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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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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?"
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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
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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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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
...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.
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
The only solution is an intravenous caffeine drip system. This keeps them literally chained to their desks. Coffee, sodas, and water should also be prohibited unless the employees have unusually large bladders.
-The Management
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)
- 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.
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
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
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. ..."
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. -
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!
Visio is an MS product?
Visio, much like evil, was bought out by MS.
- 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
worker friendly - long hours. Surely you must see the inherent contradiction?
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.
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.
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.
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?
+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.
nothing like slammin' a push shot to make your day a little brighter.
I suggest the first place to cut would be the bikinis for the massage girls.
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.
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
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
Bart: What's a muppet?
Homer: Well son, it's not quite a mop... and it's not quite a puppet, but boyyyyyyyy ah ha ha ha.......... *pause* to tell you the truth I don't know
...and that's all there is to it.
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.
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 speak with the authority of one who once had such a thing, and now cannot even see a window.
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.
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....?
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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 ?
...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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
"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
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
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.
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.
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.