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The Open Office Is Destroying the Workplace

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-literally dept.

HughPickens.com writes: Lindsey Kaufman reports in the WaPo that despite its obvious problems, the open-office model has continued to encroach on workers across the country, with about 70 percent of U.S. offices having no or low partitions. Silicon Valley has led the way — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg enlisted famed architect Frank Gehry to design the largest open floor plan in the world, housing nearly 3,000 engineers within a single room that stretches 10 acres. Michael Bloomberg was another early adopter of the open-space trend, saying it promoted transparency and fairness. Bosses love the ability to keep a closer eye on their employees, ensuring clandestine porn-watching, constant social media-browsing and unlimited personal cellphone use isn't occupying billing hours.

But according to Kaufman, employers are getting a false sense of improved productivity. A 2013 study showed many workers in open offices are frustrated by distractions that lead to poorer work performance. Nearly half of the surveyed workers in open offices said the lack of sound privacy was a significant problem, and more than 30 percent complained about the lack of visual privacy. The New Yorker, in a review of research on this nouveau workplace design, determined that the benefits in building camaraderie simply mask the negative effects on work performance.

While employees feel like they're part of a laid-back, innovative enterprise, the environment ultimately damages workers' attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction says Kaufman. "Though multitasking millennials seem to be more open to distraction as a workplace norm, the wholehearted embrace of open offices may be ingraining a cycle of underperformance in their generation," writes Maria Konnikova. "They enjoy, build, and proselytize for open offices, but may also suffer the most from them in the long run."

49 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. Well duh by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The "open office" is just cost-reduction masquerading as some sort of innovation.

    It's the march towards ever less expenses to allow more profit to funnel to the few.

    And the many embrace it. The few have managed to get the many to embrace their own destruction.

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
    1. Re:Well duh by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Les Nessman solved this problem years ago.

    2. Re:Well duh by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Perhaps this should be obligatory

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    3. Re:Well duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      And the many embrace it. The few have managed to get the many to embrace their own destruction.

      Which is good. They'll get outcompeted by people who don't force their workers into unproductive hovels.

    4. Re:Well duh by currently_awake · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More likely it's managements desire to see the workers, every single minute of the work day. It's a symbol of America's unwillingness to trust the workers.

    5. Re:Well duh by Bill+Dog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The desire to see the expensive workers, that is. I.e. the ones getting benefits and making salaries commensurate with the cost of living in America.

      Tell a manager that some function is being handled offshore by cheap foreign labor, and the trust issue seems to go completely away.

      --
      Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
    6. Re:Well duh by deniable · · Score: 3, Informative

      Good open-plan uses more space than closed. You need to put space between the pods for noise reduction and traffic flow as there's no pre-defined 'corridors'. You also have to add space for break-out areas and extra meeting-rooms. You won't win on real-estate.

    7. Re:Well duh by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a symbol of America's unwillingness to trust the workers.

      I have lived, and worked, in nine countries, including Asia, Europe, and Central America. I have found that America is where workers are trusted the most. What country have you worked in where workers are more empowered to make decisions, and trusted to act independently? None that I have been to.

    8. Re:Well duh by admiral+snackbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who says they're looking for a good open plan? Where I work it was proposed, but strictly for cost-cutting measures (more people on the same area of floor). Fortunately, after a protest from at least 70% of staff, they reconsidered. Now we got flexible workstations (and enough computers just for 70% of staff). We think its ok, but our highest boss sometimes is found wandering the halls, looking for a specific employee, grumbling to himself that this is idiotic...

    9. Re:Well duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have lived, and worked, in nine countries, including Asia, Europe, and Central America.

      I might be more inclined to believe you if you didn't call Asia, Europe and Central America countries.

