, give them smething comfortable to sit so the can concentrate.
BTW, are you hiring programmers?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Employees have been known to arrive at 11 a.m. and to leave at 5 p.m. -- 18 days later."
heh, one of these days, some guy is going to get killed driving home, and his family will sue the company into dust.
I have worked in places where working 14 hour days for more then 13 days is legaly dangerous. Sleeping and working is just asking for problems.
Like crappy games and a failed company...for starters.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If everybody gets Aeron chairs you know the company just junped the shark and is going down the tube. Spiff the resume quick. And if management suggets "Herman Miller" work spaces, fight it. Futuristic looking? sure if working in a theatrical art director's vision of tomorrows' "Office Space" makes your day. There is only fabric between you and three or four others in each cluster so every phone call intrudes from the first ring to the good-bye. Your back is completely exposed to anyone to gawk at your monitor or stand in the space between the clusters and talk. Except for the "senior" people who get a reject from a windsurf sail made of cheesy thin cloth to "partition" the conferences you have with the one other person there is room for in your area, that is if they don't mind sitting on the cusioned file cabinet that serves as the other chair. Cubicle Hell? You just haven't made it to the seventh circle yet.
you need to hire a friend that claims to be a pro, pay him a ton of money to design it, make it look like every other office, split the money.
Or get them offices the fit three desks comfortably, stuff 4 desks in there and say 'the first one to complain gets the shaft'
Pocket the cash
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The cube opening will be facing the window, and the onitor will be facing the cobe entrance, so the morning or evening sun hits the monitor, making your head feel like someone is hitting it with a pickaxe.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Envision actually recommends cleaning monitors with Windex, even LCDs. Perhaps they're trying to reduce product lifetime to increase sales, but the quality of my EN-775e suggests otherwise. If they wanted the monitor to break, they would have used a less robust power button, like the one on the Nokia monitors in the lab, which is completely broken now, and will only turn on with a lot of luck.
Lisa: Dad, what's a muppet?
...so to answer your question. I don't know.
Homer: Well, it's not quite a mop, it's not quite a puppet, but man *chuckles*
Season 7, Episode 19 (3F15) "A Fish Called Selma"
Programmers need 100 square feet of space, and 30 square feet of desk space for optimal productivity. More doesn't really help. I also personally feel two monitors drastically increases efficiency, but IBM didn't make any comments on this in the 80s when they did this research.
Offices are good. Cubes are bad. If your cube walls are over 7 feet tall, they function about like walls would. (But, since you're rolling your own space, go with offices. Note that Microsoft uses offices as well.)
People need their back to a wall. Backs to the door / window = tension.
Programmers need to be able to close the door, so:
Also, programmers frequently work in small groups; this means that they're more efficient when they can talk to each other. This also works contrary to the 'doors' stuff above: Here's one suggestion I read which synthesizes all this:
Three programmer team: They get one office, 300 square feet, arranged as follows, each one has a desk, and faces out from the wall. Partitions / dividers / plants, create some privacy. This is about 200 of the square feet. The remaining is a small couch and a chair, plus a whiteboard area for those really great discussions. The whole room has a door, which will probably be mostly closed. The common area is nearest the door.
You get the idea. This space is centered around helping programmers get in the 'zone' when they need to, and helping them get quick answers from their team when they need to.
Look guys....i've got to jump in here to defend flourescents. They've gotten quite a bit better in the last 50 years and they're not all sickly blueish white with a circa 1950 magnetic ballasts. Modern Flourescents use high frequency electronic ballets with no detectible flicker, and warmer temperature bulbs are available that better approximate sunlight. You can also get fixtures with a largely vertical distibution pattern to avoid screen glare and eye fatigue.
In general in a computer based office, providing general flourescent lighting at a low light level and then brighter task ligthing at each desk is the way to go.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
I, and I'm sure many others, would agree that flourescent lighting (the standard stuff anyway) can be a pain in the ass. The artificialness and 60 Hz buzz in poorly wired rooms can lead to all sorts of strain.
For not too much more, however, you can get the office properly wired to avoid any such 60 Hz buzz. Installing "Happy-Lights" that more closely reproduce natural sunlight is a HUGE PLUS. So shop wisely for the lights and you can find some pretty relaxing spectrums that not only keep people happy inside longer, but allow them to see better as well.
Storage space, and lots of it. You can't RTFM if there's no place to keep TFM. Modular cubicles with built-in "efficient furniture" typically have one small (often non-locking) book shelf. That is utterly inadequate for technical staff.
Glare-free lighting. For me it's not how much or little light, but how it hits the screen and desk. A hot spot on the screen or a overhead light aimed at the eyeglasses is a migraine waiting to happen.
Flexible arrangement. What works for my body may not suit yours. Monitor and keyboard positions change depending on eye height, length of arms, bifocals vs. 20/20 vision, etc. Frequently used items will be arranged differently for the sin vs. dex vs. amidextrous workers. Another strike against one-size-fits-all modular furnishings.
QUIET telephone ringers, perhaps completely muted (use a "ring" light instead). You don't need to hear it from down the hall, that's why you have voice mail and a cell phone. How I miss the days of Western Electric phones, when you could stuff tissue into your neighbor's ringer and kill the stinking noise!
Single cubicles only; no double bunking. Even if you practice ExP, allow everybody some own personal space. When it's team programming time, pull up an extra chair (another real chair, not some broken-down reject from the lunch room).
Dilbert clippings hanging on every available wall. It's not a geek department without them!
All this is based on the assumption that people who don't have a clue what they're doing know that they don't have a clue. In my experience, this is usually the case. There are occasional exceptions. For them, let them get into trouble, and maybe help them out once, but after that tell them "it's your problem, unless you want to go to lock-down." Also be sure to block network access to computers that spew viruses.
Sig:Why copyright isn't a fundamental human right
1. Hot water faucet for tea, soup, etc. (microwave water - no good)
2. Refrigerator
3. Microwave
4. Citrix server - work from home or road
5. VPN
6. Stable network / computer envioroment (patch, lockdown)
7. "wall talker" whiteboards
8. Enough storage space
9. Backups - peace of mind, save your butt.
10. Offices if you can - privacy, some people work better in different lighting
11. Quiet break room with comfy chairs
12. Kitchen / common lunch area
Avoid:
Noisy equipment in common areas
Fine by me! Lighting has always been my biggest gripe too. Best just to stick you with offices that have those icky bright windows!
The day star! It feels like burning! I want my cave!
One think lacking in most all workspaces is a quiet place to get some shut-eye on your lunch break. A 30 minutes nap can do miracles in productivity and morale.
:)
Mind you, private offices with a door you can shut, lights you can turn off, windows with blinds, a couch, and "do-not-disturb" sign could do as well
I've worked at companies with private offices, I've worked at companies with sheets of plywood used to separate the work areas. In my mind there were a few things that made working a living hell (Veritas) or a trully fantastic place.
1) Give me interesting projects, challenging but not to the point of frustrating me.
2) Surround me with people who constantly keep me on my toes.
3) Don't micro-manage me, but don't let me feel forgotten.
4) Allow plants, aquariums, and other forms of life that are non-invasive to co-workers.
4) Give me my choice of monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
6) Let me set the lighting levels I'm comfortable with.
In these regards, nCube (my current employer) is absolute tops. Sequent was VERY good until IBM bought us and destroyed us. Veritas did buy me a nice keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
-michael
My office has plush chairs, small round tables, shared / unavailable power plugs, piped in music, a Barrista and a cash register: Starbucks or Borders Books. TMobile HotSpot access also gives me office space in Kinkos. Then there's the free hotspots, too.
