Large Tech Companies Moving Beyond the Cubicle

statemachine writes in with a story from Silicon Valley about how Intel and Cisco, among other companies, are experimenting with cubeless, open, and unassigned seating. "Beginning this month, [Intel] will set up three experimental work sites. Open areas, comfortable armchairs, extra conference rooms and tables where people can plop down with laptops will replace the ubiquitous cubes that have been standard issue for decades. Each morning, Intel employees will log onto the corporate network using wireless connections. Their phone numbers will follow them. White boards that employees use to sketch out business plans and project strategies will be outfitted with electronics so drawings and plans can be transferred to laptops and e-mailed to colleagues. 'People feel much more comfortable coming up to me. It's more of a friendly atmosphere,' Cisco senior manager Ted Baumuller said. 'I hope I never have to go back to cubes.'"

Comments

What about personal things

[WetCat]

like books, personal items, photos, etc?

Re:What about personal things

[tommasz]

Exactly. I've seen the "no assigned seating" idea applied to tech support people and they were all miserable. The rules included no personal effects allowed so many of them carried a floppy with pictures of their family that they would load into whatever computer they were assigned and display on the desktop or in a screensaver. I think there's something fundamental about having a space of your own, no matter how small or humble, and I wonder how long this will last before people start claiming a particular place.

Re:What about personal things

[kevin_conaway]

You can look at people while you're talking to them several cubes away without getting up

And what about the the people occupying those cubes in between you and the person you're talking to?

Don't kid yourselves, it's all about costs

[cerberusss]

Open areas (...) will replace the ubiquitous cubes

Yes, great! And we will need less office space! Isn't it great!?

Don't kid yourselves, this is just about some PHB wanting to save on office space, cramming yet another dozen workers in the same space.

Re:Don't kid yourselves, it's all about costs

[Red Flayer]

Not just about better utilization of space. Also about better productivity. FTA:

Productivity also is up, said Larry Matarazzi, Cisco's senior director of workplace resources. Ted Baumuller, a senior manager in Cisco's information technology department, agrees. He said the time it takes to make decisions has been cut by 25 to 30 percent because it's easier to round up the team, and collegial relationships have improved by working in a more open environment.

It's a double win for mgmt. As stated in the article, they can redesign to have more conference rooms, they can add more staff to the same location -- and they also get productivity enhancement.

Still, I'm not sure why you view this so negatively, or have such bad feelings towards management. I've worked in open floor plans when my role was conducive to it (requiring lots of interaction, etc). Now my role is much more autonomous, and I really need uninterrupted time to get my time-sensitive work done (hence relishing office privacy and coming to work at 6 AM). My experience with unassigned floor plans was that I got more accomplished, and thus felt better about my work -- AND I enjoyed better relationships with my coworkers. The downside was inhibited ability to hunker down and cram out work -- this was solved by setting aside a portion of the office as a DND area. Except for real emergencies, DND was observed by everyone.

Management != Techies

[AceJohnny]

So the senior manager is happy with the arrangement? Great. Guess what: that kind of guy deals with people all day long. It makes sense to make it easier for him to interact with people.
But not for me. I'm a hardcore techie. I spend days not interacting with people, fighting with the code, and I need my concentration. Every time I get interrupted, I need about 20 minutes to get back to work properly.
Yep, I'm in a cubicle. I hear everything that happens around me, and maybe I'm just not good enough to blank it out. I regularly have to reserve meeting rooms just to have a little peace and quiet to be able to think.

Yeah, I'm mad because my request for noise-isolating headphones was turned down. Does it show?

So we get to implement Snow Crash's Office Plan

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds like the office plan from Snow Crash, where you weren't assigned a desk, and you demonstrated your loyalty by where you sat; determined by when you arrived in the morning.

Contrast that with Joel's Software, where each person gets his/her own office with a window, read what he says about it and how it improves productivity. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html

Perfect

[moosesocks]

Whenever I go to work, I typically sit thinking to myself for several minutes.... "How could this be made more like cheap air travel?

I am glad to see that Intel has now answered that call.

Re:Backward Tech Companies

[AaronLawrence]

Normally the open plan offices translate into qualitative benefits in the company (people are happier, more collaborative, less secretive etc...).

Oh really? And that applies to software development as well does it? And it means more productivity as well, right - of course many people are happy to sit in a big open office and chat all day, but do they get more work done?

Joel believes it's all rubbish and private offices are much more productive. Personally, I have seen exactly the same thing. When I started at my current job we all were in one room. It was very sociable and we all agreed on what to do ... for every. Single. Task. Amazingly our boss noticed this and deliberately gave us separate offices, and this seems a lot better. You can still go and chat to people, but you don't involve everyone just to talk to one guy, and when people need to concentrate they can.

Frankly, those studies are either not applicable or just missing the point.

Re:Backward Tech Companies

[CommandNotFound]

Also, didn't the early productivity studies regarding lighting show that productivity went because of the study itself? Wikipedia is down, so I can't link it, but if I recall, they changed the lighting, and productivity went up 15%. They changed the lighting back, and productivity still went up 15%. They determined that people worked harder because of the study.