Panasonic Designed Human Blinders To Block Out Open-Plan Office Distraction (curbed.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Open plan offices, once the darling of design, are now showing their fault lines. To get a little bit of personal space, we've come up with all sorts of solutions, from phone booths to furniture designed to create a sense of privacy. All of those ideas seem totally, completely normal compared to this new project from Panasonic. The tech company's Future Life Factory design studio partnered with Japanese fashion designer Kunihiko Morinaga to develop an open-plan solution to end all open-plan solutions. Say hello to Wear Space. Wear Space is, for lack of a better description, like equine blinkers for humans. The strip of flexible material wraps around the back of the head and covers the side of the eyes, blocking up to 60 percent of a wearer's peripheral vision, Panasonic says. Think of it as a sign for potential bothersome coworkers that broadcasts, "I'm busy."

Comments

Ingenues

[Dorianny]

Now you can carry the cubicle with you

Re:Ingenues

[codemaster2b]

http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-...

Re:Ingenues

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the point is to make it feel like you are wearing VR goggles. That way you can have your "dream" job in full 8K resolution.

it is a sign alright.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I am someones workhorse."

Re:it is a sign alright.

[Cro Magnon]

To that, I say Neigh!

Re:it is a sign alright.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really cool, slightly relevant spam link of the day: High Horse.

Re:it is a sign alright.

[rtb61]

I found an image, http://www.fggam.org/wp-conten.... So all you need now is the bit between your teeth and of course the whip. Fucking hell Panasonic, what the fuck were you thinking, way to look really fucking bad.

Open office planform is a bad idea

[Geoffrey.landis]

"Once the darling of design" is right. Actual research shows that the "open office" idea, with no privacy at all, is a terrible idea for a workplace, which maximized distractions and minimized getting things done.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[jeff4747]

It also minimized square footage per employee, thus minimizing rent and paying maximum bonuses to management.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[OzPeter]

"Once the darling of design" is right. Actual research shows that the "open office" idea, with no privacy at all, is a terrible idea for a workplace, which maximized distractions and minimized getting things done.

The cubicle *was* the reaction to the open office plan. Looks like we are finally going full circle.

On the other hand I think Panasonic has it wrong. They should have opted for full on VR headsets where you can map in all your work spaces plus any background that you like.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[Anonymous Coward]

I would KILL for a cubicle, absolutely kill for one. The ENTIRE top floor of my building is one giant open office; you can stand at one end and see the wall at the other end of the building nearly 500 feet away.
Some days the noise is incredible, people constantly walking around making the floor wobble, people yelling in phones, walking to and from their desks, having fucking mini meetings at their desks...good luck working while somebody sits close to you talking for an hour god damn solid.
I could EASILY get 25% more work done per day without the constant noise and distractions.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[Luthair]

Its still the darling of design, but its been known to be fucking terrible to anyone who does actual work.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[Thud457]

Les Nessman scoffs at your makeshift horse blinders.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

"Once the darling of design" is right. Actual research shows that the "open office" idea, with no privacy at all, is a terrible idea for a workplace, which maximized distractions and minimized getting things done.

It is. It's awful. In my first job after graduating from college, which was in the 2nd half of the 1980s, we had this kind of office. It was terrible. You heard everything. Yyou knew which of your co-workers were constantly on the phone dealing with family matters instead of working. It was a government job, so nobody got fired. After some years of this, we got moved to a new building and we got cubicles and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. This whole idea that open offices are great is nuts and a few years from now, nobody who backs it is going to believe they could have ever thought it was a good idea. Except maybe Zuckerberg and other millennials. If they were older and had gone through it before, they wouldn't be pushing for it now. Everything in cyclical. Maybe after this fails, people will actually remember how terrible it is and not do it again. Maybe.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[HornWumpus]

Labor costs far exceed rent, unless you're hiring warm bodies to staff a phone bank.

For any sort of tech, saving 50% of rent, but losing 10% of productivity is a huge loss.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[turbidostato]

"For any sort of tech, saving 50% of rent, but losing 10% of productivity is a huge loss."