Headphones and a surly look give me the privacy I need to code, admin, write, email, collaborate, triage, interview -- all with a supply of vittles and drinks to keep the mind sharp and heart beating.
But those chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookies are going to be the end of me.
At Borders, I have a library available to suppliment my O'Reilly Safari subscription. At Kinkos: printers, fax machines, and office supplies.
Seriously, break the lease, pick a hotspot methodology and get to work!
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Keyboards and mice are cheap, and personal. Let us get whichever ones fit us. Assume that people will get better keyboards (IBM model M!), and mice (trackballs?). For that matter you can have several connected to one computer. I haven't found a reason for two keyboards yet, but I have a mouse on either side of my keyboard, and switch hands from time to time. I'd like to try a trackball, but so far nobody is willing to buy me on. (The mouse was stolen from a 486 we threw away)
Chairs are likewise personal, though a little more expensive.
A lamp would be really nice. Or it would be really nice if they would turn off those @%&%# lights. (flourescent, but any hurt)
In my short working career, I have worked in 4 types of work environment:
1) desks crowed around a carpeted room with no windows (2 years)
2) desk spread around a concrete floor in an industrial garage (1.5 years)
3) desk-level cubicle farm (no high walls on 3 sides) (1 year)
4) my own small office with a door and a window facing downtown Boston over the Charles River
I'd rank these 4-2-3-1.
Of these, obviously #4 is the most inviting, and I really don't mind my 2-block walk to work any more. My stint to #3 included a 50-mile commute, so perhaps that jaded my low opinion of the place. The concrete garage was actually very cool (we could open both garage doors in the summer and get a helluva breeze blowing in the place). All of these places had adequate furniture to lounge or doze whenever I wanted.
For me, I'd rank the environment's qualities, in order of decreasing importance: distance, sunshine, privacy. Others may put these qualities in a different order.
So your answer is obvious. Put the worker bees in two giant rooms: one that has all desks in private cubes and another that has all desks in an open area. Both rooms should have as much natural light from windows/skylights as possible. The ones who prefer privacy can go to the cube farm, and the others can go to the community room.
I was involved in planning our building when we layed it out. While I didn't get everything the way I wanted it I was able to push some important points.
Things we did well:
1. Lots of network/phone connections. Six per cube and eight per office. These all go to a patch panel so even with an older phone system moving people is very easy.
2. Small cube groups. We have cubes grouped eight together which breaks it down to product groups for the most part. This makes communication easy.
3. Large cubes. 10' x 10' with a large work surface, lots of storage and still room for a whiteboard.
4. Labs are next to the cube group. My lab was (I'm on a new product now and have to walk) right behind me through a door. This makes it easy to go from lab to cube.
5. Large lunchroom. We use it for company wide meetings.
6. Minimal control over computers. We require a company wide virus scanner. We don't let non-engineers to install applications. Engineers have full reign over their own computers but if they break it they fix it.
Things we didn't do so well:
1. We have one large conference room and an office converted into an conference room. We can fit the entire engineering department in the large conference room but need that once every six months. However we are constantly fighting over conference rooms.
2. Not enough power. I asked for three times as many outlets as we got. We have power bars and extensions cords running all over the place.
3. Flourescent lights. 'nuff said.
4. Limited natural light. The offices are on the outside edge of the building and have windows. There's a window between the offices and the cube farm that's supposed to let in outside light but of course office dwellers close their blinds and deprive us of outside light.
5. No keycard pad at the back door. You have to have a key to get in the back door and for some unknown reason only managers get those.
6. For some unknown reason my cube is always below the AC vent. Everytime we've moved it's been that way. There needs to be better diffusion of AC. My hands get frozen at the keyboard.
Sig is on vacation
- free 'good' hot lunch on campus. This does amazing things for morale, communication, and general awareness of what is going on in the company.
- doors. cubes are a net loss. I'd estimate it would take 3 average cube workers to do the work of 2 average office workers. Even if people are in offices of two or three people.
- multiple monitors. This is probably the most cost effective way to increase coder productivity. It is unthinkable to pay someone 100k/yr and half their critical window into their workspace for pennies.
- infinite caffiene, fruit, pain relievers, breath mints, and snacks.
- bonus points for a nice campus, with park-like landscaping, fountains, fish ponds, and bell tower.
BTW, such a place actually exists, I work there (a studio in SoCal), and hope I never have to go back to cube-land.
let's be honest, this guy kinda knew what he was doing
my ideal office (kinda)
-Mikey P
This is how my perfect office would work. First of all, every employee who has a job to get done has assigned to him at least five women who prance around naked, give him massages as often as he wants, serve him cocktails, etc. Secondly, any equipment requested by any employee would be provided. Management would not be allowed to evaluate the employee's performance or his use of the equipment provided. All employees would work for a salary, but working more than four hours per day or twenty hours per week would entitle the employee to earn by the hour in addition to and separate from the salary which is being paid. All employees would earn at least $100,000 a year, and be entitled to eight weeks of paid vacation time and another eight weeks of paid sick days, plus national holidays and traditional days off. There would be no dress code, code of conduct, code of ethics, or any other rules. No employee may be fired. All employees shall receive any car of their choice as a company car, with any options they request provided, with all expenses, such as maintainance, paid by the company. Gasoline would be reimbursed to the employee. The company would not be allowed to track the use of the vehicle. All of the employee's personal expenses, such as rent, utilities, food, recreation, etc., shall be reimbursed by the company, with compound interest accruing from the date of purchase to the date of reimbursement, even if the employee deliberately holds on to the receipts for a while to accrue interest. All employees shall receive steep discounts on whatever products or services the company provides, and since that falls under the employee's personal expenses, they would be reimbursed by the company. I think that's about it, but I think I could work effectively in that kind of office.
Here ya are! Go nuts!
And the brethren went away edified.
Forget the office.
You can send me my check now - the money you just saved not wasting it on an office.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
A cubicle with ample space and the following:
1. A Peltier Chip Refrigerator/Warmer restocked daily with the employee's favorite non-alcholic beverage in caffinated and non-caffinated varieties (if possible/applicable).
2. A choice of CRT or LCD monitor.
3. A choice of Linux, FreeBSD, or Windows 2K+ workstation with:
a. Remote Access:
1) (Linux/FreeBSD) VNC Terminal Server
2) (Windows) VNC Standard Server
b. Root/Administrator permissions for employee if he or she is experienced.
c. Fast internet connection (1-2 Mbits/s+) and LAN connection (100-1000 Mbits/s+).
d. Ability to give computer an external IP (experienced users).
4. Closable Door with "Do not disturb" Sign
5. Adjustable Lighting and Desk Lamp
6. Comfortable Swivel Chair, There Should be Several to Choose From
There should be in the building a self-serve coffee bar with a real espresso machine (not the sweet stuff, it should taste like strong and thick regular coffee, ok if you don't get it go to Starbucks and order a single espresso) and a kitchenette.
ipfwadm++
where I work, we get free soda, coffee, etc. It probably only costs them a few pennies per employee, but it sure does make a difference. Plus, an addiction to caffine will make sure they stick around (the first one is always free...)
Body in a woodchipper...HA HA!
White noise is a weird thing that's actually become necessary. Some people use music (which I hate), some just have a nice baratone ventilation system. Low enough to be subconscious, amplified enough to drown out the random sounds of papers shuffling and coccyx breaking.