    10. Re:Well duh by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think the productivity increase of private offices is vastly more than 1%. There's a direct increase: all of my co-workers claim that they get way more work done at home, and looking at what actually leaves their hands when working from home, I can believe it. I have the same experience myself. There is also an indirect increase: it's well known that a noisy and distractive environment kills concentration and creativity; doing a job that requires your full attention in such an environment results in a higher error rate, requiring rework or costly fixes.

      Neither of these factors are taken into consideration when management decides to opt for open-plan, or they think that the benefits outweigh this loss in productivity. They think collaboration is key, and that open-plan serves collaboration best. Now it is true that open offices do encourage and speed up knowledge sharing, but some research shows [no citation given, do your own homework] that the value of collaboration vs. solo working is overestimated... and open-plan offices aren't even all that great for collaboration: you need a lot of quiet booths and breakout rooms as well. A lot of my co-workers complain about noise and distractions in our office even when they are on teleconferences, wearing a headset. And when they get distracted, they are more tempted to open a browser and get distracted even more. I notice the same thing: in teleconferences at work I tend to goof off; at home I am actually paying attention.

      Doing small coding jobs or reading email in an open office is not as bad as doing focused coding where you need "flow" , but I still prefer a quiet workplace for those tasks. Email is important (or I'd leave my out of office reply on permanently) and it requires my full attention. The social interaction at the office is nice and helps with the job, and I limit my working from home to 2 days a week, but in the end I go to work to work. For productivity, I wager that most knowledge workers would greatly benefit from private offices, with meeting rooms, bullpens and coffee corners to socialize.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    11. Re:Well duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've worked at a Japanese company for a quarter of a century.

      The Japanese have a highly effective open-office system. They often have about 3-4 feet of desk space apiece, and the desks tend to be 18 inches wide, and jammed together back-to-back, so employees face each other in long rows. Thank God for flatscreens. It was pretty bad when CRTs were the norm.

      I don't consider the Japanese to be particularly productive in a creative, "coming up with new ideas" sense, but they can be amazingly productive in a "gang up on a difficult problem and solve it" sense.

      However, this don't work without the cultural aspect. The Japanese are a highly social people. They have an innate sense of community that is completely missing from the US.

      In Japan, being relegated to a private office is often considered a punishment. They have the term "window seat" to indicate an office where all you is stare out the window all day. About the worst thing that can happen to you.

      Without the cultural backup, there's a good chance that open offices won't give you anything like what Japan has.

      That said, they may work out OK. Open offices are nothing new. They just tend to encourage work that is team-oriented, and not especially creative.

      For creativity, a small bullpen may be best. Think an office with four people in it, and a lot of room. I don't think that is what managers really want.

    12. Re:Well duh by Klivian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What country have you worked in where workers are more empowered to make decisions, and trusted to act independently?

      Obviusly you have newer worked in scandinavia. From experience it seems the Americans tend to go for more bureaucracy and shuffle all requred descissions up in the system. And you often get the impression it's more important to cover your own ass, than get things done.

    13. Re:Well duh by urbanriot · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What country have you worked in where workers are more empowered to make decisions, and trusted to act independently?

      Germany, Austria and Switzerland for three. Throughout many joint projects I've worked with self-motivated people that crush through a work day focused on their tasks and the work environment is irrelevant. They could be in a private office or a conference room packed with people, these Europeans are still doing what they need to do. Americans on the other hand, give them a private room and they may do their work but their web logs often show otherwise. Anyone ever evaluated and stacked up web logs of Germans to those of Americans? The latter always encourages me to wonder why 1 out of 7 men can't obtain porn on a home computer and how they can feel comfortable viewing it in a work environment.

    14. Re:Well duh by BasilBrush · · Score: 3

      You'd lose on the Zuckerberg element of that wager.

      http://www.google.co.uk/search...

    15. Re:Well duh by BasilBrush · · Score: 3

      You think that having to say what you've worked on for a day for which you were paid, and what you intend to work on for the next paid day is abuse? Then you are spoilt beyond belief.

      As to working hours, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, then go home when you've done your hours for the day. If that's not acceptable where you work, there's plenty of ordinary paying jobs where it is.

