Tech's Top 10 Workspaces

theodp writes "Looking to escape your Initech-like surroundings with your next job? Valleywag has culled its picks for Tech's Top 10 Workspaces from Office Snapshots, where you'll find plenty of other Best-Places-to-Work contenders. So how does your Cubicle measure up to the competition?" Pixar, Netflix, and other places. Makes the Slashdot Fortress look like a hovel even though we replaced the dirt floors last month.

Comments

In bed

[Anonymous Coward]

with the real doll, eating a sandwich playing wii....

Re:In bed

[pla]

with the real doll, eating a sandwich playing wii....

Uh, mods? RFTA before casting people into the pit.

The parent post doesn't count as OT (or a troll)... I saw pretty much the same sidebar ads when I visited the page.

Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Nursie]

look like the Six Apart place, only less well decorated. I hate cube farms and am glad they're not the fashion in the UK. Open Plan for the win.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[pla]

Open Plan for the win.

Ugh, I don't like cubicles much, but I loathe "Open" designs.

They work well in living spaces where you feel safe and comfortable, and make optimal use of soft lighting to relax.

In an office environment, I want by back to a nice solid wall, only one easy approach vector to my side of the desk, a comfy chair, and a coffee pot. Outside that, I really don't care (though the fewer old-style fluorescent light tubes - Up to and including "total darkness" - the better).

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[SirSlud]

Count me out for Open Designs.

They work well if you're ten people. They feel like sweatshops when you're 80. They're loud, lack privacy, and its too easy for people to yell across the room or walk up to your desk instead of forcing them to think about whether they really need to initiate the communication in the first place or if its something they can figure out/live without in the first place.

Open Concepts are music to a companies' ears. They're cheap as hell. Designers/artists/loud people love them. But engineers who can't do math while listening to music on headphones rightfully hate them.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Chelloveck]

I agree. I hate big, open floorplans. I'm not a huge fan of cubicles either, but at least they give some degree of privacy and isolation. A big open space just has too many distractions for me. People walking by, conversations I'm not interested in, etc.

I've worked at Initech (except we called it "Motorola"). I've worked in a private office with real walls and a real door. I've worked in a big bullpen. For me, the best environment is working in a real office (with a door and walls all the way to the ceiling) with about four other people who are working on the same project. We can have relevant work conversations without having to all pack up and move to a conference room, and without having to hear the guys next door who are working on something else.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Trespass]

Count me out for Open Designs.

They work well if you're ten people. They feel like sweatshops when you're 80. They're loud, lack privacy, and its too easy for people to yell across the room or walk up to your desk instead of forcing them to think about whether they really need to initiate the communication in the first place or if its something they can figure out/live without in the first place.

Open Concepts are music to a companies' ears. They're cheap as hell. Designers/artists/loud people love them. But engineers who can't do math while listening to music on headphones rightfully hate them. Not all artists love them.

Doing concept art and trying to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the piece you're working on is much harder if you're surrounded by noisy solipsists.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a big grad student office. As other people have noted, the problem is noise and distraction. On a side note, it looks like Aeron chairs are not very good for posture.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Beardo the Bearded]

Where I work:

In a garage. It's 24' x 24'.

With 2-3 other people.

There's a lathe and a milling machine, which are often on when I'm working. I have to wear earplugs.

I have one 17" CRT monitor.

There's no toilet. Just a porta-potty.

There are, of course, no workout facilities, beer kegs, etc. There's a fridge and a microwave.

And yes, I'm writing code.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[MikeS2k]

I work as an IT technician/PFY in a School, which is pretty cool
My "office" is an ex-toilet converted into a storage cupboard with a desk, but since I spend about 15% of my day there it doesn't bother me too much

the rest of it is walking around the school or "waiting for machines to rebuild" :)
and 8am-4pm with a 15 minute commute isn't too bad either :)

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Anonymous Coward]

Here here.. nothing sucks more than trying to write code or concentrate while having to listen to your neighbor bicker with his/her boy/girlfriend, mother, uncle, boss, coworker (insert favorite distraction).

This open plan bullsh!t is just another great way for management to claim cutesy design kudos whilst making your workplace feel and function like a Chinese apparel sweatshop.

If a private (quiet) work space is not in the offering when I talk to an employer I won't even bother with the interview. These plans are also proven to lower programmers productivity and increase workplace tension. Nice top 10 you morons.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[marafa]

gasp you worked in an office?
i work in a 2m by 4m room. my table is 3m long and i share it with someone else. there are 5 working spots but in a crisis we can cram 7 with laptops. this number does not include spectators of course.
a crisis occurs roughly once a month. which is always one time too many for our nervous systems
my office is underground. in winter i dont get to see the sun. the rats and insects that live in false ceiling made of asbestos make noises as they scuttle around the tiles. but they don;t go near the vodafone (mobile) booster 2m away from my head.
i just recently discovered the consultant who did the hvac to the basement (yes, thats where i work) introduced the fresh air duct into the level and then stopped at that first room.
and no, the data center in the next room isnt too loud really. although, i wish this ringing in my ear would stop.
but what really bugs me are the insenstive clods who make me breath in second hand smoke.
hmm.. wonder if the intelligence guys are reading this .. tahiya ya masr!

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[DesScorp]

look like the Six Apart place, only less well decorated. I hate cube farms and am glad they're not the fashion in the UK. Open Plan for the win. As far as I'm concerned, most "open" workspaces are nothing but a variance on the cubicle model. I count myself very lucky indeed to have an office and that I never had to do time in a cubicle myself. And knowing too many people that had (and still have to) work in that kind of set up, "doing time" is exactly what I consider it.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Opportunist]

So? I work in a tiny room, 2x3 meters, with no light from outside, just a neon lamp with its hard, cold light, dirty walls, litter everywhere and it's smelly as hell.

Being self employed really sucks.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[SanityInAnarchy]

I pretty much have to agree, at least on the theory -- small, open spaces for people working on at least related projects.

Imagine developing a client and a server. They are going to be done by different people, because they are almost necessarily in completely different languages, for completely different platforms, and each is doing a lot in its own right.

First time around, before I worked there, they had to work with a large corporation -- the corporation was doing the server, and they had us do the client. Now, part of this might be that they sucked -- they couldn't even produce valid XML -- but I suspect part of it was also the lack of communication between the two teams.

As in, we'd pretty much get nothing from them until they had a server up. And then we'd have to go tell them to change it -- as nicely as possible -- because we really kind of need valid XML.

There's such a thing as too much communication, but there's something to be said for working in the same room with the guy doing the server. Second time around actually went very, very well, until that business model imploded.

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[ceoyoyo]

I used to take my notebook down to the zoo and sit by the gorilla enclosure. How's that for an open plan?

Re:Ours look like the Six Apart place

[Beardo the Bearded]

Heh.

The point wasn't to lament my conditions, rather to point out that there are a lot of pompous prima donnas out there. "I must have 3 widescreen monitors, or else I can't work. And green M&Ms."

My first office was an old storage closet - 4 x 10 feet, with a window to the hallway. If you had the door open, the window was blocked.

PC Load Letter?! WTF does that mean?

[imyy4u2]

Or, if you prefer...

"Time for me to show her my 'O' face. Oh! Oh!"

I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[oodaloop]

Most of those office spaces look cool and hip, but not very comfortable, productive, or private. Sitting in a windowsill with a laptop looks like fun for about 5 minutes.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[statemachine]

Open spaces are for companies that don't want to spend money.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[bestinshow]

Hey, I have a desk looking out of a window. This is apparently the office dream, to get an office or cubicle with a window.

The sun is shining through and the heat is getting absorbed by the monitors, which make noises as they expand. I burned my hand almost yesterday when I left my mouse sitting in the sunlight.

In addition, the screens are really hard to read when the light is shining through onto the desk.

And it's an open plan office room (4 people), so I can't rearrange.

If I pull the blind down, it just makes it worse, because the blind is white, it just acts as a giant back light. Yay.

No air conditioning either, because it's the UK. However I suspect that we'll demand that soon.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[VeNoM0619]

No kidding, those pictures are just "colorful" at best. Definitely wouldn't be a dream for any person who deals with computers most of the day. Wheres the big screens? Where's the DUAL(+) monitors (okay, there was 1 pic with them, but they were facing away)?!

I would like to think multiple monitors would be about the best thing, in fact... it's what keeps me happy at my job. Browse slashdot and code.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[Corf]

They moved me to my department's sole window cube a few months ago -- two cube walls and huge window makes the third. It faces north, so the sun never shines on my stuff, but it's got an HVAC unit right under it, so I control how warm or cold it gets.

It faces Discovery Communications HQ with a cluster of nice trees in the foreground.

Window FTW.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[Rub1cnt]

Give me an office in a modular building next to a stockyard full of volatile chemicals any day! (Yes, my office is next to a stockyard of volatile chemicals that explode at room temperature....in Texas.) feature request: dual thermostats so I can freeze out the cold natured people around me.)

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[CastrTroy]

I have 3 monitors on my desk right now. I'd rather have two smaller monitors (17 inch) than 1 larger display.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[Mab_Mass]

Well, at least you don't have to sit in my cubicle.

(It was like this when I came back from vacation.)

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't want to work in those either. I'd much rather have my office. It might not be as modern as the ones in the article, but all our offices have only two people and one of my walls is a floor to ceiling window with a view of the ocean. Best part is my office mate doesn't have an 'inoffice' job so he is here maybe four hours a week.

Re:I'll keep my desk thankyouverymuch

[bestinshow]

Looks nice and insulated! Also you can burrow down and pretend to be away if the boss walks by!

they forgot the best place to work....

[archkittens]

Dont forget Cisco

Far too 'modern'

[IndustrialComplex]

Those listed are far too modern for my taste. My office hasn't changed much since this building used to be owned by IBM, but I can't help but wonder if in 40 years these unique offices don't seem hopelessly outdated. Till then, my generic flat surface works pretty well for my general office like tasks. My company gives me the option to work a bit from home, so I can implement my own personal style there.

I've tried to work in a few of the more avant garde spaces that some companies try to set up, it's hard to compete with what already 'works'. Too often I find that the curvy chair just doesn't feel as comfortable for over 10 minutes, and that the stylish workspace simply doesn't have enough space to work. And then, you still have the problem that you are working in a space designed by someone else. It won't fit anyone, and when you are dealing with something so unique, the minor annoyances end up feeling 10x worse.

At home, I can design my office to be exactly what I want in my office. It is perfect for the individual using it.

Now, that isn't to say that many of these places couldn't do with some colors other than grey and beige, but in my opinion a great workspace is the one that you barely notice when trying to do your work. My office may be grey and beige, but the facilities people here have created a beautiful nature trail that is designed to be used for a calm walk through a valley near the buildings.

It is simple, and doesn't try to force any of the employees into what almost feels like a lifestyle themed apartment instead of an office. It works great if it is your apartment, but what happens when you don't like the owner's taste in decoration?