I might be inclined to agree with you if your comment didn't day "deathly allergic." Someone who is merely allergic, but will be plagued with congestion, sneezing, or generally feeling miserable as a result of a dog being present has a legitimate complaint, even though they aren't "deathly allergic."
We had to design a small media postproduction space with an adjoining office in a university. Three editing suites in an 18x18' room, with cabinets storing cameras and other gear, and two admin/graphics machines went into another room about 18x8'. The catch: no windows. Good for avoiding glare, bad for sanity.
Survival design tactics included an inky blue/gray colour for the editing space (to match the lacie monitors) with splashes of colour on the wall, halogen lighting for high-contrast spots, good ventilation, iso-racks to house noisy 'puters and hard drive arrays, headphones, and a good desk setup.
The office/admin area got a sunny yellow paint job, at first at the limits of what's bearable, but after all day without windows it really helps. Same high contrast lighting, some full-spectrum bulbs too. More sanity-building: agreement in musical taste before the headphones come off, and of course it helps that we're unaffected by viruses or downtime or petty frustrations, since we're using Macs for A/V work. Now we can cram 5 people into a two person space without any bloodshed.
Damn those pesky terrorists
Needs a stuffed monkey hanging on the coat hanger and a Billy Big Mouth Singing Bass fish... You can't put a price on comedy.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
The biggest thing that irritates me if fluorescent lighting.
I mean, it literally irritates me, physically. The strobing is somewhat noticeable, the tone of light is somewhat painful, and worst of all, over time it gives me a headache. My eyes will get exceedingly tired, and I'm unable to concentrate when that happens. I need me eyes to work.
I've heard that prolonged fluorescent light exposure can lead to other health complications as well, but I don't know what.
I'd strongly suggest natural lighting if at all possible, and if not, opt for low-key ambient lighting around the perimeters of the floor/wall/whatever. Also, have lighting which doesn't cast direct light, but shines light on walls or the ceiling - such as those lights-on-a-pole with the upside-down light cover (not sure what they're called). If at all possible, have natural lighting: tinted skylights, open windows.
The stress of a CRT/LCD on a person's eyes is bad enough. Don't add fluorescents.
- someone with sensitive eyes
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I personally like plants (no, not those plastic ones :( ). I don't know if the cost and maintenance is too much for real plants but I feel that they help the environment.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
I really hate my desk at work cause the monitor is recessed into the open corner of the office on the desk furniture. It makes me have to wear my glasses to see the screen and that increases my eye strain and general stess level.
Group the dark people together and the light people together.
Umm, isn't that illegal?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
When you do your buildout if you do one thicken the walls a bit or put something to help diminish the noise. Pay a few bucks more for better lighting. Not those plastic zombie lights that flicker. Good ventilation and and maybe a quiet air filter can really help out those us with allergies and anything that helps more oxygen and less dirt get through the lungs is a winner.
Privacy is a big one. I know I would be a lot more satisfied with my job if I was not in an office with no privacy. We don't even have dividers. I have to wait till everyone goes to lunch (I take a later lunch) just to have a moment of quiet. Obviously everyone can't have their own office but definitely don't overlook smaller sets of cubes. Why not put 4 cubes together in a diamond shape where everyone is at an angle from each other. This reduces the feeling of being in an egg carton.
Don't worry, I'm not proposing allowing people to bring them to work. I'm only pointing out their superiority as a household pet.
This might not have crossed your mind if you work for a larger company but here it is for all you small-time (for now) guys.
Buy your team $30 or $40 headphones but do not force any of them to listen to music you, or them, or anyone else around happens to like.
Sometimes people who think for a living actually want to _think_ without music. Other times certain types of music drive them up the the wall. My rule is no streos. Sorry but I don't care that you can't work with headphones because you're not going to distract other people who are trying to work.
Personally I work out code/data flow/etc on paper first without distractions and then listen to music while I'm typing the code.
- 52ac76c77f50b99c35530ce006059c2b
Was a fridge with an always full keg of Bridgeport IPA in it at all times. That'll make you work on the weekends...
You mentioned that your office has 40-45 people (15 engineers, 7 creative types, 15 biz dev/sales, + extras.. )
I wonder what is the common ratio between similar tasks/roles nowadays. I work on a software company with about 80 employees, and I'd say at least 50 of are engineers/developers and we have 5, max 10 people who one could consider to be sales personel and 6 creative/graphical/gui designing guys + the support, extras etc.
Are we the exception that makes the rule or what type of ratio between roles other companies have ?
You have to kill all the middle management good luck!!
...actually...our boss supplies fruit...pretty much as much as you can eat, and we always have filtered water chilled in the fridge...I love caffiene...and I've worked places that supply free cola as well...and I've gotta say, it's great working for a boss that thinks two steps ahead of me and knows that while I may work insanely long hours on caffiene, I'll still be working for him in 10 years on fruit/water.
Network bandwidth with DSL providers is getting quite good these days - why not dispense with a good chunk of the expense and telecommute ?
Kit people out with good webcam/sound, invest in appropriate setups for people at home, and if you have to make use of a serviced office for those important face to face meetings.
Ok, I know the question is, "What would be the perfect office?", so mod this as off topic if you must, but how 'bout no office or cubicle or desk-in-a-corner at all?
Am I the only guy that still dreams of working in front of his wireless laptop at home with the CD music shaking the windows? You never got the urge to get up, put on the bathrobe, and tap at the keyboard without first having to act like you know how to dress yourself and then commute 15 miles to the office? What a way to start the day...
Do we miss office politics that much? It's the only reason why you feel "out of the loop" when you're not in the office - Come on, admit it! How many managers have you ever liked let alone admired? And the few good managers (open minded, considerate, inspirational) you managed to work for generally don't last long since most of the qualities that you like aren't the same qualities that most organizations encourage, let alone put up with.
The only reason that telecommuting isn't a reality today is because the management structure in most organizations date back to when Prussia was a colonial power. Without offices and cubicles managers don't 'control' floor space. Without floor space, there isn't people 'under' you. Without all that going on, a manager would be nothing more than a receiver and coordinator for the output of others. A ticket puncher and bean counter.
The technology for remote, at home, offices has been in place for FIFTEEN years! My home office is my perfect office, IMHO.
Mod me troll, if you must, I can't help it.
for bicyle commuters (depending on climate). if you take all this advice, can I come work there?
I don't know that Aeron chairs are necessary, but decent chairs are extremely important for some people. They don't have to be that expensive; they just have to be the right shape to hold the small of your back together.
I can sit in a good chair for hours. In a bad chair, after about fifteen minutes, I have to get up every five minutes because my back hurts so much.
Saving a couple of hundred bucks on a chair and having an expensive worker in pain is not saving money!
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
You can rarely have everything, so the important issues are where I expend first - then if there's any funding left over, I add more. There are so many areas where you can do cool things, it's important to have a feeling for what gets everyone the most bang for the buck.
These are all critical, so there is no order. Some seem relatively expensive, but pay off handsomely:
- Great chairs: Let the officedwellers choose with a budget of about $1500.00 per chair.
- Great Monitors: Let the officedwellers choose with a budget of about $1500.00 per monitor. Make sure they like LCD's if you're thinking that way - not everyone does, LCD's do some strange things with antialiasing when they're not running in their native resolution. People with high acuity (20/10...20/15) will easily see this and may object quite strongly. CRTs are better for those people. Make sure they have lots of desk depth if people want large CRT monitors.