  2. Micromanagement reigns... by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Managers have no confidence in themselves-- they know they are incompetent at motivating people so they have to resort to big-brother intimidation techniques and vacuous pep rallys with inane slogans and sports metaphors. It then becomes self-fulfilling for the most part, you get what you pay for...

    1. Re:Micromanagement reigns... by SimonInOz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Micromanagement == Agile.

      Sorry, back to open offices.
      The problem here is a clash between the qualities useful for office politics (cooperation, social interaction, group activities, knowledge of multiple projects, multi-tasking), and the ones actually required for getting intellectual work done (concentration, single mindedness, long periods of interruption-free abstraction).
      For project design, architecture, debugging, etc, the effective person is not the one leaping up and down, having meetings, calling people ... no, it's the one sitting rather quietly thinking "if we did it this way, we'd save 5 years of work".

      The whole thrust of "office design", and office working techniques, is aimed at extroverts. Extroverts make rotten programmers, designers, and they tend not to be especially innovative. Management is appropriate for extroverts - and, as we know, people promote people like them ... and even hire them.

      So basically, if you are a quiet, bright, introvert, you are probably brilliant at your job - and almost unemployable.

      Bummer, eh?

      --
      "Cats like plain crisps"
  3. I hate it by mamba69 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Constant noise and distraction, getting interrupted 1000 times by co-workers. It leads to starting some tasks over and over and forgetting about others.

    Bad idea, created by "Twitter Generation"

    1. Re:I hate it by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bad idea, created by "Twitter Generation"

      You really need to review your history. The open office has been around for centuries, if not millennia. Mind you back then the Monks weren't allowed to speak. And that doesn't even touch on Dicksian nightmares and the middle of last century. What is new is people not shutting the fuck up and annoying everyone else.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    2. Re:I hate it by azcoyote · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Even monks tended to have private monastic cells where they went throughout the day to pray alone.

      --
      Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
  4. Fine! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    *uninstalls OpenOffice and installs a crazy outdated version of StarOffice*

  5. Open Office Space by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.

    Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?

    Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

    --

    Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

    Vote for Bernie in 2016!

    1. Re:Open Office Space by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 3, Funny

      Milton: I was told that I could play my radio at a reasonable volume...

  6. More productive on the bus to/from work by presidenteloco · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had a programming job in an open office with the boss on the phone faking jovial, garrulous laughter in sales calls all day long when he wasn't coming over to refocus our efforts many times a day and ask how long that would take.

    Needless to say, I got more productive development done (on my hobby project/next business) in the private office of the back seat of the bus for half hour in the morning and evening. A bus can be noisy (and you have to hang on to your laptop for fear of sudden stops), but it beats the open plan office by a long shot anyday.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    1. Re:More productive on the bus to/from work by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've found that the only 'open' floorplan that works is when it's grouped for small teams with their own walls separating them from other teams. That allows the team to communicate effectively when they need to without having to get up and walk to someone else's office, but also gives a degree of privacy to the members of the team, so long as they're comfortable with each other.

      That last statement is critical, I've seen some groupings work very poorly because of particularly boisterous people that could be heard through multiple closed doors as they didn't understand that their outside voices weren't necessary for a telephone call, or people that conduct way too much personal business on the phone while in the office. I've also seen teams whose work areas became the hangout for the department, which also destroys productivity.

      It can work, but it requires conditions to be right to make it work.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  7. Totally Agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Besides the distracting perpetual background noise, the feeling of being constantly on display is fairly unnerving.

    Web browsing on company time is a self correcting problem. It's accepted (at least where I work) that quick breaks throughout the day are almost a necessity. I usually do so when I get hung up or frustrated by something. A quick glance through any one of several sites I frequent gives my brain a break, and then I find I can get back at it. People who abuse this excessively become less productive.