Maybe. But, then, you are looking at it the wrong way.

How do you measure the 10% lost productivity, specially when your whole industry has made it the standard? I'll tell you: nobody will measure this.

Then, how do you measure the savings you get by packing your employees like cows? Again, I'll tell you: just look at the rent bills.

So, what do you think bean-counting minds will push forward? I'll tell you about that too: just look around.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[suutar]

I was thinking that as well. I bet that'll be version 3 :)

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[HornWumpus]

Metrics are hard, that is true. There is no substitute for technically competent management.

If your bean counters or sales weasels are in charge of your engineering, you've already lost. But 'good news', they won't know you stopped working and spend 8+ hours/day networking for a new job. Just game whatever broken metrics they are using.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[ZorinLynx]

Hell, it goes back to the 1950s and 60s. I've seen photos of offices from the 50s and 60s, and everybody is working on one large room, on small desks like a classroom. And they're using typewriters; which are annoying and loud. Imagine what a horrible work environment that was.

Cubicles were invented for a reason. We wouldn't have them if open plans worked, because the logical progression is so try open plan first (since it's cheapest), learn that it doesn't work, then try cubicles.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[Dragonslicer]

Maybe after this fails, people will actually remember how terrible it is and not do it again. Maybe.

Haha, good one.

Re: Open office planform is a bad idea

[Anonymous Coward]

We should try something new instead of mindlessly following fads.

Let's put workers in a series of tubes.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[bluefoxlucid]

Where do you come up with this shit?

When I worked for a call center, my desk was 3 feet wide. The cubical walls were tall; they extended back at least 18 inches from the desk, enclosing me in a little fabric box. A very tiny fabric box.

When I worked at Social Security and where I work now, management built open plan offices as cubicles with 40-inch walls. No reduction in space per employee.

Classical open plan offices are desks. Fields of desks. They waste a shitload of space.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[jeff4747]

The technically competent parts of management, if they exist, are not the ones signing building leases or the plans for the space.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[lgw]

It also minimized square footage per employee, thus minimizing rent and paying maximum bonuses to management.

No, it doesn't even do that. That's also been studied. You can make cubicles very small, and for most offices you need more space for meeting rooms, so it all evens out. It's just a fad, with no upside at all.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[anegg]

I used to work for a somewhat enlightened company that ensured all workers had offices (with doors). Unfortunately I was a consultant/contractor, and over time our customers (federal government) chose to house contractors working on-site in densely-packed cube farms (with as many as 4 of us to a cube that might house one government worker). My productivity went steadily down as distractions went up. Even work-related discussions (but not related to the problem I was working on) steal my attention if keywords or subjects that affect me come up. Some of us took to wearing headphones, but that was eventually discouraged because it was unsightly and went against the "team" atmosphere. Sigh.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[HornWumpus]

Your employer doesn't own you. The bad ones tell you: 'It's like this everywhere'. They lie.

If your management really is THAT BAD, they are telling you to 'game the system for all you are worth'.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[Anonymous Coward]

They will do it again. They'll come up with all sorts of lame excuses. It'll foster collaboration. We now have VR. AI do the brunt of your work anyways, so who needs you? The list goes on and on.

The real reason we all know. Some spreadsheet showing "cost centers" and people with no clue making decisions and ramming their feces down throats.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[thePsychologist]

You're right, Libre Office is probably better.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[torkus]

You're reading some interesting studies but they don't agree with reality and the space planning that larger companies actually are doing.

Open seating does have more space dedicated to conference rooms but the space per employee is still less. To the point that many open seating plans are capacity limited by fire or health codes (such as population vs bathroom or vs fire escape/evacuation capacity).

If not for those limitations, there would be even more people crammed in.

It's certainly a fad, but it's embraced by senior management because real estate is an expensive, largely fixed cost for companies so the only way they can show savings is by making more efficient use of it. It's spoken about under the guise of better collaboration, and all that jazz but, excluding the few teams or departments that actually NEED constant collaboration, it's really a cost saver first and foremost.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[torkus]

On the other hand I think Panasonic has it wrong. They should have opted for full on VR headsets where you can map in all your work spaces plus any background that you like.