- Cell isolation. Whatever you pick, cubes, offices, etc., make sure that it is very difficult for anyone to hear anyone else. If they can't talk on the phone, play music at a low to moderate volume and have a conversation without being heard in other spaces, the office situation sucks. IMHO, no one, ever, should be forced to work in the same space as someone else unless they're the acting principals involved in making a porno.
- Get everyone a quiet, but large capacity, HEPA air cleaning system and make sure it is maintained properly. This significantly reduces the incidence of colds and asthmas, keeps dust off of and out of stuff (this is very good for computers!), and generally makes life a good deal more pleasant for everyone. One of the least expensive and most effective "nice touches" you can do for your people. Remember, though: QUIET!
- Most recent addition: If you're using PCs, NO ONE may use Internet Explorer. Get, and use, the Firefox beta, then release when it comes out. This will eliminate adware and such crap that is otherwise a huge, huge headache. Most people love it to death, too, given a decent introduction to what tabs can do for them.
This stuff definitely adds up. However, in my opinion, if the funding won't cover these issues properly, then the effort is underfunded and needs to be re-worked before one creates a serious problem.Fast computers - you pay for every second your people wait, and if they're thinking, then it is still better for the computer to be ready for them, first. Don't skimp at all. Today's machines should be 3GHZ and 2 gigs of ram for XP or Linux. There is no excuse for anything less.
Good luck, have fun.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
How about creating an atmosphere where people don't feel obliged to stay in the office for more than an average of eight hours per day.
I can't say I'm an expert on american office culture, but I used to work for a large global consulting company which brought a group of american consultants into one specific project. The americans spent endless hours in the office, but in general didn't seem to be any more productive than their European coworkers who usually limited their working hours to eight or nine per day. The extra hours just seem to go to general surfing and "hanging around" not any productive work..
"There is a terrorist behind every bush"
make sure you have table soccer in some rec. room, it allows four people to let off steam at the same time ;-)
Ever wondered whats wrong with the world? http://www.ishmael.org/
2. Look at some Feng Shui books. Even if you don't believe in some of that hocus pocus, there is still some advice in there that makes a lot of sense.
3. And finally, look at a book called "The Social Life of Information", this will tell you how information propagates through the office, and it talks about some really cool office layouts/experiments that have miserably failed in real life.
You do realize that the cost/employee of these perks is taken into account when your salary is set, don't you? They aren't free. Look at it from the employer's perspective. Your salary is only part of the total cost of your employment. Your presence incurs expenses for the company, and the total figure is what's important.
When you slurp a Mountain Dew, that's coming out of your would've-been-higher salary. When the company "matches" your contribution to your 401k plan, guess what? You're paying the "company's contribution" too! That's money that would've been part of your salary.
Perks like sodas are fine with me, but I don't ask for gratuitous amenities from employers, because I understand whose wallet will be hit to pay for them. Of course, employers aren't going to show specific deductions on each pay stub or reduce existing salaries. They want to you to think, as you say, "we value you" loud and clear. Letting you see your opportunity cost would reduce the effect on your morale.
However, your employer might cut back on raises or bonuses. They might hire fewer people and force you to do the work of two or three employees because they can't afford the personal offices, all-you-can-eat junk food, 21-inch flat screens, and ergonomic yuppie chairs for each and every employee that you claimed would improve your work performance.
And think of the savings when you don't have to spend 30-60 minutes each way each day to cram your way through freeways with insufficient automobile bandwidth.
Imagine if everyone worked at home 1 day out of 5.
Daily freeway traffic would go down 20%. (It only takes 10% to stop the accordian thing.)
gewg_
(Posting AC because he probably reads
Regardless of all the nice things you put in the office to make it a pleasant place to work, you really need to reconsider your assumption that people will be prepared to work long hours without overtime pay just because they have a nice office.
If you can't structure the work so that people have a proper balance between work and real life, you will only make people produce 'crap on time'. The creative process requires that you don't try to be creative 16 hours per day. Some of the best projects I have worked on have been those where people were kept to a standard 40 hour week.
Telecommute. If you're serious about achieving a balance between necessary productivity and staff morale, consider which roles are suitable for working from home for part/most of the week.
Sociopaths are very rarely good coders, they just think that they are. Predominately because they don't mix with enough other people to realise that they're barely mediocre. A good coding team has people that can work together and actually get on with each other; as well as being excellent programmers. Office toys like table football can help foster this kind of environment.
Dont use TL lights, they flicker. Combined with pc monitors these are the main reason people get tired eyes or feel lazy.
Use halogen instead.
Also, minimize usage of large grey objecs and walls. Randomize color usage, and put color changes in middle of the walls etc, this makes everything look much spacier.
On a side note, giving everyone something (drawing on ceiling, drawing on carpet) and give each noticable diferences. They'll mainly be used as conversation starters. Issolation is a very bad thing for (team-based) company productivity.
(mini side side note note: bad drawn but friendly / funny ones work best)
Hivemind harvest in progress..
Wow. I can't believe the cubicles described here, some of them even in good terms ("room to breathe, shoulder-high walls").
I've seen people working in such places. I've been offered positions in companies who place their programmers in such cubicles, something resembling a swine-farm.
No. No thanks.
Give me an office. Make it single. Make me choose the amount of light in it. A windows is a good idea, if I can darken it as necessary.
Free water/cola/orange juice/etc. A gym nearby.
Give me a huge desk, a big bookshelf, a good chair, a powerful PC, and then leave me alone.
I guarantee a *much* better result, for low costs.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
* Massage Girls in Bikinis
Personally, I'd prefer massage girls not in bikinis.
that if I ever open my own office, we'll have decent coasters - the thick, absorbent kind to keep beer from sopping into your keyboard if you set down your mug too heavily.
Oh, and it'll have a bar.
A good office is one that people don't have to attend all the time if they don't need to.
,home, the park, a cafe, anywhere they feel relaxed.
Make sure you have plent of remote access capability so people can work from
If you worker doesn't have to drive to the office, they've probably got an extra 45mins sleep, they'll also have a bit more time to themselfs (upto a couple of hours I suppose) so be happier and more refreshed, perfect working conditions.
25%, 75% home office split is good to start with, migrating up to 80% 20% if people get on well.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Silence is essential for good concentration. So small office room for engineers, no more than two people per room. Generally, assign the same task to both people.
Artists are often more socialisable then coders, keep them together in a bigger room.
One large room for teaming, keep regular meetings.
Also, assign sales people into two competing teams and sit them in two larger rooms.
What to do with support staff depends on your technology. If they are going out often, they should have a separate office. Keep them in good contact vith sales people.
There you are, staring at me again.
IHT has this article on low grade sadism of a bullying boss.
As far as workplace, I am one of those that can complain. Sunlight? Ability to look outside? Ability to close the door? Ahah.
I am a computer engineer currently an outsourcing IT consultant working for a major telco in Lisbon. For 10 months I have been working in a -3 basement. That means no windows, no view to the outside, no sunlight the entire day.
We have no food machine thingies, not even paying, no softdrinks, nothing, except a coffee machine that produces a dark, thick, bitter liquid that is vaguely similar to coffee. We also get free water.
I am in a room with 6-8 other consultants. We have no drawers to store personal stuff, a single telephone that is shared among us all.
There is no access to celular networks except for the telco's own network.
All guys wear suits and ties, Accenture-like, even in cases where you don't have any contact with people from "the surface", i.e., the client. The AC system is weak so you're almost always feeling too hot. Drop the suit and you'll be looked at as if you're some sort of clown.