    You don't need an open office to notice the guys who arn't pulling their weight. Whether it's because they are on facebook all day, or because they just arn't very good doesn't matter much. If they are still doing an appropriate amount of work for their grade, they'll probably stay on anyway but their career is going nowhere. If they arn't, they're probably out the door sooner or later. Ultimately the first performance enhancement meeting (not making that up) is usually a wakeup call.

    1. Re:Totally Agree by lucm · · Score: 5, Funny

      Web browsing on company time is a self correcting problem. It's accepted (at least where I work) that quick breaks throughout the day are almost a necessity. I usually do so when I get hung up or frustrated by something. A quick glance through any one of several sites I frequent gives my brain a break, and then I find I can get back at it.

      Last year I spent a few months working on site for a client that has a zero tolerance policy for personal use of internet. When I learned about this I was horrified and almost declined the contract, but as soon as I started working there I found out that not only did my productivity improve, my general mood also improved. Hours flew by even if the project was not that interesting. At the end of the day I had more energy, and I also took more pleasure in non-work activities in the evening.

      I am not kidding. Try it for a week: no personal email, no personal web browsing, no funnies, nothing like that during business hours (including the phone). Also cut the chitchat and the gossiping around the watercooler (or espresso machine). You won't believe how better you will feel. It's almost zen.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    2. Re:Totally Agree by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      nope, sorry. won't ever take a job like that unless I'm 6mos late with the rent and have no other option.

      try to control me to that level and you will fail. and you won't get anyone worth having, either, as only sheep will put up with such treatment.

      modern life means that personal stuff 'happens' and it happens while at 9-5, too. to say 'no' to this is rude and inconsiderate and I want NO PART of any boss or company that disrespects me to that level.

      tl;dr; show-stopper. I won't take a job like that and neither should anyone, here.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  8. Kill it with fire! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    15 years ago the president of the company was all "This is the future! Ad hoc meetings when necessary everyone shuts up and does their work otherwise!"

    Now it's incessant screaming over each other at the phone as people are trying to conference call, speaker phone call, crack up at jokes and argue with each other while trying to be louder than everyone else. And the president comes and paces back and forth behind me for minutes on end before I finally crack and ask him what he wants.

  9. Reinventing history by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Informative

    The cube farm was invented as response to the problems of the open office. Now the pendulum is swinging the other way and people wonder why problems are cropping up?

    The office cubicle was created by designer Robert Propst for Herman Miller, and released in 1967 under the name "Action Office II". Although cubicles are often seen as being symbolic of work in a modern office setting due to their uniformity and blandness, they afford the employee a greater degree of privacy and personalization than in previous work environments, which often consisted of desks lined up in rows within an open room.

    Cubicle

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  10. "multitasking millenials" by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Though multitasking millennials seem to be more open to distraction as a workplace norm.

    More open to distraction, sure, but not more productive because of it. The brain just doesn't work that way.

    1. Re:"multitasking millenials" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I used to be one of those 'multitaskers'. I took pride that I could crank on 3-4 things at a time.

      It took me years to figure out I was doing 3-4 things badly. I now deliberately do 1 thing at a time. I make everyone set the priority they want. I make it CLEAR they what they are costing (time, money, resources). I use the scrumm burndown list method to focus my boss. I also make it clear that spinning people off task for that brain fart you had this morning costs productivity. I do not use online burndown tools on purpose. Most of them are exceptional at what they do. I can use it with some people to good effect. But my current boss seems to forget to actually manage it. So I use a manual process to put it in front of him. As it is in front of him as he is a 'swing by' kind of boss. "lets check the list" is a very good way for him to figure out what to do.

      Multitasking is just a way of telling your workers you do not care about priority. Not everything can be at the top of the list. *SOMETHING* must be bellow the top. It may be a close call but you have to decide. In the words of the highlander there can be only one. Not everyone will be working on the top of the priority list either. Some will be getting number 2 and number 3 underway. However, something must be #1.