Or just letting people work from home. Though I expect that will change too eventually when someone sues their company over the real estate cost of their home/apartment they're required to dedicate to work.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[torkus]

Its the darling of the board room mostly. Why?

Because for any company, real estate is usually a substantial cost and a FIXED, LONG-TERM cost at that. Those things sit on your books like dead weights and you can do very little to lower your costs. However, what you CAN do is cram more people into the same space (assuming your have a growing company) and show *relative* savings by reducing your fixed costs per employee.

So, of course design companies have jumped all over it! The would build igloos if they were trendy and profitable.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[mikael]

If they could get away with it, they would put office desks under the stairwells:

http://www.czmcam.org/wp-conte...

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[mikael]

It's been like that for 20 years. I could list all the categories of all the different types of distractions:
Purchase managers, sales and marketing people who stand up and shout down telephones for hours on end, especially right next or in front of you. I had to go away for a snack or early lunch because one guy would stand
directly over me while shouting.
  Employees who make sudden loud announcements because they love watching all these live traffic, train, ferry and airport websites.
Group meetings in the aisles which sound like a public bar on a football night. When you try and type on the keyboard, the crowd suddenly starts shouting louder.
Internal mail operatives who drop palettes of boxes with the sound of heavy munitions exploding. Followed by the recipient spending the rest of the day packing and unpacking items using duct tape, bubble wrap and cling film. One dude had to repackage boxes of five into boxes of three and spend the whole day doing this.
Employees doing metalwork or woodwork with electric drills at their desk.
People constantly pacing back and forth. Knew a couple of people who would just ping-pong around the person they were talking to like an electron in an orbital field. Drove me nuts as he kept going back and forth behind me while talking to the person in front of me.
Testing various alarm systems and just leaving the alarms running through lunch, afternoon, evening and all night.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[lgw]

Real estate is dirt cheap compared to salaries, unless you have office space in the stupidest places in the world. And you'd be surprised how the office space numbers actually work out.

If your argument is "management is smart, they wouldn't waste money like that"; oh you sweet summer child.

Re:Open office planform is a bad idea

[rolias]

We might as well work in bars.

I have a better idea

[ddtmm]

I’ve found that nothing beats good noise-cancelling headphones. Haven’t seen anything better yet.

Re:I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

"I’ve found that nothing beats good noise-cancelling headphones. Haven’t seen anything better yet."

Try walls... walls are MUCH better than headphones.

Re:I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't seen anything better yet.

That's because you've got blinders on!!!

Re: I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Making all the noise myself beats any noise cancelling headphones. When I'm on the phone people know I'm busy

Re:I have a better idea

[Burdell]

Try being on the other side of the wall from the soda and junk food machines that regularly jam up, infuriating cow-orkers to slam them around like toys. Noise-cancelling headphones work much better than a couple of thin layers of drywall.

Re:I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Try 50cm of concrete.
Much better than any noise canceling headphones.

Re:I have a better idea

[ZorinLynx]

That really depends on your office culture. In some offices people get annoyed at you for wearing headphones because they can't yell at you from across the room.

Re:I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure your co-workers are not fucking up against the vending machines?

Re:I have a better idea

[HornWumpus]

I'm sure I speak for all of /. when I say: 'Fuck you for putting that mental image into my mind!'

Re:I have a better idea

[Misagon]

Active noise-cancellation can only dampen continuous noise such as whirring engines and fans, not transient sounds such as speak.

They are therefore practically not more effective in an open-plan office environment than regular closed headphones or $5 ear muffs.

Re: I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Distance works much better than walls.

Re:I have a better idea

[torkus]

That really depends on your office culture. In some offices people get annoyed at you for wearing headphones because they can't yell at you from across the room.

Yep. And they bother the whole office yelling to get your attention...and then often bother someone ELSE to tap your shoulder.