I have a crap PC and had to beg for months so that I could get a RAM upgrade (From 128 to a whopping 256MB).
This looks like a 3rd world scenario, but this is actually one of Portugal's richest companies and their own employeers have decent installations and benefits. I've never really worked anywhere similar to this, it's almost a joke.
The worst is probably having no sunlight. It is quite confusing during the summer. And during the winter I only saw a bit of sunlight while driving here and if I went 3 levels up to have lunch.
I won't dare saying that at least "I can't get any lower than this" since at my last job I was working at a -2 basement and said precisely that.
(This is funny, but however, despite being at -2, the other office was quite decent).
To add up to all that, I have been having zero tasks lately, which adds up that painful "have nothing to do but have to be here" element to an already unpleasant environment.
Needless to say that I am looking for another job while I'm here in the mine...
I wasn't going to comment on this article, but I'm out of work at the moment, partly due to policies including internet filtering - and it was at an internet hosting company. I will mention the name; http://www.hi-tech-south.co.uk/ - its a small company with a director more suited to toilet waste management; he's a good manager, but a bad director.
/. (lunchtime anyone?); but patches, ideas, fixes, etc.
Anyhow, he decided to implement internet filtering at the company; I was a programmer (ASP, VB and SQL... bah! I'm a linux-only dude now!); and internet was essential to my work. Until it was blocked. Your employees will need to access the internet; the faster it is, the quicker they can do it! Not just for surfing
I believe that filtering has a place in some situations, as long as it is not a replacement for supervision.
Some companies still block sites. Maybe the employer does not trust or can keep track of their employees. This can make sense, but what happens when a site is blocked that is needed for work? And what about advertising? Are websites meant to not make money when being surfed by other businesses? What about at lunchtime?
This isn't the way to promote good work.
What happened when I needed to get a site that is blocked? I could contact my boss, then wait three days for anything to be done (if he's not on holiday again; wasting company profits - no wonder they're going bankrupt), then find out that the site still doesn't work, the client has been lost, all because of bad filtering. Personally, I won't stand for it in any new companies (I'm unemployed). If I need to get to a site that is blocked, and they're not willing to listen, there are more than enough ways around it. If my employer isn't happy that a navigated around the pathetic proxying, even after explaining the site is required for work, then I expect to be dismissed. If the site is for work, I'll happily hack around anything. If its not work related, then I expect to be punished.
Employers, don't disable or filter any internet access. Filtering isn't powerful enough to know what sites you need for work, and too easy to circumnavigate. If an employee doesn't need internet access, don't let them have it. But don't block random websites just because you don't trust them. If you don't think a site should be visited during work hours, then bring it up with the employee. If they continue, there are procedures that you yourselves have put in place to warn your employees. Don't lose respect for all your employees, just the ones that deserve it.
Dug
Wow. So, you're saying the receptionist will be required to install software as part of her job? The executive assistant will need to make registry changes? I call bullshit. Most users have the tools on their machine to do their jobs.
Corporate policy is set to make support more or less standardized, so that the support people can swap a broken desktop for one that works without too much of a delay, so that the people who actually do the work can stop twiddling with their desktop and just do the work.
If you trash it, you're not only wasting your own time, but the time of the people who keep the computers running. Neither of your times are "cheap".
It's analagous to saying "I'll use this shovel the way *I* know how to use it, and if it breaks, so what? Give me another shovel." ... and you'll break that one, too. Except you're talking about a ~$1500 networked shovel that requires a support staff, constant patching and updates.
I've always said as much. Anyone who was willing to learn, and to put up with the abuse of, say, users like yourself, can do this job. It's a matter of data retention, and a willingness to keep up with technology. IT is a support organization, supporting the people who make the money. Personally, I think that we should be lumped in with the Facilities people, because we essentially do the same job. No one gets promoted for keeping a building running, but they're damned if something breaks, no matter whose fault it is.
Of course, the janitor can work with the same broom for 20 years. Cleaning innovations come around rather infrequently (home cleaning aside). The facilities people don't have new wrenches that make their old ones obsolete after 6 months.
IT changes constantly. There's a new version of SoftwareCompanyWidgets, a new OS version, a new virus, a new patch, a new inconsistancy. A new client-server piece of crap that doesn't conform to any sort of standards, and screws other things up. A new set of things that won't work together.
And the janitors' and facilities' (or physical plant's) realm is fixed, for the most part. You don't expand a physical facility at the whim of the business units. You don't have buildings being added, removed, and replaced at the pace you do within an IT environment.
As for being fired and replaced, many IT people have been fired, downsized, outsourced, etc. CEO's know EXACTLY how easy it is. But there's always a cost to hiring someone new and getting them familiar with your environment and your rules. The cost of replacing employees is not usually one that a company wishes to bear.
Those offices also probably don't have any sort of data security, network security, etc. Cookie cutter machines are easy to build with ghost, jumpstart, ignite, etc. Without policies, they become nightmares to fix, because no one knows who has access to what, or what you've installed on your machine.
Most rules have REAL reasons behind them; for example, at one of the places I worked, machines have to be locked down and changed via CR due to federal regulations. Yes, users complained, but they quieted down when
It's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable. It's a lot wrong to say it's a suspension bridge.
paint the walls royal blue. i was in jail once and was first in a dorm with bright white walls. when i was moved to a dorm with blue walls i found it a bit more relaxed. i don't know how to explain it.. it made me realize the color you paint a place makes a big difference. just a thought.
Don't get those horrid desks with bevels along the edge, they're extremely uncomfortable. Furthermore, desks of the wrong height are awful; either the desk or (easier!) the chairs need to be height-adjustable. You wouldn't want your staff going down with RSI...
We already have Open Office. Why not help them make it better instead of starting a new project? Reinventing the wheel as usual, you open source people and your egos, you make me sick and...
What? Oh, nevermind...
I have a theory that there are enough dog-loving hackers out there that if I started a small business and housed it in an old run-down building with a really big fenced-in yard, and allowed my employees to bring their dogs to work with them, that I'd get top-notch coders at below-market prices, just because they'd be able to bring their dogs to work with them. Back when I was a coder, I would have bitten on that offer!
I hope that after I die the one word people use to describe me is "resurrected."
Call me a tree hugger if you will but there are a lot of things you can easily do to make the office more environmentally sound.
Provide facilities for recycling
Cans, paper, plastic cups etc. can all be deposited in seperate bins and taken to recycling facilities or collected by local authorities/charities.
Encourage people to lift-share/walk/cycle to work
In the UK there are a number of websites like this one where people can register and volunteer to lift share with others.
If you think there's any chance of getting people to cycle to work, make sure there's a safe place they can lock up their bikes.
Buy environmentally/ethically sound products
When stocking up on coffee/copier paper/whatever, spend some time looking at sites like this to ensure that you're not giving money to companies which disrespect the environment.
Party Time: Excellent
I am epileptic you insensitiive clod!!!!!!!
I'm usually comfortable at all times, so I can only relate the least comfortable job I had. I fix laptops. After a management change, the new regime (who worked previosly at an integration shop) decided that all the techs were lazy and took all of our chairs. The reason, he said, was two-fold. Mainly, he didn't want us to be comfortable because comfortable people tended to relax. Relaxation killed productivity. In addition, having a bunch of techs just sitting around didn't look professional. Needless to say, after about 2 hours of bending over a waist high desk swapping IBM ThinkPad system boards had me looking for a new job. Fast.
Amen.