      If you do not make it clear what people should do you get people wandering off task to do other things. Micromanaging is a symptom of trust issues that are fed by them finding you doing other things. People wander off because they were not told properly up front what the priority was. It all feeds on itself.

  11. A solution by sls1j · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think one of these would be helpful in an open work space.

  12. One size DOES NOT fit all by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Surprisingly there is not a one size fits all solution for laying out peoples work environments!

    Believe it or not there are some jobs where open plan offices are significantly better than cube farms or closed personal offices. And there are jobs where half way setups, ie small open plan offices of teams work better than large spaces or singular offices.

    If you are in a sales role then open plan works a large amount of the time. If you are in a role where you are primarily focussed on your screen and writing something then smaller offices tend to work better.

    If you can realise that not everyone's job is even similar, let alone the same, you will be able to understand that different layout will suit some more than others.

  13. Re:Is It Worth Getting a New Job Over? by VonSkippy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes - I've turned down two solid offers in 2014 (both with a minor 10%ish package increase but more interesting research, at least more interesting to me) because the position did NOT come with dedicated office space. I agreed to do a followup interview and stated in no uncertain terms the entire reason for me refusing the offer was the open layout of their lab. The 30-something HR person looked at me like I had just grown two heads. Depending on your career level and path, your mileage may vary.

  14. Partitions of space are required by ShaunC · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Lack of partitions is a dealbreaker for me. I will not work in a space where everyone sees everyone all the time and there is no private space. Period. I will not work on an open floor plan.

    I'm not asking for my own office with a door that closes. I've never had that, and I don't expect it. I understand that I'm at work and that I have no real expectation of privacy. But we're all human, and I'm not comfortable sitting around where anyone can see what I'm doing at all times. Maybe I'm reading Slashdot for a few minutes, maybe I'm on StackExchange asking or answering something work-related, maybe I'm checking my personal email. Maybe I'm reading a white paper from a vendor, with my arm propped up on the desk while I gradually scroll through. As long as my work is being done and my employer is happy, there's no reason the rest of the floor should have a view of me, or vice versa.

    Believe it or not, there's a happy medium. Partitions. Cubicles. They were implemented for a reason. I need some walls that extend several feet above my seated position and on all sides, which give me enough privacy to disregard the rest of the office for awhile. I'm never going to absorb a 30-page protocol spec if I'm exposed to every motion of everyone else around me. That's distracting. I have to have a bit of isolation in order to concentrate. I can mentally tune out things like telephones ringing, coworkers talking, etc. but in order to be truly productive, I need my cube partitions. I don't work in a restaurant, I don't want my workplace to resemble a restaurant.

    This isn't about browsing porn at work, or spending all day on social media. I have no trouble with my company logging everything I do; I'm at work, after all. I just need some personal space to do what I'm paid for. I will not work on a big glass floor.

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
  15. Such a shame Facebook-Zuck dominate social media by mike2006 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Every time I read an article that mentions Zuckerberg I know it is going to contain some idea, process or plan I am going to hate. Zuck is the worst possible CEO to have so much power which we know translates to the tech industry following his lead and also legislation. It is dbags like the Zuckerbergs that make me want to get out of tech since with people following their lead things are only going to get worse for the rest of us.

  16. "Peopleware" in 1987, Harlan Mills in 1971 ... by DutchUncle · · Score: 4, Informative

    Every study ever done, every paper written by smart and productive people, says that knowledge workers need private spaces for concentration, and separate conference spaces for conferencing. The wide-open "collaborate all day" space sounds like hanging around the water cooler all day. At the cube farm I'm in now, I have a 7-foot wall between me and a main corridor; but people stop in the corridor junction and schmooze to the point that I can't hear myself think.

    I worked at one place where the VP brought in Tim Lister for a 2-day "boot camp" seminar, and insisted that a new building have 1- or 2-person offices for engineering (no bigger than a typical cubicle or two, but an enclosed office!) (with common lab areas for test equipment). Heck, the accounting department and legal department and HR all got private offices (bigger ones) - why not the people doing the work that brought in money?