Re:Far too 'modern'

[Ihmhi]

I think smart employers would treat their lower level employees like their mid to higher level ones (i.e. design your own office). Even if it was just to bring in your own furniture, I think there might be too many places out there that have a "take it as it is and don't touch it" attitude with their office space.

Re:Far too 'modern'

[IndustrialComplex]

The biggest talk in the office was when they started distributing 24" LCDs to all employees. Many of us now have two displays, I keep one aligned to read documents, and the other is my 'scratch' working display.

Although, when someone was testing a video teleconference system he had a 50" plasma display in his cube. He was in the bowels of the building, so one day when he was out we put a video camera in one of our windows and set it up as a participant. When he came back from his trip, he suddenly had a cube with a 'view'. :)

Re:Far too 'modern'

[AndGodSed]

Yeah.

One thing that I would put in my own office is one of those classic couches you see in Shrinks offices. Currently I work from home and my favorite place is on the bed with my laptop.

Sometimes I work on the PC at a desk, and the bed is my absolute fav.

Since a bed in an office would be a nono (unless you have very specific plans for it) one of those couches would be good to work on.

And I have little use for a desk - except when working on a desktop PC from time to time - because I have achieved the paperless office dream. Only time I use paper is when someone else insists I print something out for them.

I have no fax machine, and if anyone wants to send me something I insist on e-mail. Bills sent in the mail are a different matter, some companies insist on sending snailmail to me, but almost all of that is not work related.

Paperless office is a reality if you work a bit on it.

Re:Far too 'modern'

[superflippy]

My office may be grey and beige, but the facilities people here have created a beautiful nature trail that is designed to be used for a calm walk through a valley near the buildings.

You don't happen to work at GE Plastics in Chicago, do you? I visited that office once and was impressed by how they imbued the typical, cubicled office with a zen-like atmosphere. It was subtle touches - the prints used for the carpets and cubicle walls, high ceilings, strategically placed windows - that made all the difference. I felt like I was in an "earth-tone" office rather than a beige and gray one.

GE Plastics in Charlotte, on the other hand, had probably the dreariest office I've ever visited. Unbroken swaths of gray carpet and cubicles, windowless beige walls without a single decoration, overhead fluorescents - it felt more like a prison than an office.

Re:Far too 'modern'

[TheMCP]

In some states it's illegal to use furniture made for home use in a workplace, unless the workplace is actually in a home.

So much for taste ...

[trolltalk.com]

They like right angles and clean surfaces at Austin-based interactive agency Tocquigny's offices. We do too.

The place looks COLD! Who designed it? The same guy who did Blade Runner's interiors?

6 apart still has mostly a cubicle-world look; the "oh gee we have a place to stash your bicycle, and a couch!" don't change that. It takes more than a few "exposed brick" walls to "give character."

Pixar looks interesting - but how come everyone chooses couches that don't look like they'd be all that comfy to SIT IN???

I don't know - they still all look awfully "corporate".

Re:So much for taste ...

[Surlyboi]

The average PHB would probably say something along the lines of "You don't use couches that are comfy to sit in because you don't want people lounging in them when they could be working."

Kinda makes sense, I know I'd pass the hell out on a comfy couch.

Re:So much for taste ...

[trolltalk.com]

The average PHB would probably say something along the lines of "You don't use couches that are comfy to sit in because you don't want people lounging in them when they could be working."

Kinda makes sense, I know I'd pass the hell out on a comfy couch.

So when you've got a headache from massive eyestrain from staring at your monitors for hours on end, better to continue to *try* to be less than half-productive for hours, than to take 10 on a comfy couch, and actually be productive ... sounds about right, as per this post about why managers fail it.

Re:So much for taste ...

[Surlyboi]

No one ever said managers got where they were by being thinking, rational beings.

Workspace disconnect

[Etrias]

I always wanted to work at a place you would see in the movies of the "typical" high-tech work area. Lot's of screens, overflowing with gadgets hooked up in arcane ways, sitting in your command chair of awsomeness in dark rooms with moody, dramatic lighting that would reflect part of the display into your face if you gazed into it a certain way.

Working in tech, you realize what a load of bullshit that is. I schlep my three year old Compaq laptop loaded with Xubuntu to my clients who have their servers stuck in closets or storage rooms. I have my one screen, dirty from use and abuse, I sit on folding chairs and bathed in florescent light, surrounded by boxes filled with office supplies.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[IndustrialComplex]

Even at the places that work on 'cool' things, you will find that it is very similar to what you describe and very unlike the movies. The latest fighter planes don't get built in a facility that looks like some hobbiest's garage. Of course, when you are trying to sell those things, then all of a sudden out jump the minority report displays, the flashy graphics, and the promo videos.

The movie stuff only exists in marketing.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[elrous0]

I once worked at a place that tried to "high tech" up their lobby to impress clients. Within a year or two, most of the cool (and expensive) plasma displays they used had either stopped working altogether or developed glitches and burn-in. Their "high tech" lobby ended up looking like a shabby tech scrap-yard. When they finally redesigned it again, they went back to the traditional design they had before they wasted a lot of money.

I suspect the idea of the "cool, high tech, hip" office space, with gadgets and displays everywhere, is a fiction invented by more by movies and wishful thinking than anything else. I remember Tom Clancy laughing in the DVD commentary track for "The Sum of All Fears" about the CIA offices being shown as these high-tech wonders with glass that could be rendered opaque for security proposes, etc. "Well, what do real CIA offices look like?" asked the director. "Like any other boring office," Clancy replied.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[alan_dershowitz]

I worked at a power company over the summers during college. One summer I worked as an assistant in the monitoring center, which was a giant room inside a concrete dome that was rated to withstand an F5 hurricane (the site is in the midwest.) Behind a couple sets of keycarded locked doors, you came into a circular dimmed room with a giant map from floor to (_very_ high) ceiling of the entire service area of the power company, with lights indicating status of electricity and water pressure in the different parts of the water system. In the center there was a long circular console lined with monitors showing power plant stats and weather reports and other stuff. The walls were all accent-lit with natural light bulbs, it looked really cool and modern. Against one of the walls was a large bank of "something" with blinking green lights. About two weeks in, a guy comes out from behind and starts talking to me, it turns out there was another little office back there with a couple of HP-UX machines nestled among a mountain of tech manuals running a SCADA system.

It looked pretty much like you see in the movies, only it wasn't messy like on some shows except for that little office.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[Sobrique]

The real world is more mundane, but I did at a previous workplace have a multi-computer, multi-monitor rig. That was lovely. Now, not so much.

I'd love a 'more sci-fi' workspace, but I'd settle for a PoeticTech Aura: http://www.poetictech.com/aura/index.html

Re:Workspace disconnect

[The_Wilschon]

You need to get into high energy physics then.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[TheGratefulNet]

Working in tech, you realize what a load of bullshit that is.

it is, but only if you have NOT been in such companies.

I actually have. been in the silicon valley area since the early 90's working for quite a lot of the big names.

back when it was an employees market (sigh!) things REALLY were good for us. I did have several sgi widescreen displays on my desk plus laptops and other misc monitors and embedded systems with cables all over the place. this was in the 1998-2001 era.

silicon valley was all you imagine. it still is, but less and less so. things have changed a lot over the past 15 yrs or so and having google replace SGI wasn't really the kind of change I was hoping for, in the local area.. (just as one random example of a silicon valley 'paradigm shift').

Re:Workspace disconnect

[kilgortrout]

"F5" is a measure on the Fujita scale for tornado instensity; it has nothing to do with hurricanes or measuring hurricane intensity.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[ianare]

He did say it was in the midwest, no hurricanes there but plenty of tornados, so it's pretty obvious he's talking about tornados.
The guy had a brainfart, chill out a little whydontcha.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[xaxa]

You're posting pictures of the office? Why not pictures of the lab!

(CERN gallery)

Re:Workspace disconnect

[ThousandStars]

Those places exist, after a fashion. See more here.

I've also been in Microsoft's Redmond campus, where a lot of people having pretty sweet offices.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[alan_dershowitz]

Sorry, that's what someone told me that worked there. I have no idea.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[Anonymous Coward]

At the last place I worked they moved us developers around 4 or 5 times in the last year I was there. When we got back to the space we started from they had replaced our desks with some that were half the size as before. If I needed to write something down the only somewhat flat writing space I had was the space on the front of my Microsoft Natural Keyboard!

Not kidding!

Re:Workspace disconnect

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugh ... Johnson Space center should do it for you. Or if Houston is just too nasty for you, try the CAOC-N out at Nellis AFB in Vegas.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[ceoyoyo]

I work in medical imaging. The radiologists like their rooms dark of course. My office (three of us) recently decided that we look much cooler if we turn out the lights too. So now you walk into the dark room and we're each sitting in front of multiple 23" screens.

Do you have a link for a command chair of awesomeness though? That IS missing. And I am definitely looking forward to having a wall (or more) that's a screen.

Re:Workspace disconnect

[StarfishOne]

Do you have a link for a command chair of awesomeness though? That IS missing. And I am definitely looking forward to having a wall (or more) that's a screen.

Here you go.

Chair

Wall/screen

Nothing can beat my office

[dreamchaser]

I work from home when I am not travelling. Granted, I travel 1-3 weeks out of each month (average is maybe 3 days every other week), but when I am not travelling you can keep all your fancy high tech offices. I have it far better in my high tech home office.

Plus there is nobody to tell me I can't have a beer during afternoon conference calls.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[Ford Prefect]

Plus there is nobody to tell me I can't have a beer during afternoon conference calls.

Also, the dress code is much more relaxed - in that clothes are entirely optional!

* prances *

Note: working from home can instil bad habits, such as the above. Remember that other, real offices may look down upon such behaviour, so do remember to wear clothes for external meetings...

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[dreamchaser]

Yeah you remind me about that NOW. Too late I'm afraid. At least I didn't get fired.

Kidding aside, I tend to dress business casual most days even at home. It helps with my mindset. Fridays I wear jeans and a tshirt.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[gEvil (beta)]

Remember that other, real offices may look down upon such behaviour, so do remember to wear clothes for external meetings...

And remember to wear them for internal meetings too, especially if visitors are coming over.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[Anne_Nonymous]

How else can a fat, hairy, middle-aged man make $300 an hour wearing only his underwear?

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[funkify]

You've forgotten perhaps the #1 benefit of working from home...

NEVER NEEDING TO POOP IN PUBLIC PLACES!!!

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[dreamchaser]

I am a bit underpaid then, and I should probably gain some weight. I do fit the 'hairy' and 'middle aged' description though.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[WheresMyDingo]

Plus there is nobody to tell me I can't have a beer during afternoon conference calls.

You can't have a beer during afternoon conference calls.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[metlin]

Tell me about it!