I got so sick of this, I finally just started replying with a vitriolic "Fuck you!" anytime anyone told me the lights were off in my office.
After about a month people started getting the hint.
My favorite office had pink noise generators so that it was next-to-impossible to here human voices from a couple cubicles over. After some initial adjustments so we didn't need to shout at each other in conference rooms, it was a godsend vs. the normal "Corporate Accounts Payable, Nina speaking! Just a moment!" or Celine Dion.
We also each had two phone lines on the PBX. Inevitably there are times you need to make a call while awaiting an important call. It just made sense.
And before I die, I hope to work somewhere that actually gives me a cordless phone, which for reasons unknowable no executive will ever, ever allow.
Nothing else matters if you have a great chair!!!!
Maybe I just don't have the right posture, but I often lean my forearms on the edge of my desk. Desks with square edges get uncomfortable pretty quick. My desk at the university has nicely rounded edges on the desk, and it feels so much more comfortable.
Legos.
Walls of beautifully configurable Legos. Cubicles that can morph into giant robots that shoot laser beams at anyone entering my cubicle.
That and an ice cream dispensor...
Byz
I'm not sure if it's been posted yet or not.. and it's not exactly something to you do when you actually build the office building, but one of the top things that makes me not want to come to work in the morning is the dress code. I'm a techie. I shouldn't have to wear a shirt and tie, but they make me. I may have to crawl under dusty, disgusting desks. Every time I open a computer case, my tie is getting in the way. I never see the clients, only the employees. Yet the CEO of this company will not let up on the dress code.
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
"Our office will be 40-45 people (15 engineers, 7 creative types..."
Man, I hate when people make this kind of labeling.
Why the hell engineers are not considered "creative types"? Only people working with Art can be creative? And don't "creative people" have other qualifications, except this vague term?
I know plenty of engineers who are just as creative as any other creative people from other areas. And I also know lots of "creative people" who are not creative at all.
-- SouNerd.com
1)Lighting - As everyone says, no horrible glare on screens either from windows, skylights or bulbs.
:-)
2)Heating/Airconditioners - Nothing worse than being frozen or boiling every day because your neighbour has a different metabolism from you. Best place I worked for gave everyone a small personal airconditioning unit by their desk and you could adjust the temperature to whatever you liked. the area of effect was small so you didn't annoy anyone else. And no torrents of cold air drifting down from overhead to dry out and irritate your eyes while you started at the screen all day.
3) Privacy - I like an office to myself so I can think without distraction, but I understand others don't. I hate people talking about the latest soccer match or someone's wedding or inane crap about soap operas or Star Trek (is there a difference?) On the other hand some people need that level of herd behaviour to function, so I'd say a mix of offices and cubes would be good. But how do you decide the split? And how do you stop the cube people thinking the offices are elitist?
4) Drinks - I have no problem with paying for cans of Coke or whatever. What I do hate is people who get spit all over their water bottles while they drink and then jam them up against the water cooler outlets to refill them. I'd either provide individual bottles of water or ban refills from the coolers. I've got no desire to share unknown oral germs with some spotty bastard down the hall.
5) Chairs - The best and most comfortable you can get. Preferably with adjustable lumbar support. And definitely not those cheap pieces of shite with small low backs that are only adjustable to a comfortable position of you are a midget. The rest of us can only raise them to some pivot point on our spine that is guaranteed to give you permanent backache after a few days.
6) Privacy - Yep, it's good to be able to say "I love you too" to someone without the rest of your colleagues sniggering. Some of us have lives, even though it's not macho to admit it.
7) The best, fastest PCs (or Macs or whatever) for the programmers. Upgraded regularly. Heaps of memory and the biggest screens you can afford. NO SPEAKERS but get good sound cards and headphones. Good graphics cards too, for work and for after hours play. After all, if people want to hang around for games after work it's their own fault if they get caught with some extra work that just came in
In general, get rid of anything that is a DISTRACTION so you will allow the people to work without thinking about the environment at all. The only added ATTRACTION I have included above is the graphics and sound cards. And that's really only because most programmers will have those at home and will hate having to work on a machine with an inferior spec to their hobby box. If they are willing to personally pay several thousand for home computing they will see anything less at work as the company not taking the job seriously.
Troll.
Girlfriend in one corner.
Coffee machine loaded with Monsooned Malabar in the other corner.
View over town centre to watch life go by.
2 minutes walk from favourite kite flying space (the beach)
5 minutes walk from home.
Sounds like the perfect office to me I wish it was mine...
Oooops! It is my office.
To me, florescent lighted rooms look like discos full of strobe lights. Many people can't see this and don't have any clue how irritating it is to those of us who can. After an hour in most public buildings I'm ready to slit my wrists, nice lengthwise slashes.
If possible, fill the office with sunlight, hopefully with windows to a nice natural view. As I write this, I'm watching my turkeys run around the back yard. I find it relaxing and it makes me more productive. Second best are halogen or incandescent lights. If not possible, provide employees with off switches and flashlights so they can work in the dark.
Monitors with horizontal sync frequencies below 75Hz cause me the same problem. It would probably be difficult to find a new monitor that doesn't sync that high though.
http://www.marxist.com/
The one thing that comes to mind is something I use every day at 10:00am: toilet paper. The cheap bastards that run my company give us a roll of sandpaper that really does a number on my ass. You should really splurge and get the best toilet paper money can buy. Your employees will appreciate it and I would wager you will get productivity gains of over 10%.
Also, would it kill them to make the toilet stalls a little more private. I hate sitting down, ready to release, only to have someone else come in and shamelessly evacuate right next to me. I do not need to know my coworkers so well that I know what it sounds like when they crap!
was made by people who don't understand how bad long-term exposure to strip-lighting is on your eyes and mental health.
RIP OUT THOSE LONG WHITE NEON TUBES.
Best replacement is daylight.
2nd best is to have all lighting from uplighters and desk lamps with individual controls and no ceiling lights.
Best office I ever had, by far, was at a Swedish university. The highlights:
That last one actually made more of a difference than you'd think -- I ate ~3 pieces of fruit every day (instead of, say, Twinkies), so you know my energy level and health were much higher than they would otherwise have been.
Working at home, I appreciate multiple work spaces. A similar strategy can be implemented in an office. Instead of providing additional recreational spaces, give employees some choices in actual work environment. Have a cubicle where the employee can have a space of their own and store all their files and supplies. Also, provide a more lounge-like atmosphere with movable seating and adjustable tables where an employee can kick back with a laptop. Top it off with a large table for collaborative work. Even the most luxurious office space can become monotonous. Providing multiple spaces keeps the work day (or night) from getting dull.
Windows.
I want to be able to see outside, to see sunlight/weather/moonlight/whatever. No "sun-like lamp" is ever going to replace that.
-jls
Techno-pagan
Bodybilt
Having an ideal office is only part of the solution to a good working atmosphere. You can have the best office in the world, but with crappy management people are still going to be unhappy.
I hate my job because the management is always up my ass all the time. Idea: Leave the workers alone, let them do the work.
Another reason I hate my job: underpayed. In last month's Entrepreneur one of the words of wisdom from one of the top 100 companies was "Find the best people, and pay them well."
I'm sure other people have ideas on this sort of thing as well.
A co-worker had an idea that I like, but haven't yet tried. Each person would have a few items - laptop, cart with personal needs, etc. - and share generally-available things like chairs, work tables, larger computers, etc. The floorplan would be largely open, with lots of nooks, collaboration areas, a few closed offices, and tables. He preferred working that way, as a graphic designer.