Or, you know, just come over and interrupt you regardless. Plenty of offices have the 'don't interrupt me' flag of headphones or similar and equally have everyone who thinks THEIR issue is important enough to justify the interruption.

Re:I have a better idea

[torkus]

You're just ... simply wrong.

Any 'continuous' noise you hear still varies a LOT and the whole point of active noise cancellation is to adapt to that and block it. For perspective, they have active noise cancellation for job sites that specifically include individual, loud noises.

Now, if you aren't distracted by music and can add that to the mix, you can pretty much drown out everything without even needing much volume.

Re:I have a better idea

[Cederic]

While I agree with your approach it's sadly illegal to throw large bricks at idiot colleagues.

This may be a stupid question

[Anonymous Coward]

But couldn't they had just made a pair of glasses with some black stuff on them?

Re:This may be a stupid question

[Darinbob]

But then anyone could make their own, where's the profit in that?

The first batch

[Anonymous Coward]

were designed to keep creimer ebooks blocked, but they couldn't make them large enough and still wearable!!

Re:The first batch

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out creimer's video channel!

Now all we need

[thrillseeker]

are feedbags and porta potties for seats and management will get their bonuses.

Re:Now all we need

[scottrocket]

are feedbags and porta potties for seats and management will get their bonuses.

Nay-ay-ay-y-y!

An even better idea

[Confused]

I’ve found that nothing beats good noise-cancelling headphones. Haven’t seen anything better yet.

Have you tried an office with privacy? That's even better than noise-cancelling headphones.

  I guess the corporate world isn't ready for such a radical and innovative idea yet. Human horse blinders will have to do for now.

Get Real

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounds like Panasonic are the ones wearing blinders, if it thinks this is a legitimate solution to the problem

This is doubleplusgood!

[Qbertino]

Is it not?

Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[jellomizer]

Open office designs are just stupid.
Mostly the bosses who are these big extroverts (who also seem to have their own office) who thrive on personal interaction, debates and general open communication, think these open offices are great ideas, and they tend to look nice also with a lot of light and non-braking spaces. However the people who come up with the ideas and solutions tend to be the introverts, who need to sit quietly, think, plan and work out the details. These are are just rooms of noise, confusion and just a lot of bluster.

Real offices with doors are the best, Shared offices with one other person comes in second, third are high walled cubes, then short walled cubes and finally open office designs as the productivity killer.

While the boss and investors love to see an office that seems busy like a factory floor. vs a hallway of dead silence. In reality with everyone quite and working, things are getting done.
 

Re: Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a boss but I have always been more productive in an open office than in a cubicle. I've been in super open offices with 200 people in the same area and in semi-open offices where you have rooms that sit 4 to 5 people. Cubicles are just the shit

Re: Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[HornWumpus]

I worked one place where an open office was, sort of, necessary.

Because management was so bad, the only way anybody knew what was going on was informal communication. The morons didn't see that as a feature though. They _wanted_ everybody working in their narrow corner, ignorant of the _incredibly_broken_ big picture (and complete lack of coherent system design).

Re:Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[bluefoxlucid]

Our new CIO came in immediately talking about metrics-driven decisions, and also more open plan offices to increase productivity. I pointed out that studies have shown open plan reduces productivity and increases worker stress, and he brushed it off and said he doesn't subscribe to that thinking.

You can't be metrics-driven and support open plan.

Also, no, it's not introverts being afraid of social interaction; it's everyone's gum chewing, keyboard tapping, and chattering carrying loud and clear around the office. It's people seeing every little movement. It's people not having a safe space, and so any peripheral intrusion is a threat. It's people who should be working instead chattering across the open air space in the most inefficient communication possible.

Businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have sound engineers and audio professionals from Cambridge Sound Works and other high-dollar names come in and build noise-floor devices. Not just white noise generators, but soft noise generators positioned to confuse your spatial perceptions so the sound appears to come from nowhere and everywhere instead of from that box or ceiling fan over there, and thus your brain ignores it. The increase in SPL tightens the timpani and drives your brain to ignore what background noise does mix in, thus deadening your perception of quiet office sounds.

They could just put up cubicles.