I travel 4 days a week, and hell, all I need is my Blackberry, laptop and my noise cancelling headphones, and I am a happy camper.

And besides, I could be anywhere - airport, restaurant or home, so who cares if I'm sipping a beer? Can't beat the lifestyle.

And when I'm home, tracks and a tee and a beer. w00t!

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[Mr. Beatdown]

Please don't make me tell you the list again.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[Provocateur]

Noise cancelling headphones?

21st century demands meeting-cancelling headphones!

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[dreamchaser]

You're fired.

Next!

Forgot to mention that I'm the boss. So sorry.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[Mab_Mass]

Remember that other, real offices may look down upon such behaviour, so do remember to wear clothes for external meetings.

And for video conferencing. I learned that the hard way.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[T.E.D.]

Ford Prefect wrote:

Also, the dress code is much more relaxed - in that clothes are entirely optional!

Yeah, but I'd imagine the lag is hell when you are working all the way from Betelgeuse.

Re:Nothing can beat my office

[StarfishOne]

You can also turn that around:

The #1 benefit for working at a company is that the restrooms are cleaned for you* and the toilet paper is provided for free**. ;-))

* Assuming this is done >= 1 times/day, as at my company.

** Requires situational awareness:
http://www.fivefourteen.net/motivational-posters/situational%20awareness.jpg

If those are the favorite ones..

[LinuxDon]

I wonder how the others look like.
A lot of them look like you'll grow RSI within one month. I actually prefer my own office with an ergonomic setup, a proper adjustable office chair, large windows and a door.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[Kamineko]

Some of us don't even have a door, you insensitive clod!

My office is a sealed room with no doors and a single tiny unbreakable window.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[IndustrialComplex]

Although this only works if you have enough space/resources I have always preferred offices without doors. When I require privacy then I excuse myself to a conference room.

In my case, it isn't that I don't like my privacy, it is that I enjoy it too much and too easily shut the door and shut myself off from the rest of the group.

When you use an office with a door, you will still have people knock and check in to see if you are free, but when I started to use the conference room approach, it forced me to make sure that privacy was really necessary and that when I was in the conference room with a closed door, it meant it was closed for a good reason.

Not for everyone though, just my own personal (limited) experience.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[Anonymous Coward]

You have a window? Lucky.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[Kamineko]

It's not really a window, I just call it that. It's really just a differently coloured patch of wall.

At least, I think it's a different colour. The light isn't very good in here.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[Zebedeu]

My office has a door, but I keep it open at all times, except when I'm on extended phone calls (so I don't disturb my colleagues) or the few moments where I really require privacy (small meetings, changing my clothes, fucking the secretary).

I found out that having the door closed shuts me from the rest of the offices and "uninvites" people from stop by. Since my colleagues aren't doing it very often, I usually welcome a chance to take a small break to chat, or help someone out.

Some people do like their privacy and keep their doors closed at all times, but most people here leave them open.

BTW, I was kidding about the secretary thing -- first I would need a secretary... *sigh*

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[IndustrialComplex]

When you mentioned the secretary, that reminds me of another issue with the modern office.

One of the 'casualties' of the modern office seems to have been the secretary. I suppose it is for lack of understanding of just how much productivity a competant secretary can add. Too many people seem to assume that a secretary is just a receptionist, but a good secretary should be viewed as nearly as important/necessary as the person that they are supporting.

Without getting too much into the topics, it is my view that a secretary should be viewed as more of a "Alfred from Batman" than a "Daisy the receptionist". The trick of course, is that if you expect the secretary to hold that much responsibility, then the pay needs to match.

However, I've seen people looking for true personal assistants who had no clue what they should be offering someone who will essentially be running their estate. If your income is enough that you can shrug off a 1-3 million dollar loss in an investment, then you are going to need to offer someone more than $8/hour... Unless of course, you plan to continue to shrug off those poor decisions.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[ianare]

Hans Reiser, is that you?

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[Anonymous Coward]

ok dwight schrute, taking the conference room as your office. comfy tho.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[EtoilePB]

This is why Executive Assistant is a valid career track that requires intelligent people who can work efficiently -- and keep their mouths shut. And the salary for that kind of help, in a respectable company, does match.

Re:If those are the favorite ones..

[lewko]

You can discretely fuck the secretary in an open-plan office as well.

Just send her an email before Christmas, saying she's fired.

The problems...

[Notquitecajun]

1. Most/all are in big cities. No thanks. 1-2 hour commutes to travel 30 miles? Meh. Give me a less-comfortable area in some non-generic suburbs.

2. All-indoor jobs. I'd wager that the best "workspace" isn't indoors. There are days I envy park rangers. Yeah, you can make an office comfortable, but keep in mind that it's STILL an office.

Re:The problems...

[jslater25]

1. I would rather live in the big city and deal with my 25 minute commute then live out in the boonies and have to drive an hour to pick up groceries, go to the movies, shop, go to the hospital/doctor/dentist, take my car to the mechanic, or use the airport. 2. FYI, park rangers have their own set of problems. Weather (rain, snow ,sleet, hail, etc.) being one of the least worrisome. Park rangers are often called in for drug busts and raids. Park rangers also have the unenviable task of dealing with some of the world's ilk such as poachers.

Re:The problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you actually ever been outside of a city, or do you just get your information about "boonies" from the New York Times? You would have to live pretty damn far into the wilderness to have to "drive an hour to pick up groceries, go to the movies, shop, go to the hospital/doctor/dentist, take my car to the mechanic, or use the airport". It may come as a surprise you, but small towns actually do have doctors! And stores! The only thing there that is likely true is the airport. So indeed, if you fly out of an airport more than twice a week, you're probably better off taking the hour commuting time if you can be closer to the airport.

Re:The problems...

[stewbee]

Give me a less-comfortable area in some non-generic suburbs.

I think that would be the sign of the apocalypse if there weren't hundreds of McDonalds, Targets, Walmarts, etc. in the suburbs. It ain't called Generica for nothing.

Re:The problems...

[theurge14]

"1. Most/all are in big cities. No thanks. 1-2 hour commutes to travel 30 miles? Meh. Give me a less-comfortable area in some non-generic suburbs."

Get your company to set you up with a bus pass. I commute to downtown Kansas City from the suburbs and it's glorious with an iPod. :)

Re:The problems...

[ColdWetDog]

Ichh. Cities. Have to go to Seattle tomorrow. It will take me 7 minutes to get to the airport in this remote town. A minute or so to park. Nod to the TSA folks. A hopefully pleasant two hour flight (provided Alaska doesn't mechanical the plane for some reason). Then 15 minutes on the tarmac in Seattle waiting for a gate to open. Then 30 minutes to get my luggage, 30 minutes to find a bus to get to the rental car lot then Bog-knows-how-long dealing with the parking lot on I5.

I'll deal with the bears and the rain any day.

And no, I'm not a Park / Forest Service Ranger but I know a bunch of them. To a person, they LIKE being out in the rain, snow, bears and what not. The thing that drives them bat-shit insane is the paperwork when the get back to the office. Nothing like the US Government for wanting triplicate reports on everything. Twice.

Re:The problems...

[Overzeetop]

Have you ever seen what park rangers make? It makes the fry cook at McDonalds look like serious career advancement.

I'm with you on the big cities thing. There are good reasons to locate an office in a city, but there are really bad ones, too. If you can get the people you need without being downtown, you can do so much more if you locate in the outskirts of a small city. If they'd move out of their $50-75/sf office towers, they could afford to do very good design. Then again, those companies aren't exactly in a cash crunch.

Re:The problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

We in the 'boonies' wish there were more people like you.

Re:The problems...

[eln]

I used to envy park rangers, but not anymore. Apparently, these days the job is mostly dealing with dangerous drug runners either growing pot or stashing other drugs out in the boonies of the national parks. Also, the drug runners have guns and the rangers don't.

Then there's dealing with the general public and their disrespect for the park. I actually got to work with a park ranger once, and it was thrilling. It was at Carlsbad Caverns. I got to hold his flashlight while he climbed down to pick up some garbage some jackass had thrown from the trail inside the cave. I would imagine having to do that sort of thing day in and day out would make you develop a healthy hatred for humanity, and I have enough disdain for people in general as it is.

Re:The problems...

[cbart387]

It may come as a surprise you, but small towns actually do have doctors! And stores! The only thing there that is likely true is the airport. I'd have to agree with this poster. Over last summer I lived in a small town not too far from my college. Most of the stuff was within walking distance (groceries, gas station, coffee shop, resturants, etc). Even better, you can then ride your bike on the backroads... I miss those days.

Re:The problems...

[Dmala]

Bah, who needs an iPod when there's sleep to catch up on? Most days I'm 3/4 asleep by the time the reader spits out my pass and I'm dead to the world before the bus gets back into traffic.

Re:The problems...

[Dmala]

2. All-indoor jobs. I'd wager that the best "workspace" isn't indoors. There are days I envy park rangers. Yeah, you can make an office comfortable, but keep in mind that it's STILL an office.

Meh, I doubt there are too many outdoor workers who would agree with you. Sure, when it's sunny and 72 I'm sure it's fantastic, but think of all the days they have to work when it's 98 and humid, 10 below, pouring rain, snowing, etc. I'm sure on those days they envy your climate controlled office.

just remember

[nguy]

All that expensive furniture and designer layout is going to be money that's not going to be available for growth. Yes, that affects the value of your stock options if you happen to work for a startup, possibly big time. Fancy offices are for big companies whose stock isn't going anywhere anymore.

Spend bucks on things that make people productive: fast machines and big screens. Spend bucks on things that let people have fun. For anything else, go to the surplus store and buy functional and sturdy.

Still looks like Veal Fattening Pens

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Everyone has their cubicle or "area" but it's just another panoptic workplace surveillance system so capital can track and regulate labour. Making it "fun" or "cool looking" is of no relevance to me. Changing how work is organised and accomplished is much more interesting.

Of course, given the depth of indoctrination in our society, speaking about such things is 21st century blasphemy. After all, we know what "works" - even though what "works" is pushing us all over a cliff of ecocide.

sigh....

RS

Re:Still looks like Veal Fattening Pens

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, don't get in that cublicle and do what your boss wants; think of all the awesome ways you could be sticking it to the man instead!

In fact, why have offices at all? Let's all dance in the fields all day long!

People like you are such hypocrites --- you go on and on about how offices are evil, yet enjoy all the services and products which could only be developed in such a manner.

Re:Still looks like Veal Fattening Pens

[illumin8]

Everyone has their cubicle or "area" but it's just another panoptic workplace surveillance system so capital can track and regulate labour.

How dare they expect me to actually be in my office and work during work hours! What kind of fascist, orwellian workplace does that?

Old fashioned Office

[b0ng0r]

with a door, that can be locked. And a culture that says it's ok to do that. It's like heaven, without all those virgins....

Re:Old fashioned Office

[Tsagadai]

It's like heaven, without all those virgins....