  17. middle ground: 2-3 people back-to-back by raymorris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Currently I have my own office and each of my coworkers has their own. We each naturally work mostly with one or two other people through the day - the two graphic designers work together, etc. Some coworkers spend MOST of their time in their associate's office visiting^H^H^H^H collaborating. Other's less so, but it seems most of us feel the need to get out of our office and go see another human face at some point in the day.

    I think I preferred the setup at my previous company, where two or three people were in a large office, with their backs to each other. Nobody was looking at you, and you didn't see anyone, until you turned to talk to them. I could focus on my work, and they on theirs, but they could also easily ask me a question, and I could notice when one of my people was having a rough day, or just just a stressful hour. We could focus on our work, but when one person was clearly getting stressed about stupid customers we could go for some frozen custard and come back 15 minutes later in a better mood.

    Where I am now, my boss's office is next to mine. We office shout to one another rather than using instant messenger or getting out of our chair. It'd be easier if she was eight feet away at the other end of a large office. On the other hand, maybe I wouldn't want my boss in my office all the time - at my last company I WAS the boss. :)

  18. Once Upon A Time In 1980 At Boeing Airplanes by mallyn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    At Boeing Airplanes in Renton, Washington in 1980, there was one large room with 80 engineers.

    Each engineer had a desk. No deviders or walls.

    All of the desks faced the same direction.

    At the front of the room was a raised platform (about 1 foot high). On that platform sat the managers.

    Four engineers shared one phone. That phone was on a swing arm that would swing in a circle above the four desks.

    Oh, and I forgot. Your desk had to be completely bare when you left in the afternoon. And you do not want to be caught reading a newspaper anytime after the whistle blows at 8 AM.

    --
    Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
    1. Re:Once Upon A Time In 1980 At Boeing Airplanes by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

      there was one large room with 80 engineers.

      Only 80? In Everett, we had about 400 in one room (a big f*cking room).

      We used to call people who sat some distance away rather than walk over. The etiquette was to turn and face each other across a few hundred feet while conversing on the phone. On more than one occasion, I'd crack up the person I was talking to by whipping out a pair of binoculars.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  19. Productive individual vs productive company by Shados · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We had that discussion at work today over that article. Several people pointed out they were far more productive alone, with the lights off, in a corner, than at their desk and that it proved the open floor plan was bad.

    (We're talking software engineers)

    My personal take is: almost anyone (who doesn't need babysitting) will be more productive alone in a distraction free area. That is, more productive doing the part of the job that a monkey can do. I can bang out thousands of lines of code very quickly if no one's bothering me, sure.

    But here's the catch: that's not the hard part of the job. (almost) anyone could do that. The hard part is the design, architecture, problem solving. Most of the time, those are better done in group. They may seem worse sometimes: arguing feels counterproductive and a waste of time. But no one's perfect and no one knows everything, so being able to bounce off ideas from the person next to you at will can prevent million dollar mistakes. Once the problem is solved, and just typing code as quick as possible is the only thing left to do, sure, work from home if you want, but don't fool yourself that you're doing anything worth a lot.

    Then, let's go with the assumption the above is not true: you're a god developer who never makes mistake and figures out everything on their own instantly. There's a lot of people who could use bouncing ideas off of YOU, who could discuss things with you, and may waste time, get blocked, or worse, make mistakes, if they can't get a hold of you in a timely manner. Sure, it will feel like you can't get anything done, but again, once the problem is solved, anyone can implement it: those "n00bs" that are pestering you will be able to do the easy part once they got the info they needed off of you.

    And once an office reach a certain size, sending an email or an instant message then waiting 10 minutes so you can be in a good spot to answer adds up to a lot of wasted time. In the end, there's a reason some very successful businesses keep paying a fortune in engineer salaries in SF, Boston, NY or Seattle to keep a critical mass of devs together. There's no substitute and it can often be worth the insane markup.