Re: Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you meant: "cubicles are just shit"
In common slang, "the shit" implies something good or extraordinary.

Re:Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[eth1]

Open office designs are just stupid.
Mostly the bosses who are these big extroverts (who also seem to have their own office) who thrive on personal interaction, debates and general open communication...

Yeah, and I have Asperger's, so an open plan office is essentially a "hostile work environment" for me. This is going to be fun in a few weeks, when I'm moving to a different team at work - there are NO areas whatsoever that are acceptable to anyone on the Autism spectrum anywhere near where I'll be moving to. Since Asperger's is considered a disability under the ADA, it's going to be interesting to see what happens when I point this out... Offices here are "VP+ only", and even if they put me in one (or put in one cubicle), I'd have to deal with a constant stream of "how come YOU get an office/real cubicle" 500 times/day.

Re: Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[Anonymous Coward]

There's nothing quite like using science only when it suits your preexisting notion.

Re:Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[mcarp]

no, ive sat in waiting rooms with noise generators for an hour or more and after doing that for once a week many weeks in a row, i started really hating going into that waiting room. dont suggest any of that. very bad.

Re:Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[Cederic]

I have Aspergers and prefer open plan offices.

It's the cunts with audible email warnings or that stand right behind me having a private conversation at public speaking volumes that cause problems, and they're cunts in any office.

Open plan lets me see more, engage more socially, hear more about my colleagues and their work without actually having to try and talk to them. It's bloody useful.

Re:Inovation comes from the meek, not the speak

[bluefoxlucid]

Those are blunt white noise generators. They're annoying. Ever noticed a waterfall or a PC fan doesn't sound the same? Different noise distribution.

You can pay engineers hundreds of thousands of dollars for all this, or you can put up cube walls.

Or . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Or . . . think of it as a sign for potential bothersome coworkers that broadcasts, "I'm a giant dork."

Management can still watch you like a hawk

[Rick Schumann]

Sure. Just give yourself the illusion of privacy, while your control-freak micro-managing boss(es) can still watch you like a hawk the entire time. FFS give people back their damned walls.

Re:Management can still watch you like a hawk

[mark-t]

This.

Exactly.

I would rather have no privacy at all than the mere illusion of one.

Hell, even *cubicles* are a better idea than this is, and I loathe cubicles.

The ideal is a compromise... oversized offices, containing teams of no more than about 6-8 people each, who all work closely together.

Re:Management can still watch you like a hawk

[forkfail]

No, no - you're missing the point!

This allows you to transition from private mode to collab mode in the blink of an eye!

And - even little kids know that if they are under the covers, the monster under the bed can't seem them. Same principle applies here.

I just can't understand why you and others are so cynical about this idea. You're so negative, I bet that you're going to object to the Model 2F - with attached feeding tube.

Re:Management can still watch you like a hawk

[Rick Schumann]

This allows you to transition from fake private mode to collab mode in the blink of an eye!

Fixed that for you.

So, your control-freak micromanaging boss(es) are the monster under the bed? How appropos.

..but what does a Coleman camp stove have to do with any of this? Are they going to chain everyone to their desks during the work week, and only let you go home on the weekends (if you're a Good Little Automaton, that is)? Guess that's what the aforementioned porta-potty desk chair is all about. Do we at least get wet-wipes to clean up with? From the Company Store, of course, and automatically deducted from your pay. Along with the electricity you use at work, the water you drink, and the air you breathe?

Be the change you want

[OzPeter]

Now you can ditch the open office and *be* the cubicle!

open office

[Ryanrule]

if salespeople are in charge of your company, bail

Re:open office

[HornWumpus]

Never take jobs at companies that produce commodities (like life insurance or CPUs). They are all run by sale weasels.

If your company doesn't produce commodities, keep your eyes open, it won't last forever.

Re:open office

[anegg]

Never take jobs at companies that produce commodities

IT in general was a lot more fun when hardware was really really expensive. When it cost $500,000 to $1,000,000 to buy one computer that supported an entire engineering office, the five or so acolytes that it took to run the machine were treated very well. Now that it costs on the order of $500 for the hardware for one person, the two or three IT janitors who are taking care of everything for several hundred people are squeezed tight as if paying them any more would bankrupt the company.