Except one of course, this is slashdot you're amongst friend and you don't have to hide it.

Re:Old fashioned Office

[tacroy]

without the sex? Then whats the point of having a locked door?

Re:Old fashioned Office

[TheLink]

He didn't say there's no sex. He just said no virgins.

In the world outside Slashdot, it's not just virgins who have sex you know ;).

And if it's a virgin slashdotter's office maybe the locked door is for the sake and sanity of the poor unfortunate souls who might stumble in at the "wrong time" and be scarred for life.

My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[elrous0]

All these neat looking open spaces and cubicles are my worst nightmare. I've managed to spend my entire career having my own private offices and my worst nightmare is to ever have to work in an open space or a cubicle--listening to every asshole in the office, having everyone looking over my shoulder, etc. THAT was one of the big things what made the fictional "Initech" such a terrible place to work (remember Peter having to listen to "Welcome to Initech. Please Hold." over-and-over again all day? Nothing builds morale like private offices. Open spaces just turn everyone into Less Nessmans (if anyone still remembers that reference).

Re:My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[YttriumOxide]

Couldn't agree more. In my last job, I worked in a semi-open kind of area (cubicles, but only 8 of them) and now I have an office. I LOVE the ability to get a coffee then close the door, light a cigarette (I live in a country where that's okay in the office!), turn on some quiet background music and get down to serious coding.

Re:My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[claytonjr]

I agree, it gets to be a headache to listen to everyone around you, all the time. If you have have to deal with the "bull pin" style office, the partitions and an ipod can help ease the pain

Slightly off topic: It's spelled "Les" Nessman, with one S. WKRP rocked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Nessman

Even more off topic: I just realized how old I am. Now get off my lawn.

Re:My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[Peter La Casse]

All these neat looking open spaces and cubicles are my worst nightmare. I've managed to spend my entire career having my own private offices and my worst nightmare is to ever have to work in an open space or a cubicle--listening to every asshole in the office, having everyone looking over my shoulder, etc.

Open work areas aren't necessarily bad. They can increase information sharing and productivity. They don't have to be huge, and not all coworkers are annoying. It depends on the culture.

Re:My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[YttriumOxide]

My lungs are MY problem... and as for "a hapless passerby", why are they in my office when my door is closed?

Re:My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[Anonymous Coward]

With women, you are almost guaranteed a noisy environment.

Re:My nightmare is to work in a cubicle

[lewko]

remember Peter having to listen to "Welcome to Initech. Please Hold." over-and-over again all day?

No.

What I remember (and you don't) was "Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Just a moment." over-and-over.

Pixar

[gEvil (beta)]

I remember reading an article on Pixar's HQs a long time ago, and one thing that stood out to me was that there's only one pair of bathrooms in the entire complex. This is to encourage people to run into each other and interact more frequently. I'm sorry, but that would just bug me. When I need to go to the bathroom, I don't want to be interrupted to have a conversation, nor do I want to hear other people yapping away while they do their business. But I guess that's just me....

Oblig urinal joke: "I hear this is where all the dicks hang out."

Re:Pixar

[DrHackenbush]

Yeah - we have an "open office" thing here too. Frankly, the last thing I really want to do is 'run into each other and interact more frequently'. I want to sit in a dark, quiet spot somewhere where I can't see (and more importantly, hear) any coworkers so that I can do what I need to do. I work with technology and prefer dark, quiet basements. Wide open office spaces frighten and confuse me. Seriously - more privacy and quiet and less of this collaboration silliness. My ears are starting to take on the shape of my earphones.

Re:Pixar

[RedneckJack]

When I worked in the corporate world, when I went to take a dump, the first thing on my mind, I want to be left alone ! My habit was I would go to a different floor's bathroom to pinch one preferably one that had very little or no traffic. Something like the men's room on a floor that have all women on as an example. In my case, the building I worked in had 5 floors. Our company had part of the 3rd floor (had their own bathroom which was separate from their regular 3rd floor bathroom), the whole 4th and 5th floor. The 3rd floor also had doctor/dentists offices, therefore, the bathrooms had literally no traffic. The 3rd floor bathroom was my favorite to use when dumping a load. Combine no traffic with some anonymity which contributes to a nice dump.

When I worked there I happened to have a manger that was an asshole and I got called in one time by him and got my ass chewed out for using that bathroom. I was told the bathroom was for use by clients who visited the doctor/dentist's offices, not for us employees. He started the conversation with, "Bathrooms here on the 5th floor not good enough for you to use ? Why do you have to use the 3rd floor......". It is almost a similar situation to this Website. He was also bitching that he couldn't find me in my office or in the computer lab. He mentioned that if I was not going to be in either place for more than a couple minutes I would have to find him and ask permission to be away such as the bathroom for example. I am glad I don't work for that asshole anymore !

When I need to go to the bathroom, I don't want to be interrupted to have a conversation, nor do I want to hear other people yapping away while they do their business.

Re:Pixar

[Doctor Faustus]

only one pair of bathrooms in the entire complex. This is to encourage people to run into each other and interact more frequently. I'm sorry, but that would just bug me. When I need to go to the bathroom, I don't want to be interrupted to have a conversation, nor do I want to hear other people yapping away while they do their business.
I think my ideal would be a single big room with sinks and mirrors, and then toilet stalls that are real rooms with floor-to-ceiling walls and doors and ventilation fans. With a real acknowledgment of homosexuality these days, separating by gender is becoming something of an anachronism, and the fact that someone isn't my preferred gender for romance doesn't mean I want to breath little particles from their ass.

Re:Pixar

[Red Flayer]

When I need to go to the bathroom, I don't want to be interrupted to have a conversation, nor do I want to hear other people yapping away while they do their business. But I guess that's just me....

Heh. My office has a single pair of bathrooms... but granted, it's only for ~120 employees at the moment. But given the culture of my office, I also am forced to listen to people conducting their business via cell phone while 'conducting their business'.

It always makes me laugh when I hear, "One minute please"...*FLUSH*..."OK, tell me".

This is on conference calls with upper management overseas, I might add.

Pixar's Emeryville headquarters

[Sideonecincy]

The first picture at the Pixar's Emeryville headquarters looks like a fray boy date rape clubhouse. I came here to work not hang out at a tiki bar.

Google's Zürich Office

[ibmjones]

Google's Zürich offices also have a fireman's pole.

. . . . . . .riiiiiiiight.

Re:Google's Zürich Office

[nicholas.m.carlson]

It does! Check it out: "Work's fine, but Googlers In Zurich prefer going down the slide"

Re:Google's Zürich Office

[ibmjones]

Sigh. . .

Note to Slashdot editors: please add option to mod parent post to "WHOOSH!"

Re:Google's Zürich Office

[Anonymous Coward]

> . . . . . . .riiiiiiiight.

It's true! I've been there! There are 2 fireman's poles and a slide into the canteen.

Who gives a flying flip what the place looks like?

[Just Another Perl Ha]

The "style" of the furniture in an office doesn't mean crap if the people are assholes and the policies oppressive. This article is about as asinine as the one a few months back attempting to explain why techies never make it in the boardroom... and proceeded to list off ten fashion faux pas.

Gebus! Some people just don't get it.

Our friends at Slashdot really should re-title this piece as "Top 10 best looking tech workplaces"... otherwise, they're just being terribly disingenuous.

Shame on you /.

Fog Creek

[harlows_monkeys]

They missed Fog Creek.

Re:Fog Creek

[Whatsisname]

I don't think he'd want to be lumped in with most of those. One of the most important aspects to developer productivity is privacy and being free of interruptions. When Joel had his office space developed he made sure to stick by that. In most of the pictures in TFA you see a bunch of open space with a bunch of people with laptops crammed in. Good for social lives, bad for software development.

Re:Fog Creek

[Guanine]

Yes, Fog Creek got their office design really really right. I like Joel's focus on the fundamental concept that, while open spaces are cool and can be quite useful, you can't have your entire office be an open space... programmers need PRIVATE PEACE AND QUIET. As he writes in his post about designing the offices:

Private offices with doors that close were absolutely required and not open to negotiation.

I hope that places like 37Signals, etc. do have private areas where people can get some uninterrupted time to work -- perhaps they do not show them in the pictures because closed offices don't have the "oh wow" factor.

My workspace is a toilet...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, really it is. I bring the laptop into the bathroom, sit down, and work. I don't have to get up to pee or to shit. The problem I do have is meal breaks. That's been something I've been trying to work around.

Re:My workspace is a toilet...

[winkydink]

Stock up on Ensure.

Re:My workspace is a toilet...

[croftj]

Why does this make me think of "eat s**t and..."

More like, top IT places to work.

[blind biker]

Or is the average /. reader convinced that there's not tech outside of IT? I work in micro and nanotechnology, and I think my job as well as my workplace, are some of the coolest in TECH. I also think the guys working on the new martian probes, work in a pretty cool place, too.

Re:More like, top IT places to work.

[ciggieposeur]

I also think the guys working on the new martian probes, work in a pretty cool place, too.

Do you mean at the JSC in Clear Lake? Definitely a cool machining shop in that giant building whose number I can't remember, and the Robonauts lab is pretty neat too. But damn if the whole JSC is depressing in a "we don't have nearly as much money as we used to and sadly no one cares about spaceflight anyway" kind of way.

Re:More like, top IT places to work.

[blind biker]

But damn if the whole JSC is depressing in a "we don't have nearly as much money as we used to and sadly no one cares about spaceflight anyway" kind of way. We have that, too. Except, we never had the "as we used to" part - it's always been rather tight money-wise. Well, we do get to buy new equipment, that's true. But salaries suck the big one. I don't really complain, though, as I knew what I was getting into when I chose the research career path. Eternal poverty.

Somebody likes to decorate

[peipas]

Find the following items in this picture:

• * The "what's a BLOG?" sign
  
• * The nesting bird
  
• * The Apple brand post
  
• * The Christmas ornament
  
• * The not-quite-finished wiring
  
• * The hot girl
  
• * The scarf the hot girl used for her last heist

Re:Somebody likes to decorate

[theurge14]

I only found the hot girl.

Corporate workspace pfft..

[Chineseyes]

The best workspace is at home. There is nothing like teleconferencing from your backyard while you sit in the sun enjoying the weather.

Re:Corporate workspace pfft..

[Anonymous Coward]

unless you live in Seattle.

Windows

[nbucking]

Who says that IT shops can have non artificial light? This is insane. Everyone knows the computers hate the sun. But seriously even with out windows we have a nice modern Comm focal point (What ever the Air Force decides to call it). Besides the CFP my office is old, yet comfortable and productive. Having video games would be distracting. They should be saved for after work. Also I noticed that google is not listed. I have seen pictures of Google and their offices are 100 times better than any of the ones on that site in tfa.