I can see some limitations, but some aspects of this appeal to me. Would be difficult to surrender two computers and three monitors, though.
My horrible experience should be a warning to others...
- Only managers could get big cubicles with window seats. Therefore, the managers that did basically nothing all day could look out the window. It was, however, a blessing in disguise, since the windows were so cheap they froze and cooked you in the winter and summer, respectively.
- No internet access to the average developer. I think we all know why this is bad.
- Low cubicle walls. These allow noise pollution to surround you. And the best part is when the person that answers the incoming phone calls is in the next cubicle.
- Cheap motivational posters. We all know these are not worth the paper they are printed on, and they imply that management doesn't respect the intelligence of the employees.
- The printer (notice that *printer* is singular)being located on the other side of the building.
- Cubicles are an adequate way of dividing up office space, but if you are going to put > 1 person in a cube, let those people agree on thier cubemate. Nothing is worse than spending 8+ hours a day with a person you cannot stand. Notice I didn't say to allow people to choose cubemates, but approve them.
I for one welcome our new [insert main topic] overlords.
I have worked in so many different types of environments it is kind of scary... One of the benefits of working contract... If you are Extremem Programming: having a central location, open cubes or simple dividers, and lots of space are great. People can be far enough away from eachother that the constand typing on the keyboard won't bother them, but close enough to holler over their shoulder to have someone fix a broken piece of code. If you are into Traditional Programming: Having offices with one, but no more than two people inside is nice, still keeping space, but allowing for more privacy with a door. Lab type environments are nice, if there is enough space... Space is a big issue. Some places cram you into a tiny cube 5x5, or pack in 10 people into a small room, almost shoulder to shoulder...neither of these situations are great. Having a desk is fine, or a bench with shelves...SOMETHING that you can call "home", but up pictures, decorate, etc...and it MUST have a locking filecabinet or overhead...for stuff you don't want to go missing. Windows, LOTS of windows...NATURAL lighting (Ott lights help too)... Don't forget, a central game server inside so you can let off steam...load it with a variety of games, we like choices...
--E--
Please use beige or gray. I've worked in two places with "modern" decor and it makes me ill.
No one loves beige and gray, but anything you pick that someone does love will be hated by just as many.
-Peter
PS: Avocado, blue, and orange do not look nice together. Uncomfortable, bright red chairs are inferior to comfortable gray ones.
-P
-
Most people won't fill their machines with bullshit. And the ones that do are pretty easy to detect, and those are the ones you can lock down.
Sorry, but in the years I've been a Sysadmin I've learned that the above is blatantly, totally false. The vast MAJORITY of users, even highly intelligent and technical users WILL install crap on their work computers. Why? Hell if I know, but I suspect there a bit of an attitude of "oh it's not my machine, so it's no big deal". My in this case meaning personally owning it.At the last place I worked we started gradually phasing in locked-down systems with users having no software install rights. Yes there was much grumbling and complaining at first, then something amazing happened. Those same complainers discovered they weren't having to call me to fix something on their machine every day, that they could leave the systems on (password protected of course) overnight and they'd still work fine the next day, etc. In fact user productivity soared and the complaints went completely away. I was accomodating and would install any reasonable software (within policy and security reason) for folks so that helped. I think a lot of the users found they really didn't NEED crap like Gator, etc.
One last thing to note, our viral/trojan problem on the systems that were locked down went from weekly (or daily on some machines) to non-existant. We kept them patched regularly, but the number one factor was that users didn't have the rights to infect themselves from E-mail worms. I already knew who the offenders were, but this proved who they were. :)
Unfortunately, the people who need the locked down system are the ones who don't know any better....
Talking to folks *is* the best way to find out what their needs are -- but they won't always tell you directly.
In my experience, people are very happy when the machine helps them do their job -- and annoyed when the machine hinders. The job of the sysadmin is to make sure that the computer is a tool that they can use rather than a problem.
With appropriate support infrastructure at home, of course.
A friend's company spent a lot for quality Herman Miller chairs, then saved on the tables - they used cheap, foldable picnic style tables. The rationionale being that the chair is more critical to the programmers comfort. it worked.
Every desk I sit at is just a bit wrong for arranging keyboard and mouse comfortably. The desk is too high, the chair armrests are too high or too low, the chair height is wrong, or there's just not enough space on the desk for keyboard/mouse/papers/pens/phone etc. Put the keyboard and mouse on the chair armrests and make the height adjustable. Productivity goes through the roof when you're not constantly shifting stuff around trying to make typing/mousing comfy.
Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.
Hahahaha You fail it!
All worked up because you install Gator on your goddamned pee-cee...
L0lz!
Yes. Fluorescent lighting doesn't have to be the worst thing in the world. Good lamps and good ballasts make a lot of difference. For lamps, I prefer either "natural" or "daylight" phosphors. Natural is best if color recognition is important, and it makes most things look pleasant. Daylight phosphors simulate outdoor skylight, so they appear very blue compared to warm white or cool white. Daylight phosphors are particularly nice in spaces far from windows. Electronic ballasts are very important. They don't operate at 60Hz, so they don't beat against monitor refresh rates. You can also get electronic T-8 ballasts that save about 20% on your electric bill (and make 20% less heat). Also, with electronic ballasts you can remove lamps to customize illumination in an area -- they don't have to be installed in fixtures in pairs. And please, give 'em a freakin' thermostat to argue about.
I am not a crackpot.
Our R&D office, where all the developers are, is about 4hrs by train away from QA/Marketing. That seperation is really REALLY good. It means a real buffer from their demands. They can't decide to walk past our desks 5 times a day bugging us.
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
Constantine "Peopleware Papers" is also a MUST READ! (A previous volume of similar content was Constantine "On Peopleware".)
Private offices, natural light, fresh air, enough space, and doors to shut out distractions, are all essential for doing "imersive" work such as software development. But, technical work also involves a lot of collaboration. So provide extra chairs, and enough space at each desk so that two or three people can work together. Provide enough common spaces so that small meetings can occur naturally.
Pleasant suroundings, with natural light, fresh air, low noise levels, privacy, all contribute to hiring, retention, and productivity of talented people. Good chairs and ergonomic accessories are also necessary, and should suit the individual person.
Technical aspects of the space, such as electrical power, network access, and coffee are also necessary, obviously. But no amount of that stuff can make up for unpleasant surroundings.
A nice common room with comfy sofas! A Fiesta on some days is a MUST! even if its a 30-40 min relax! This HAS increased post-noon productivity (coding) at our office. No i aint from Italy nor do i work in an Italian comapny;)
I can deal with a lot of adverse conditions as a developer but there is one thing most companies I have worked for don't seem to understand. As a coder, I spend 8-14 hours a day in front of the computer and while I don't mind dropping money on a decent keyboard ($100 will get a good one) I don't want to drop $1000 on a 21" monitor. I don't even care about an LCD, I would just like enough screen realestate to be able to read multiple files next to one another or see a complete code block without having to scroll.
You'd be surprised how much a bad screen resolution will cost you in wasted hand movement between page-up/downs or mouse scrollbar adjustment.
For some reason, the management types that only use email and word processing don't think 1600x1200 is a worthwhile investment. I, however, find it the minimum workable resolution.
Are you hiring?