    Now there does come a time when you have to get the easy shit done, and there's a lot of easy shit to do. Library atmosphere sections in an office can take care of that. But if you're always there, or even if you're not but always have the noise cancelling headphones on because you're "OMG SO MUCH MORE PRODUCTIVE", you're honestly part of the problem. You're gonna look good in your yearly review, people may think you're fucking awesome. But as a small part of something bigger, you're just fucking everyone else over.

  20. Re:i like open offices by rwa2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sheesh, I had to scroll down FAR to find someone else who didn't mind open office plans...

    For me, working in an office is about maximizing Communication. Cubes and even conference rooms get in the way of communication, isolating and dividing groups so that they start wandering off in different directions and ends up creating more work to get everyone back on the same page.

    Yes, distraction is an issue. But an important part of cognitive function is to be able to filter out distractions when you do need extended periods of hyperfocus. This is pretty easily handled with headphones and some discipline. My coworkers are polite enough not to approach someone who looks like they're "in the zone" and attach their comments and questions to their work tickets (woo documentation) and/or wait until standup to discuss things that need more eyeballs - usually things are resolved much faster that way anyway (as long as it's timeboxed not to waste the time of the entire team).

    Plus, your workspace is very much a showcase of your work, personality, and work habits, and I find it way easier to display it on the open planform "science fair" office than in the empty nest "cube farm" booth format.

    In the name of improving communication, I would even go so far as to split team members up and spread them around the office so they can better mingle with other groups in your supply / input / process / output / customer chain. After all, your teammates should already have a good deal of sync with each other, since they attend meetings together more frequently and back each other up on the same projects, so it's more beneficial to maximize inter-team communication by spreading your group out to keep tabs on the other groups in your office. They can do a better job passively filtering information discussed by other teams, helping keep track of the pulse of other groups so you have some advanced notice of when a deadline might slip or an important milestone is coming up. I always find it a greater waste of time when, after every 6 mo. reorg, they try to shuffle around everyone's seats so teams are seated near each other in a cluster by their current manager so they can "better collaborate" with each other, like they weren't going to be able to find a convenient way to do so anyway.

    If you really need privacy, grab a break-out room, or work from home that day. But for the most part, I find that work sucks more when there's not enough communication, as opposed to when there's insufficient time for hyperfocus work (assuming your manager is doing a decent job shielding you from the BS, which I know is by no means a given).

  21. Re:White Boards by Shados · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How I've seen it done is generally a couple of things.

    A) the walls are all using that paint that let you use arbitrary walls as white board. If there's pillars, paint those too. They're not as big, but they're often sufficient for quick sketches, and they have 4 sides.

    B) Desks often have short separators. Those are also often whiteboards/magnet.

    C) Lots of small huddle rooms good for a quick ad-hoc 2-4 people meeting. Those rooms can't be booked and are so people just hop in and out.

    D) Lots and lots of pair programming. Not a whiteboard, but for a lot of usages, it serves the same purpose.

  22. I've worked in cubicle farms most of my career. by josquin9 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every manager I've questioned about the shortcomings of cubicles has said that it's good for intra-office communication and creative collaboration . . . before walking into their private office and shutting the door behind them. Even in an organization where they made a point that managers didn't have private offices (though, senior managers and executives, of course, still did) most of the managers camped out in the few small conference rooms where employees were supposed to be able to go for "spontaneous collaborative sessions."

    I guess this meant that they realized that they have nothing to offer intellectually or creatively to the work of the office.

  23. Re:i like open offices by Ryanrule · · Score: 5, Insightful

    you sound like a person who talks about work instead of DOING work.

  24. Re:ugh by Ryanrule · · Score: 4, Funny

    well you could burn the place down.

  25. Re:ugh by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    well you could burn the place down.

    Then I'd have to move again.