Re:Windows

[Sobrique]

Well, I can almost see that. I find sunlight to be most irritating when I'm trying to use my monitor. It's just so hard to get something that I can see clearly in bright glaring sunshine.

All I want is...

[barzok]

In order (for some reason I'm not seeing numbered bullets on my OL here)

1. Peace & quiet
2. Easy access to my co-workers, but the ability to go into "hermit" mode if need be
3. A comfortable desk & chair
4. Walls where I can hang whiteboards, a corkboard, and a dartboard
5. Windows so I can get real sunlight
6. Non-crappy artificial lighting
7. N+1 displays where N is the number I presently have. No matter how many displays I have, I always seem to need one more. (I will accept a switch to Leopard so I can use Spaces, thus reducing my physical monitor requirements to 2-3).

Re:All I want is...

[RabidMonkey]

I'd put the comfy chair/desk up one notch, but otherwise, bang on.

I see too many places where they give people crappy chairs, and spend tonnes of money on other things. Frankly, if I'm going to spend 8+ hours a day parked in a chair, it'd better be comfy. I'd rather have a smaller desk and a nicer chair, than going home with a sore back, sore neck, sore wrists (poor posture in a bad chair)...

People at my office think I'm odd because I have my desk setup backwards - it's a big U, in one corner is a keyboard tray and cable run for a computer to sit. in the other corner. nothing, which is where I have my computer. Why? Because keyboard trays are a) horrible but b) so poorly designed that it's a normal occurance, in my office at least, to hear *thud* *profanity* many times a day as people bash their knees on the stupid keyboard tray arms. That's poor planning and implementation of a workstation.

A comfortable, functional work space is the key to working well. I think for too long comfort was forgotten, because management occasionally forgets that their resources are people, and need to be comfortable in order to work well. A day at the office shouldn't be painful.

Re:All I want is...

[spaceyhackerlady]

That's about right for me, too.

When we moved things around late last year I was given an empty cubicle and told to set it up as I saw fit. It's my work environment, and I need to be both efficient and comfortable. The result looks like an explosion in a computer junk store, but my weakly-chaotic work style gets things done.

The excessively trendy workplaces with all the non-work goodies make me nervous. Work is work, play is play, and I like to keep the two separate.

Lessee now...4 monitors, 2 PCs (one XP, one Linux), 2 Sun boxes (Ultra 5 with Solaris, Netra T1 with Linux), Gumstix, assorted other stuff. Just the way I like it!

...laura

Re:All I want is...

[onion_joe]

A day at the office shouldn't be painful.

You've never worked in construction, have you? ;-)

Air conditioning and the UK

[elrous0]

No air conditioning either, because it's the UK.

You know, I've heard a lot of people complain about that in the UK. Why on earth haven't they adopted AC yet? I know they have summers there, no?

Is it because it's really difficult to retrofit the buildings, or are they just too stubborn to change? I mean, it's not like AC is some radically new invention or something.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[Jellybob]

In our case we can't get AC installed because our office is in a listed building, so making modifications is a nightmare - we had to get planning permission just to run a leased line in.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

I've worked in a few offices in the UK and they have all been air conditioned - as for public transport, yes, the lack of AC is true.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[elrous0]

Here in the U.S., our restrictions aren't that onerous. "Historically significant" buildings are relatively rare and most cities don't have much regulation of them (with notable exceptions like parts of Charleston, SC and certain small historic districts). The national designation of a "National Register of Historic Places" building basically just means you can't use federal funds to demolish or alter it (you're free to use private funds to do anything you like). Zoning laws, building codes, etc. are generally much more onerous than any special historical or cultural designation.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[bestinshow]

In my case it's because we moved into the offices only a few months ago, and the building is also quite old and potentially listed.

Any modern office building would have A/C of course. Typically this would be set up so that the A/C unit would work in winter, but fail in the summer, or you'd be working in a small sub-zero patch of the office all year round.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[CastrTroy]

Just do what we do in Ottawa. No modifications required.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[drsquare]

You know, I've heard a lot of people complain about that in the UK. Why on earth haven't they adopted AC yet? I know they have summers there, no?

Our summers last about three days so it's not worth installing AC.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[rossifer]

At my previous office, the building was new, so the HVAC system still had a few glitches here and there. The big glitch was the one that turned it on full blast, full cold at 6:30pm and off at 7:00am, but couldn't be turned on at any other time of day (so at 4:30pm in the summer, it was stagnant and sweltering in the building, but you needed to bundle up in winter clothes by 7:00pm).

This did basically end late nights at the office, but wasn't quite what we were hoping for from a very shiny, very new, very expensive office building.

We mentioned that it seemed to be an am/pm issue, maybe the clocks were off? We were told that we weren't HVAC engineers and that we needed to let the experts deal with it. For nine months, we were told this while we escalated weekly complaints through corporate management, leasing company management, building management, etc. During this time various fixes were tried that changed the intensity and temperature of the evening AC, but never fixed the issue.

Every time there was a change, however, our ticket was closed and it was claimed to be fixed. Through all of this, the AC continued to turn on at 6:30pm and shut off at 7:00am.

At the end of this nine-month period, they finally got the AC to run during the day. Blessed thanks to HVAC! When we asked about the fix, we were told that the clocks had been set wrong and that we should thank the building manager for figuring out such a strange and difficult to solve issue.

*sigh*

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[xaxa]

Private houses don't really get hot enough for it to be worthwhile -- there's no problem with just wearing a t-shirt after all. It's never that humid, so just blowing air from outside also works quite well.

Many offices do have AC. The south-facing big-double-glazed-windows office I worked in for 6 months last year (over the summer) in the south of England had air conditioning, but it was noisy so we avoided using it. I think we only used it on about two days, the rest of the time we just had the windows open.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[bladesjester]

Must be nice. Here we frequently get temps in the 95-105+F range with high humidity in the summer.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[xaxa]

*asks Google* That's 35-40ÂC.

The record temperature for London is 38ÂC, over about 28ÂC is unusual (maybe a few days a year). In London the average high in July is 22.8ÂC (73ÂF).

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[hoggoth]

> Here in the U.S., our restrictions aren't that onerous. "Historically significant" buildings are relatively rare

Your whole bloody country is less than 250 years old. Of course historically buildings are rare.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[corbettw]

Sorry, northern Canada isn't the first place one would normally think of for insights into "air conditioning".

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[slashgrim]

score one for nanny states

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[kesuki]

America is more than just only 250 years old, we also love to tear down old buildings, demolition is a huge business in the states, because it's the easiest way to redevelop land, plus Americans like to spend money on the places they live and work, they like at least the illusion of unlimited wealth. part of the reason the dot com bubble collapsed so horribly wasn't because companies couldn't make money making products etc, it was because they spent loads of money on stuff that killed internal productivity... having a game room, and making employees play games on the weekends with fun outings can really kill a company living on borrowed dollars quickly...

fortunately America is leaking money like a sieve, to the tune of 600-700 billion a year, and the national government is already well past 9 trillion in debt, aiming for the 15 billion cap that the house will automatically raise the budget deficit to without new laws being enacted.

the senate with their 6 year terms actually vote on raising the deficit, but thats because 2/3rds of them can vote yes in an election year, with the other 1/3 voting no because they're up for re-election.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[rk]

As a UK friend of mine put it: "In the US, 200 miles is practically around the corner, but 200 years is practically an eternity. In the UK, 200 years is like yesterday, but 200 miles might as well be the next star system."

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[Jellybob]

There are many things about the UK that could be described as nannying, but protecting historical buildings is not one of them.

It's not that you can't make any modifications, you just have to do them in a way that respects the building's appearance.

The building next door to us is also listed, and they're in the process of ripping out everything but the outer walls, and putting a new building in it.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[CastrTroy]

Ottawa is hardly "Northern Canada". It's at 45.42 degrees north latitude. Slightly below the 49th parallel where most of the Canadian border with the US resides. It's also only about a 1 hour drive from Ogdensburg, New York.

Re:Air conditioning and the UK

[Opportunist]

It's not just the UK. ACs are rather uncommon in central Europe either.

The reasons are many. First, most "old fashion" buildings don't need ACs. They don't heat up, being built with like a meter of concrete between you and the world. So ACs don't really have a history here.

Unfortunately, our companies looked at those glass cubes the US offices are and fell in love with them. So new office buildings are almost invariably wonderfully crafted, shiny cubes with huge windows and paper thin walls. In one word: Insanely hot in summer and impossible to heat during the winter.

ACs though are still no topic. Yes, we sweat up a storm during summers here. You can breed goldfish in our armpits and you know immediately which coworker doesn't change his shirts daily. In summer, you don't work here. You roast. You sweat and sigh when you watch the clock, hoping that this magical 1700 rolls around so you may go home to your airconditioned home. Yes, I have an AC. It's not possible to sleep here during summers without one.

The funny part is, everyone knows it. Everyone. Including your boss. But he's not willing to invest in something that's only useful for about 3-4 Months per year. Heating? Oh, sure we have heating. Work laws require it, else I'm fairly sure our companies wouldn't invest in that either. It's only useful for about 3-4 months per year.

Re:Who gives a flying flip what the place looks li

[oodaloop]

Agreed. Cool furniture and light fixtures do not a great workplace make. The best jobs I ever had were working in ramshackle offices in condemned buildings. It was working with fellow Marines that made the job great, not the office space. Even in the movie, it wasn't the cubicles that made it a terrible job, it was the boring routines, pointless memos, and having 8 clueless bosses. EIGHT, Bob. OTOH, having some color other than battleship gray on the walls, some windows here and there, and clean offices and restrooms will go a long way to improve morale.

rage against gray and beige

[rabiddeity]

The problem with gray and beige is that they are offensive precisely because they are trying to be so inoffensive. They're bland and ugly. Gray reminds me of concrete, which is durable but hideous unless you're designing parking garages. And beige seems to be the default color of anything that isn't supposed to look dirty... but it never really looks clean either. Have you ever tried to get an old beige box to look clean? It's impossible.

You want inoffensive? Silver is metallic, but clean. White gets dirty, looks boring on walls, but if office furniture isn't white on a white floor against a white wall, it can look pretty good. Black can look good if the rest of the office isn't gray and beige. Browns look great if they're actual wood, and dark stained wood can look downright elegant as long as it's not fiberboard crap from Ikea. Hell, even transparent glass or plastic for countertops or work surfaces looks pretty good (as long as you don't have to run an optical mouse on it). Other colors might offend certain people, but at least they won't be bland.

Here's offensive: every single office worker's desk in Japan is made out of metal, and painted gray and beige, and is exactly the same dimensions, right down to the three shelves. EVERY SINGLE ONE. I swear there must be a single company that makes all office desks in this country. They're so generic and utilitarian it makes me want to find the guy who designed them and slit his throat, spilling his blood all over the damn things. Maybe at least that would give it some color. And you wonder why the suicide rate is so high here, it's because of all the gray and beige in the concrete cities and in the offices and in the prefab apartments with their beige plastic walls. People need color and variety and texture or they go nuts. Does painting the thing navy blue instead of beige really cost all that much more?