--
E_NOSIG
I am the sysadmin for a small business in St. Louis, MO. There are about 30 people using the computers. Many of the users are not computer competent...which means that Spybot has to be run daily. Also, we have users who hate me, the sysadmin; so we have to have On Guard (a desktop lockdown program) and InterGate (a firewall and content filtering program) to keep these users from severly messing up the computers. With programmers, some control should go to them; e.g. display settings, etc. But content filtering must be in place...you can get sued if a user of your Internet connection does something that may leave you liable.
Tents would be good for morale--they convey a feeling of informality. They are translucent, so they let in ambient light (and can, of course, be lit from within if that's your preference). Tents come in many colors, so there's variety, instead of the monotony of cubes or offices.
Yes, the fabric has to be flameproof. You'd have to get the kind with "windows" or ventilation would be a problem. (Then again, the guy in the next tent who never bathes could be forced to hermetically seal his tent.) The fabric would help deaden sound, but wouldn't be soundproof of course.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
Some people might find that annoying. I had a deaf friend some years ago with a poorly trained assistance dog who also barked (a ridiculous oversight on the part of the training organization) at the door and would run at visitors when their body language indicated they wanted to communicate with the owner. I understood what was going on; the dog was just focusing attention on me so that the owner would know I was trying to communicate. Nevertheless, some people found the animal annoying and refused to visit this woman for that reason.
To them, I say the same thing I said to myself at the time. "Suck it up." I was being over-sensitive and that woman's need for that dog outweighs my right to be undisturbed.
The first time an employee comes to you (as the head nerd, whether officially or unofficially) and says "my computer is screwed up", and you go and find a machine so filled with crap, fluff, and outright dangerous bullshit--that's when you lock down the machines.
I'm doing that now, because I don't have the time to fix people's machines when they've downloaded "cool new cursors", or whatever, and now their machine runs like a dog.
P.S. Training is not the answer, because the question they ask is not, "Will this hurt my machine," it's "Well, if it screws up, I'll just call for Bob--he'll fix it." You can threaten, cajole and wheedle all you want. The lure of a rotating Dale Earnhardt "3" cursor and a dancing alien on top of the Taskbar will overrule you every time.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
I'm all for electronic (I think some call them digital) ballasts. I'm blind as a bat and have to have my refresh rate set to 72 or 75Hz, because if I don't, I'll have a migraine in about 15 minutes. I mainly do the DBA and networking thing, but I do some coding on small projects, and nothing is more distracting than a headache or migraine when a dealine is due. As far as LCDs go, I sure hope they are better than the screen on my laptop...I can barely make out the difference between light yellow and white.
"It's a dog eat dog world out there, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear."- Norm (from Cheers)
I have personally masturbated in cubes in the middle of the work day. You just have to know how to use the privacy you have.
Different systems definitely, I was posting too fast.
This is not a political statement. This is not legal advice. It's a frick'n Slasdot post. However: I'm Running For
Don't waste time with network cables...
Wi-Fi.
Make the network wireless.
I'm English, as are many slashdotters, so your intervention is presumptuous.
Additionally, you're wrong: 'whilst' has a slight connotation of either/or, whereas 'while' doesn't, especially. Substitute 'whilst' and 'while' for 'whereas' in the previous sentence to see this for yourself.
Wikileaks, no DNS
I used to work for a very big international investement bank (left because i was unlucky enough to work under really asshole VP who unfortunately was the darling of his superior MD - thus, couldn't even transfer to another team easily).
:)
:(
;)
Other than that unlucky circumstance, we had a pretty decent office, all things considering:
> We have free soda
Not avialable there, but I'm old enough to wise up and not drink too much soda in the first place.
If I want sweet caffeinated drink, I get tea with sugar
> We have a free coffee machine (Beans, not instant-mud)
Near-Check. Uber-useful perfect coffee machine which, most importantly, made hot water, hot chocolate and TEA. You may find this breakage from stereotype hard to believe, but we CONSISTENTLY, for years, ran out of tea packets 10x faster than of coffee ones.
> We have kitchen facilities,
Not sure how good they were, but having a reasonably clean microwave, a fridge with milk, and a sink with dishwashing soap is about all I ever would need. If only building management didn't hire illegal mexicans to clean it who wipe the counter and mirowave with the same dirty cloth they use to clean the dirt off other places
> We have a pool table, a dart board and "ping-pong"
OK, didn't have that, but to be perfectly honest, I don't find that very helpful. I want to play PP with my wife or friends, not my coworkers.
Now, an *IDEAL* office would have a swimming pool. But I doubt any do.
> We have an open office, two desks together, loosely couple by project.
OK, not bad, but I find cubicles of sufficient size and decent wall height a good enouh thing... I'm lucky in that I am not very distracted by sounds.
> Everyone has the same style chair.
Check.
> There is a non intrusive radio playing all day.
Absolutely bad idea IMHO.
Every radio station will have people who hate it.
Now, having an official policy which lets you listen to whatever you want in headphones, that'd be ideal.
> Directors sit in a "fish bowl" (Out of the kitchen as it were)
Isn't that how it is in any larg-ish company?
> Everyone has a PC that is capable of doing their job.
Check
> Everyone has VMWare too
Mostly check, although our policies at tiems were weird - like having to jumpthrough major hoops to get Exceed.
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
One important thing is that some of the "ideal" things involve policies, not only material elements.
:(
~~
A) OK, first the workplace environment itself.
1) CLIMATE. I can live with bad light (as long as desk lamp can compensate. I can live with noisy neighbours (see #3). I can NOT at all be productive in a cold area. My brain freezes. My body is unfomortable and distracting me from work. Most importantly, I catch colds.
2) A lot of people mentione lighting. It is important, but I don't know enough about it to actually offer suggestions.
3) A clear policy allowing for use of headphones to listen to whatever you want to. This has omre than one benefit:
- Most importantly, headphones cancel outside noise. Thus, any expenses on having to build soundproof offices are not needed as much.
- Also, I'm more productive when listening to music. But I HATE being subjected to sounds I don't like (other people's music choice, news I hate, etc...).
4) Decent monitor. Don't even need to say anything more. I never worked on a dual-monitor setup so not sure if taht's even better than one big one, but could be.
5) Of course, ideal space would be a door-ed office, but in the imperfect world I find cubicles of sufficient size and decent wall height a good enouh thing... I'm lucky in that I am not very distracted by sounds, especially if #3 is implemented (headphone policy).
6) Decent chairs. Very important.
7) Keyboard/mouse palm rests.
~~
B) Now, for around-work environment:
1) Cheapest but among the most comfortable:
A good coffee machine which, most importantly, made hot water and, even better, TEA.
You may find this breakage from stereotype hard to believe, but in my former job we CONSISTENTLY, for years, ran out of tea packets 10x faster than of coffee ones.
2) Kitchen facilities: having a reasonably clean microwave, a fridge with milk, and a sink with dishwashing soap is about all I ever would ask for. Important part is: have it clean. By someone oter than illegal mexicans who wipe the counter and microwave with the same dirty cloth they use to clean the dirt off other places
3) This is from the uber-ideal department:
Swimming pool. Not necessarily in the office, but a free membership to a GOOD pool nearby.
I don't need or want pool/ping-pong/etc... team relaxation. I don't need a gym. I DO think that swimming is the best ever form of relaxing your mind and body.
~~
C) Computer policies:
Too obvious where there is concensus and too divergent where there isn't one to list anything useful as advice.
One thing I will say though: having e-mail archival policy on Echange server SUCKS ASS.
It may save storage space a bit. But it definitely, absolutely kills productivity.
-DVK
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
Yes. http://open.nit.ca Canada.
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.