Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

58% of High-Performance Employees Say They Need More Quiet Work Spaces (cnbc.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-we-work dept.

An anonymous reader shares a CNBC article: Behold the open industrial office space. At one moment, it feels like such a hip environment, bustling with easy communication and collaboration, innovation and headphones just behind every monitor. At another moment, the open office is the loudest, most annoying, distracting and unproductive environment one can imagine. What if the open industrial office is just part of a larger misguided fantasy? What if this office style is hurting our employees working on the hardest problems -- our high-performance employees (HPEs)? What if the open office is causing retention problems, and affecting the quality of our end products? As I outlined in my HPE article, executives and high-performance employees tend to optimize against completely different trade and life principles -- they generally have very different views of the world. This disconnect shows itself very clearly in the environmental conditions of our creative and technical offices. My latest anonymous survey shows that 58% of HPEs need more private spaces for problem solving, and 54% of HPEs find their office environment "too distracting."

3 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Bias from personal preference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Everyone hates open offices. Or they are the most efficient way to work. It depends on who writes the article and who is running the survey.

    I've worked in open spaces my entire life. I'm one of those so-called HPEs. I don't give a shit. If its too loud, either ask people to be quiet or put on headphones for the whole 5 minutes its noisy.

    Even at a Major Social Media Company, the noise was never bad for more than a few minutes when some brogrammer fools wanted to laugh about some stupid shit before they finally went to get a coffee and leave me in peace.

    Sounds like I don't like open spaces, eh? I do. I prefer them.

    1. Re:Bias from personal preference by Dayze!Confused · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's funny how scared Americans are of restrooms and genders. I spent a decade in Taiwan where it isn't uncommon for the female janitors to walk in and clean the men's restroom. You know what happens? Everybody just goes about their business. If I'm taking a shit I keep the door closed, if I'm using a urinal I point my dick at the urinal, shake it off, and put it back in my pants without flashing them, offering them the same level of respect that I do the other male occupants. It's really not a big deal and it's funny how much Americans get their briefs tied up in a knot over it.

      --
      "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
    2. Re:Bias from personal preference by wafflemonger · · Score: 3, Informative

      In those situations, watch for the lower bosses to "occasionally" and "temporarily" use a conference room for some work.