Re:rage against gray and beige

[xaxa]

The problem with gray and beige is that they are offensive precisely because they are trying to be so inoffensive. They're bland and ugly. Gray reminds me of concrete, which is durable but hideous unless you're designing parking garages. Woah, woah! It's still hideous for parking garages! You need something like this for it not to be hideous.

People need color and variety and texture or they go nuts. Does painting the thing navy blue instead of beige really cost all that much more? My school bought brightly coloured desks and chairs just before I left (4 years ago now). They were blue, red, green, yellow. My university has just bought the same kind of tables. School furniture is very cheap, but maybe this trend will work it's way into offices. Beige is boring.

Nice here...

[clickclickdrone]

It's pretty good here. All the desks are in banks of 5 seats between the corridor and window, row after row (about 15 rows per side of the building at a guess). There are seperate meeeting rooms if you need that plus rooms for video conferencing, 'quiet areas' which are mobile/phone/meeting free if you need to sit & think then each floor has a pair of communal printer/copier/fax hubs - no desk is allowed anything like that. It's bright, breezy, airy and everyone you need is usually just feet away. They also encourage you to wander about so I could wander off to a nice high floor to enjoy theviews while I grab a coffee (the coffee lounges are every 8 floors. The coat cupboards are heated so your coat is dry if you get soaked in the morning. Good but pricy restaurant. A small shop. It's all good. Only downside is the expensive Aero chairs that might be great in theory but wear the ass out your suit pants with te coarse nylon fabric.

a basic truth

[poot_rootbeer]

Remember this: no matter how nice your office space is, if you're an "interactive agency" with an unspellable/unpronounceable name like "Tocquigny", you're going to be the first to go out of business when the Dot-Com Crash 2.0 happens.

Enjoy the pretty scenery while it lasts.

Re:a basic truth

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.tocquigny.com/company/leadership_team/

yeah.. it's the last name of the founder and it's been in business since 1980. it's probably going to be okay.

also, congratulations on spelling the unspellable name.

Mushroom farm

[croftj]

I always preferred a mushroom farm like atmosphere, kept in the dark and fed lots of BS daily. The cool and damp helps me flourish too!

I Love My Workspace

[aquatone282]

Now, if I could just get rid of my co-workers, life would be perfect. . .

N+1 displays =

[Anonymous Coward]

- N+1 displays means 1 (or 2 if lucky) displays and lots of books. Though not high tech, every book is effectively another display! Having several books open at once allows one to have the problem and the necessary references side by side in front of you. Granted, indexing in books is a declining art. Books still have an important place. Besides, I never had a disk crash or malware erase the contents of a (paper) book yet.
- Multiple desktops (on Linux) are a large step up from Windows, there is something to simultaneous access that is helpful.

obviously a subjective list

[Kartoffel]

Looks like they've ranked workplaces according to this rubrik:
1) Proximity to bay area.
2) Superfluous amenities such as office fridge stocked with beer and milk*, free haircuts, sex swing chairs, steampunk decor, etc.
3) Is a trendy Web 2.0 company. Sorry non-interweb employers, you're out of luck.

* Who the hell drinks milk at work anyway? Flatulence ahoy!

Nothing Beats an Office

[Colonel Korn]

I work in a bunker of a 50 year old building. I have my own office. Every person in the building has a private office, in fact. Having done both semi-private cubicles and the "open" sweatshop-style seen in TFA, I definitely think that most people would prefer the private office and get the most accomplished in it.

I've always felt these are a trap to stay at work

[failedlogic]

I worked for an employer that had some of the amenities that would help them rank in the top-10. Among them were an outdoor volleyball court and basketball court, pool tables and a chef in the cafeteria. Luckily my work hours were flexible and I didn't work more than 10 hours a day. I know some had to work longer, but they didn't seem to mind because of all the conveniences and "fun things to do" while at work. You could, on occasion, take a 5-min break to play basketball.

I've read some major employers in the US such as insurance companies, have salons, barbershops, daycare, grocery stores all in the building. While immensely convenient (there's no denying), and as impressive looking as these offices are (looks better than most people's homes), I believe that these are all simply intended to keep employees at work as long as possible. It may be obvious to some, but I think some are in flat-out denial.

Low Standards

[r7]

Clearly this is a case of extremely low standards. Either that or designed-by an artist or structural engineer with a degree, but no experience, in architecture or interior design.

IMO what makes a workspace great is light, air, and natural materials. It has to have one or more windows, which _open_. No tinted glass either. Shades or blinds are also critical, and far greener than AC. Lighting should be warm. Not the sterile, cool panels covering cheap florescent bars that we are typically stuck with.

The floor has to be _wood_ (or cork, bamboo, etc), preferably covered by one or more wool carpets. No "modern" designs please.

The desk should also be wood.

And the walls have to be _thick_ for optimal acoustics. Quiet is important for "brain work".

Don't forget location. Walking distance to rail is ideal. Nothing like a morning's drive in traffic (or a bus ride) to start the day off wrong.

You never see this kind of quality in new construction, only in renovations. That's because profits are maximized when material is cheap (as in polyester) labor is cheap (as in unskilled) and locations are cheap (as in noplace you'd ever go otherwise). Architecture is also a lost art having been replaced by structural engineering without even a trimester of ergonomics or anything to do with craftsmanship.

Cities that can combine these elements will get the best employers and employees. Paving farmland for yet another concrete and glass business park will get, well, what you pay for...

Re:Low Standards

[ciggieposeur]

I know wood is pretty and all, but really why should we kill that many more trees just to walk over inside our offices? Maybe we could keep the cheap polyester materials in the office, build some park trails into some greenery right next to the building, and encourage employees to take periodic breaks outside.

Re:Low Standards

[r7]

Because wood is biodegradable and renewable, vs polyester which will accumulate in landfills basically forever.

I love windows!

[HungWeiLo]

Windows will make all the difference in the world. I used to work in a place with windows that were about 10 feet tall, and we were right by the piers in Seattle. Mt. Rainier on the left, Puget Sound on the right - all visible while I'm sitting in my wall-less cube.

But the commute sucked, so now I'm back to my window-less cube with 5-foot walls...

Try a trading floor?

[DamonHD]

Well, I love working in the big open buzzy space of a dealing/trading floor in an investment bank with hundreds of people in view, though today I'm working from home and that's good too.

Open plan isn't bad in itself, it's what you do with it IMHO.

Rgds

Damon

An OFFICE with a DOOR I can CLOSE and LOCK.

[EWAdams]

At my last "open plan" situation my co-workers stole stuff from my desk. They didn't just borrow my stapler, they stole my personal property. There was a lot of general pilferage, in fact, so bad that the company had to install security cameras. The natural temptation was to blame the cleaning staff, but I don't think they were behind it.

Keep your moronic music to yourself, keep your eyes off my screen, and keep your hands off my desk.

better windows

[zogger]

They make windows just for that, they are double pane with a small venetian blind thingee in between the panes. Too hot or bright, you can crank it all the way closed or leave it partial for *some* light. Cold outside you can open it all the way to let some warmth in.

You could also get a whiteboard for "conferencing" and set it up in front of the window for a sunshade if your office cow-orkers agree.

With that said, telecommuting is where it is at. That's the greenest of all, no need for huge office buildings* as much, no need for millions to be forced to commute every work day twice. then at home you can really adjust your office like you want it.

*if I was a share holder in one of these companies that wasted millions on some egotrip office building just to have drones pushing electrons around on the screen, then the constant expense and maintenance I'd be getting lawyers and thinking about trying to force some serious changes. In this information age, having the typists (whatever the heck they type) have to go to the office is silly. That was OK back in manual typewriter days and no fast way to move documents around except by courier and like pony express, but with good net connections and faxes and printers, etc I question the over all huge need of tons of those sorts of jobs to have to be done "downtown" all the time. Big fat waste, bigger than the SUVs people rail on about all the time (although that is part of it when they get used as commuter cars), it just over-all wastes energy, wastes time commuting, wastes resources building most of those stoopid towers, wastes energy driving or taking some subway or bus, etc. It is archaic and "dilutes shareholder value" because they could use that money for something else..like paying dividends! Actually be able to pay all the workers more money! Imstead, "my 'member' is bigger than your member" ego trip office towers that cost buhzillions with big signs on top MEGACORPS! shining to outerspace all night.

It's mostly a joke.

    Big huge cities are archaic for the most part as well, there's just inertia and big money behind maintaining that sort of business, and it goes all the way back to seaports and moving things by boat or ox cart, so trade centers built up around those areas, because that was it, the only way stuff moved. Not like that anymore. We still need seaports...but we don't need to cram all the workers there. Some yes, all, absolutely not.

Re:I've always felt these are a trap to stay at wo

[Foolicious]

I agree, but I'm wondering whether or not you think it's bad that employers would do this -- kind of a counterintuitive productivity measure (at least for people exempt from overtime). I mean, why else would a company spend money other than to make more? Because they love their employees? Anyone proposing that is moving into real flat-out denial.

Office Makeover: Extreme Cube Edition

[da3dAlus]

I just recently re-made my cube into a faux study, as I really didn't like the bare walls and drab colors. Luckily my cube is rather large (8x8) so I had a lot of room to work with. The only thing I wish I had was natural light from a window--but I do have a wingchair and an oriental rug :) http://terbidium.com/content/photos/slides.php?id=f3e8c8c34883c883af2483ab46d66d5c&album=295

Re:I've always felt these are a trap to stay at wo

[failedlogic]

I just wanted to limit my post size. Of course, this depends on perspective. If you really like the job, or the convenience factor, then sure its a good thing. I wouldn't have minded working a few extra hours (and did on occasion) at that job so it does work. But hours in my job were capped (more a company policy) and when the 10+ hours were needed it was a demand, again I didn't mind at all even if not paid the overtime. The problem becomes, well we're providing this because we 'demand' that you work 16 or 18 hour days. So of course, you'll need all the amenities at the office. But working all those hours are sure to leave burnout, employees quitting, low retention and lower productivity per-employee.

My opinion is that if the employer is at the very extreme, with emphasis on the very long hours being the factor, then instead of the conveniences (chef, swimming pool, salon, ultra-modern decor, shopping esp. when most of it is free) they could certainly afford to hire more employees.

Microsoft employee here: We get to work in...

[Anonymous Coward]

..a boring office building. They have a foosball table but no one has time for that. Most blue badges have to wait up to three years to get their own office because space is so tight. :(

!city != back of beyond

[danaris]

Way to be a stereotyping twit. I live 25 minutes from a small city, an hour from a large one (where the nearest real airport is), and you know what? I live 5 minutes from a commercial area with several grocery stores, a mall, a half-dozen car dealerships and assorted mechanics, a cinema, and many other stores.

Just because you're not in the heart of New York City where it's all happening doesn't mean you're in the backwoods of Montana, mate. You might want to actually try visiting the rural towns and villages you so deride someday. Until you do, please stop spouting idiotic nonsense about them.

Dan Aris

Loathing Open Office Plans

[rossifer]

My big objection to open workspaces is the lack of noise control. As a creative worker (software developer), I get most of my job done by switching back and forth between two modes: discussion mode and focused mode.

Discussion mode is typically animated and noisy; happens at random unpredictable times; most frequently involves the same one or two people, occasionally involves others; often needs a whiteboard; etc.

Focus mode is the rest of the time, mostly happens at my desk, and I need quiet in order to be at my most productive. No music, no white noise, no intercom, no fax machine beeping that it's out of paper, no cell phones with hip-hop ring tones ringing at full volume, no animated discussions happening "right over there".

IMHO, open office plans are the worst of all worlds for creative workers. When I'm in discussion mode, I'm bothering everyone else. And because everyone else needs to have those discussions too, it's nearly impossible for me to really get into focus mode. I don't need to be alone in an office, but the ability to close the door around two or three or four people who can be noisy without disrupting others or be quiet and get some creative work done is not optional, it's essential. If you can't do that, you just turned down the productivity knob by some significant fraction.

Re:Loathing Open Office Plans

[raw-sewage]

My big objection to open workspaces is the lack of noise control. As a creative worker (software developer), I get most of my job done by switching back and forth between two modes: discussion mode and focused mode. Discussion mode is typically animated and noisy; happens at random unpredictable times; most frequently involves the same one or two people, occasionally involves others; often needs a whiteboard; etc. Focus mode is the rest of the time, mostly happens at my desk, and I need quiet in order to be at my most productive. No music, no white noise, no intercom, no fax machine beeping that it's out of paper, no cell phones with hip-hop ring tones ringing at full volume, no animated discussions happening "right over there".

I hear ya. Whenever I get annoyed at my current office environment, I try to think what the ideal environment would be. And I always go back and forth between having something conducive to discussion mode, but also allows for the privacy and seclusion needed for focus mode. I can't think of anything that's reasonably simple that fulfills both requirements.

In my first job, we had a cube farm, but many of the cubes were four-person units. It was one large cubicle, and each person had their own corner. The space had a small table in the center, so we could all turn around and have impromptu meetings (i.e. discussion mode) when necessary. I really liked that. One of the desks was usually empty (unless we had an intern), and my cube-mates were always quiet. So focus mode was available on-demand. That was also my first "real" job, so I was in discussion mode more often than not (being a newbie I had lots of questions).

Towards the end of my tenure there, the whole building was remodeled with new cubicles. Gone were the multi-person cubes, and everybody had an individual unit. By this time, I more or less knew what I was doing, and needed more focus time. So in theory, the individual cube would have been nice. However, the company went really cheap on everything, and despite having my own "private" space, there was actually more noise. The old cube walls were padded and coated with cloth; they were also taller. So most noise outside of my immediate cube was significantly dampened. But the new cubes didn't block sound at all; I could hear every word of conversations from people several cubes down (and these were people with average volume voices).

My current job has what I would call an open plan. It's a trading company, and I gather that this kind of setup is typical for traders (and programmers in the finance industry). The first thing that annoys the hell out of me is that we don't have desks with drawers. Our desks are basically just tables. They are big, but I like to keep my work area tidy, and with nowhere to stash things, my desk always looks messy.

But what really annoys me is that the quality of open seating is dictated by your neighbors. I never realized how good I had it in the quiet shared cubicle I described above. The guy who sits by me drives me insane---and it's petty stuff, so I feel bad about asking him to be quiet. But, as an example (begin rant): he's a smoker, so a few times a day he comes in and stinks up the whole room. His smoking also gives him a hacking cough. He flips his pen while he's thinking, which means that every few seconds I hear the sound of his pen crashing down on his desk. He slurps his food---and I mean, really slurps. I'm certainly not Mr. Manners, but I've literally heard wild animals make less noise when eating. If he's not flipping his pen while he's thinking, he's constantly slamming C-x C-s (emacs' file save key sequence). If it weren't so annoying, I'd actually be impressed at how quickly he could hit C-x C-s over and over and over and over again. There's also the humming; sometimes he just hums the tune in his head; other times, he hums louder to hear himself over his headphones. If he gets confused by something, he starts sighing really l

Re:Loathing Open Office Plans

[Anonymous Coward]

Focus mode is the rest of the time, mostly happens at my desk, and I need quiet in order to be at my most productive. No music, no white noise, no intercom...

I've always gone with the music approach, but that's just me. I did work with someone that had your preference for absolute silence. He bought himself a pair of those headsets airport ground crew workers use when they're out around the planes. Suffice it to say that there were only two ways of actually letting him know that you wanted to talk with him...instant messenger and actually physically tapping him on the shoulder.

So if you ever find yourself in a job that has open seating or cubicles, you might look into getting a pair of those.

Re:Loathing Open Office Plans

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, that sort of open layout is commonplace in financial institutions. This may appeal to currency traders, who like to yell on the phone all day, but it sure is not conducive to programming. And as for co-workers with the good manners and personal hygiene of farm animals -- well, I hear ya.

When did and tags become unfashionable

[PremiumCarrion]

For the first time in a while I decided to look at TFA, I have to say I'm suprised that these wonderful workspaces have no pictures.

But wait, visit the site with Javascript enabled ad I can marvel at the high tech nature, of clicking on a thumbnail and seeing an image.
Truly the internets have evolved.

Al Gore, I kneel before thee

Re:Who gives a flying flip what the place looks li

[Aceticon]

In my experience, very often the look and feel of the work place is a good indication of how a company treats it's workers in general. Not in the sense of having Garfield toys on the tables, fancy chairs or unusual gadgets, more like:

- Is it cheap open space? Is it open spaces with tall barriers and sound separators? Cubicles? Team offices?
- Is there plenty of natural light? Tall ceilings? Plants?
- How good is coffee? Is it free?

In my experience, companies which use the cheapest possible open space configuration, only provide crap coffee for free (or nothing at all free), have no plants and/or have workspaces with little or no natural light are also the ones that have frequent down-size and then up-size cycles, squeeze as much free work as they can out of their employees and in general treat everybody like little cogs in a big machine.

Cheap companies are just as cheap in setting up the work environment as they are in the way they treat people.

Best place to work or Best work space?

[penguin_dance]

Or just pretty, but not practical workspace? Most all of these are open plans or *gag* one that looks like a fishbowl. Just because something looks all artsy, doesn't mean it's practical to work in. You might as well have your office in a Barnes & Noble Starbucks (and it would probably be quieter.) The only time I feel an open concept really works is if you're working as a team ALL the time--which is rare.

Valleywag has culled its picks for Tech's Top 10 Workspaces from Office Snapshots, where you'll find plenty of other Best-Places-to-Work contenders.

And how does a nice workspace = Best place to work? That's only part of it even if you like your office.

Opera Software

[CraniumDesigns]

Opera Software in Norway as a pretty slick workspace too. I just got hired with them and had to go there for 3 weeks. Check a video I made. http://youtube.com/watch?v=0JZH9UlGIXs

pointless

[SCHecklerX]

A clean office, and decent sized cube to do my work, and a lab environment is great. All of these places with the 'cool' office space, cafeterias, activity areas, etc, you'll notice, expect you to be there for quite a long time each day. No thanks. Give me the basics, and I'll get the rest when I'm out of the office.

Fine if you are "traiding"

[mario_grgic]

but not fine if if you are using your brain to design software and need to actually really think.

No AC? Count your blessings

[RevWaldo]

You don't know the little hell of having a desk right up against the heating/cooling vents. Gives you another place for your folders, photos, plants, action figures, etc. but you'll either be too cold or too warm. All the time.

Just cause a company has cool offices

[RevWaldo]

doesn't mean you'll be seeing them.

Work on Google Labs? - Yep.
Work on Google Accounts Payable? - Not so much.

what ...great page layout

[Anonymous Coward]

So, all grey background, "VALLEYWAG VALLEYWAG VALLEYWAG" tiled all over the place, what seems to be no CSS, and black text on a dark grey background. So submitted this unreadable piece of trash, VALLEYWAG themselves?

Re:I'll keep my desk

[ThousandStars]

It's also because they're too stupid to read Joel on Software regarding offices and his own office. Instead, many of them keep doing things that are poison to "knowledge workers," a phrase I hate but that nonetheless describes the kind of people discussed here.

The oh so "hip" workspaces of the now

[polemon]

I don't like them.

Here in Germany, we're used to have "real" offices (as someone said in another post), with walls going all the way up to the ceiling and a door.

Those offices are usually for two or three people, that work on the same project or in the same department.

We have a small kitchen to make some tea or coffee, maybe prepare a small snack or something, and we have a room with a couch, that is actually a comfortable couch, not one of those couches, that look good, but are extraordinary uncomfortable to sit on.

Those offices have their computers and tables arranged in a way one employee cant look on the other employees computer. Or, if someone steps into your office, they can't look at your computer screen or desktop directly either.

Every office has a window, so you don't have to rely on artificial light, except if you're working at night, of course...

I used to work in an open designed workspace, and it sucked tremendously.
Imagine this: you're sitting in a somewhat private area of that workspace, and someone was carrying a stack of files quite far away from you, in the other end of that workspace.

Then he trips and drops the files.

You've been partially in hermit-mode, and now you get distracted, probably scared, and now you're totally mad at that guy that dropped the files.

Another Scenario: You're working at something, and someone needs to ask you a question. He comes up to you, and asks something. You get scared, because you were so immersed in your work, you didn't see him coming. He was not actually sneaking up on you, you just didn't see or hear him coming, because the ambient noise is to high, and probably the only way to get to your desk, is from behind.

My dream office from the top of my head

[Qbertino]

My dream office from the top of my head:

- Custom furniture / top-of-the-line design furniture. Price be damned. Premium payed woodworkers to implement the required shelves and built-to-fit elements.Ornganic material and material treatment only. And if it tripples work-hours - no problem.

- Interiour pre-designed for optimal lighting and style in 3D, setups tested with mockup scenarios. Have 2 or 3 Feng-Shui experts do a review.

- Style mixed if the need be. I'm sitting at my desk 10+ hrs per day, I don't give a shit if my chair doesn't match my desk 110% as long as both are the best there is.

- Organic wall decorations, colors and plastering. Painters to design own sections with whatever I consider cool. Magna-Carta or any other cool looking Manga characters, Mondrian/Frank Stella rippoffs, shelves integrated with neat wall-sculptures. Add in a little Hundertwasser here and there.

- Parquet. The best money can buy. Even in the server, storage and maintenance rooms.

- Planned space for tools, equipment and cabeling.

- Eco-friendly Air Conditioning and filtering using organic components, materials and agents. If it takes up extra space: Buy it.

- Custom fixed blackboards for project work with optimized drain for muck-free cleaning.

- Best Hardware available, stored in own climated room if it makes noise or is to big. And anything bigger that a Mac Mini is. I hate these ugly large boxes taking away space. External drives at all desks for all optical / movable media needs.

- Best Screens, KBs & Mice. The offices shown on the pictures look neat. The tools shown look pretty standard fare. In fact they show pretty crappy Dell junk on some. My hardware right here is better. And that's only a small Mac Mini with some generic widescreen attached.

- Sreensize: 30" whereever somebody doesn't explicitly say he doesn't want it. Dual or triple 30" for those who can't get enough.

- No budget cieling for initial production pipeline setup. Find out some bizarely priced CASEtool is neat to work with and can ease production on a regular basis? Buy it, no matter the price! Buy the training for it aswell. Set up custom hardware config if needed, design workspace accordingly. Like for people who use grafic tablets all the time.

- Largest Screens/Touchscreens money can buy for Group-OOAD. Pay a team of X-Org developers to implement multi-focus / multi-mouse /multi-kb support if it turns out usefull.

- Living-kitchen. The best of the best. Own industry-grade italian coffee machine.

- Full scale bathrooms with sauna and changing quarters. I'm a software developer, dammit. I get the urge to take a good shower or bath *in* a good shower or bathroom at the most bizare times of the day (3 o'clock in the morning isn't that rare). If I'm through a 30 hrs coding spree with only 3 hrs of sleep I want to change my clothes, like, *right now*, no matter what time of day it is.

- Well payed and specifically trained service personell for cleaning and maintenance. This often is overlooked as one, if not *the* essential part of a good workplace. If I need to unwind and like doing so by cleaning my KB for 20 minutes, I'll do so. But most of the time I'd like well-payed office assistance to do so for me. Without wiping my screen with a mucky handtowel.

- Cook for once or twice per month office dinner.

- Inhouse, trained cleaning service.

- Cycle park garage. Custom built. The one on the Six-Apart pictures is a joke.

- Best server on the planet. Blade station, Sun/IBM Mainframe with complete virtualisation. Whatever, you name it.

- Custom built library and conference room.

- Selected plants and plant arrangements. Part- or full-time Ikke-Bana florist to maintain them.

- Optional standing desks whereever applicable. I personally want one in my office.

- Aquarium if applicable and the Feng-Shui/Interiour guys suggest one. Which they often do.

- Custom setup printer room.

And, as an extra:

- Building exterior and fixed interiour (layout, wintergardens, custom room-fountain(s)) (co-)designed by this guy.

Re:My dream office from the top of my head

[Glonoinha]

With the exception of the 30" monitors and monster server farm stashed in a sound isolated room, wtf does any of that have to do with contributing towards excellent software development?

Want to know my dream office?
The computer hardware you described.
An R&D lab off the corporate grid where I can do whatever I want to do, no restrictions as long as I keep it legal.
Ask me what I like to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Have high quality versions of what I describe show up at my desk at 8am, noon, and 5pm. Don't interrupt me to let me know it's there - I will figure it out.
Keep it quiet, not over-brightly lit, and fairly interruption free.
Get me close enough to the windows that I can see outside, and let me close the blinds if I want.
Give me a safe place to park my car, with parking spaces wide enough I don't have to worry about door dings. If I can see my car from my window so I know it's ok - even better.
Shield and insulate me from the bullshit office politics.
And if you're feeling generous, arrange to get me laid on a regular basis.

All the time I spend not worrying about food, my car, or the mind-bendingly time consuming task of getting laid, and whether my job is in jeopardy to the whim of some manager's slash and burn short sighted quarterly profit strategy - is time I can spend totally focused on cranking out some of the most excellent software your company has ever proudly presented to its customers.

Re:My dream office from the top of my head

[lewko]

You forgot hot secretary.

Anyway, I look forward to picking all of that stuff up at auction when your imaginary company folds in the first six months.

Half-open

[Quattro Vezina]

I work in a place that's best described as half-open.

We have cubes, but the cube walls are very short. I'm 5'7", and when I'm standing, the cube wall comes up to about an inch below my armpit.

It has the advantage of giving everyone their own space while still giving the office an open, airy feel. All I have to do is stand up, and I can see everyone working in their cubes.

I've been to Tocquigny's office

[gte275e]

I've been to Tocquigny's offices before. I have a couple of friends that worked there. It's pretty funny that about 3-6 months after they moved into those offices, they laid off about 20% of their work force. The offices are really cool though. Well, not necessarily cool but definitely different. It is pretty much nothing but Apple computers, 90% of the people drink Starbucks multiple times a day, half the cars in the parking garage are Volkswagens, people rarely arrive before 10am, a decent amount of guys that speak with lisps, and most people can be found on the weekends at the local art house movie theater wearing a black turtleneck.

So what they're saying is

[bkr1_2k]

They want to work in college dorm common areas or trendy architecture firm-designed modern, overpriced playpens.

I didn't see a single example of a useful work environment to me. I need to be able to talk on the phone without shouting over the people around me, and have adequate space on my desk (not 2 feet away from the "desk" next to me) to spread out design drawings, ICDs and other documents to reference. The only "good" workspace is a private office where you can close the door for the times when you need quiet/privacy, whatever, and some common areas where you can "unwind" for a few minutes between tasks. All that other shit, the games, movie theaters, and the like, should be at home.

Any office that has all that crap expects you to work far too many hours at too little pay (most likely) for it it be a good work environment.

Just because something is trendy or pretty doesn't make it "good" for you.

Re:So what they're saying is

[/dev/trash]

Amen brother AMEN

Re:I'll keep my desk

[ednopantz]

Or they read him and found his advice useless.

1 have a huge amount of income and no investors to satisfy.
2 have a landlord willing to bend over backwards for you
3 take your vast sums and spend them on an architect.
4 take lots of pics and brag about how smart you are.

What he doesn't talk about are the crappy borrowed offices he used when they actually developed their product.

That's before one goes into the less obvious problems with his "everybody gets an office" model.

What about collaboration? I leave my office and go to yours? You leave yours and come to mine? Neither is very conducive to his vaunted hallway usability tests. (Wait, a blogger's advice isn't internally consistent! Not that!)

While the Slashbot loves the "everyone is stupid but me" mentality, these are actually not easy problems to resolve.

Hint: If our needs were solitary workers who can be left alone in their offices, we would send the work to Raj's office in Bangalore for 1/4 of your salary. The reason we don't is that we need you and your colleagues to solve these problems. And that requires both concentration and collaboration.

This is coming from someone who looked at private offices and decided that would kill our small team collaboration work [maybe offering better, but maybe not] and would cost us a ton of money.

Re:I'll keep my desk

[Kent Recal]

This is coming from someone who looked at private offices and decided that would kill our small team collaboration work [maybe offering better, but maybe not] and would cost us a ton of money.

If that's your opinion then I'm grateful that I don't have to work for you.
You have either found an amazingly rare breed of programmers (those that function well in a noisy environment) or you simply have no idea how programmers actually work. I strongly suspect the latter.

Read up on some of the comments from the "trenches". We don't make up this stuff about "conversation mode" and "focus mode". We don't ask for offices with doors because we like status-symbols. We ask for them because we can work better that way by pretty much every metric.

How did you come to the conclusion that separate offices would kill your team's collaboration work?
Do they literally yell across the room "Joe, can you review my last checkin?" or spontanously summon flashmob meetings?

Yes, working in one big room can work well for up to maybe 10 people. But I have witnessed time after time that it simply doesn't scale beyond that.
People have a natural tendency to take the shortest path to solve their problems and when the shortest path means walking (or yelling) across the room then that will be used. No policy helps that. Furthermore there's always a "new guy" around asking a constant stream of questions, there's always some important gossip to exchange and there's always someone walking around behind your back.

As much as we like to deny it, we're still animals. You can not defy psychology. Someone talking or just walking behind your back *will* disturb your concentration. Most of the time you don't even notice because we all have developed filters against such distractions. But keeping those filters up constantly costs energy. Energy that can not be used for productive work anymore.

In each new economy "loft" that I have worked in so far there were some people who'd regularly come in very early, stay in when everybody else went for food,
or stay very late. When asked about that they all had the same answer: "These are the best (read: only) times where I can actually get shit done."

So, for god's sake, if you want to get the most out of your employees then give them choice. Some people *like* to work in a big-room, maybe because they're really that rare breed or (my pet theory) because they think they can make up for their slacking with socializing. But most tech workers, and programmers in particular, will happily take the office with a door and will thank it with a highly improved performance.

Productivity Features Go Beyond Style

[TheStonepedo]

My office is in half of a pole barn built by the construction/engineering firm from which we split. The mechanical and electrical consulting engineering firm for which I work uses primarily folding 6 and 8 foot tables up against modular partition walls and routes cabling through the few sheetrock walls in the area. Sure I'd like the place to be prettier, but functional improvements can make time spent at work far more effective. I would rather see a few things that optimize my time spent at work (and increase my chance of leaving near quittin' time) than feel like I work in a hip place.

1) Accessible wiring could ease relocation of workstations to allow existing spaces to accommodate more employees or furniture changes
2) Centrally-located printing could minimize time spent running to and from printers when hard copies are required
3) Multiple monitors could reduce ink and paper consumption on project-specific reference material that would otherwise clutter a desk only to be discarded each revision cycle
4) Standing workstations could optimize floor space (good for the company), increase alertness (it's harder to fall asleep standing than sitting) and improve posture (9-11 hours in a chair can be bad for you).
5) Asterisk PBX could forward telephone calls on a per-employee basis to whichever workstation that employee is logged into (or to voice mail if that employee is not logged in) rather than using a switchboard that routes calls to a given wall jack.

ROFL

[Anonymous Coward]

Cisco!?!?! Gawd, that's funny. Cisco is one of WORST places to work. Miles upon miles of cube farms. Most of them jam packed together. Many are so packed that it's hard to walk through the maze.

Cisco is one of the worst forms of Hell.

Re:ROFL

[archkittens]

i dunno, they seemed to have pretty fun cubes, from what i saw on the tour. plus, they've got the CPOC, and the NERV, both of which i had to be dragged off of... :p

they look like decent places to work

[tsjaikdus]

I really don't understand. They look like pretty decent places to work to me.

?

My 2 submissions

[Peter Cooper]

It was going to take three weeks for BT to sort out DSL in our new house, so I had to set up a temporary office in the empty old house with only scrap furniture to hand.

http://flickr.com/photos/bigbold/985267763/
http://flickr.com/photos/bigbold/987089821/

These setups make the offices in the article look positively charming.

Re:I've always felt these are a trap to stay at wo

[lewko]

Your theory is probably right, but I'd exclude daycare from the list. You'll find that's there to keep some employees at work at all.