Commodities are great for the consumers, not so great for the providers. A lot of conversations in commodity supply chains are about reducing costs, as it is the only way to make more (probably temporary) profit.

It's about real estate

[rsilvergun]

and not having to pay for it. People figured out right quick that open floor plans suck. Shared desks mean people get sick all the time and the noise is terrible. But a lot of companies have people working from home 2-3 times a week and it's annoying to see all those open cubes.

Most interesting part of project is Crowdfunding

[mykepredko]

Looking at the images of the blinders, the concept looks pretty ridiculous and personally, I can't see it succeeding.

But... I'm only an individual - I like the idea of crowdfunding something that's pretty radical like this.

Just don't count on any money from me.

I could've sworn...

[Mascot]

... we already had this problem solved. Once upon a time, there was a thing called "an office". Where you walked to your door and closed it when you needed to work without interruption.

It is only remembered now by its distant cousin, the "home office".

Re:I could've sworn...

[UnknownSoldier]

/sarcasm You didn't get the memo? The company can no longer afford "walls" so they went the cheap route and bought everyone virtual walls via blinders.

Also I hear you are having a problem with your TPS reports. Are you sure you are getting the memos and emails? :-)

Re:An even better idea

[Jfetjunky]

"I guess the corporate world isn't ready to pay for nice office/cubes yet. Human horse blinders will have to do for now."

FTFY

Open concept homes too

[Spy Handler]

HGTV has inspired a fad in housing where everyone wants to see everything in their house from the kitchen. You HAVE to be able to see everything inside the house from the kitchen, or your house is DATED. So they knock down interior walls and spend big bucks adding support structures to make the house one gigantic room.

I'm just waiting for some idiot on HGTV to take it a step further and put all the bathrooms in the same gigantic uni-room as the rest of the house. Walls are bad!

Re:Open concept homes too

[Anonymous Coward]

It might be hard to see from your high horse, but the open kitchen design is great for those of us without kitchen staff or for those that do not want to treat their significant others as such.

Re: Open concept homes too

[Anonymous Coward]

Or parents that need to keep an eye on young children while they cook.

Re: Open concept homes too

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that what the window in the oven is for?

Re:Open concept homes too

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds more like you're just catching up with the last 30-odd years of home design.

Old story...

[roc97007]

Life imitates art.

I can still see you picking your nose!

[kimgkimg]

Well, I can!

Planet Money

[Luthair]

I seem to say this a lot but Planet Money had an interesting overview of open offices

Feed Bag?

[sycodon]

All they need is a Feed Bag and the transformation is complete.

Re:Feed Bag?

[Mr D from 63]

An entire staff with tunnel-vision. How wonderful.

Re:Feed Bag?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not much change IMHO.

Re:Feed Bag?

[Evtim]

Way ahead of his time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Version 2.0

[Anonymous Coward]

Will be a "smart" device with display panels, speakers, wifi, AI, an app store loaded with malware, and loads of advertisements.

I spent 10 years in the military, then 10 more...

[TigerPlish]

...in cubeland. Proper cubes, with walls all around and a space for entry/exit.

In the intervening years, the open office made a comeback. ..how?! Why?! Oh dear god why? I thought this was dead and buried in the 70's / 80's? WTF happened?

I hate it, more than I have words for. I see new workspaces built as such and I cringe.

Good thing is where I'm currently at they've seen the light and are planning on a proper cubefarm.. ...never did I think I'd be celebrating the cube, yet here we are.

I did have an office once. For six glorious years. No window, but it had a roof, four walls and a proper door. I miss that, more than any work environment I've *ever* been at.

Office livestock solutions

[ChromeAeonuim]

This has got to be the stupidest thing I have seen in a good long while. First, some unthinking drone creates a problem (open offices), and then, instead of recognizing the source of the problem and addressing it with something that was invented literally thousands of years ago (walls, real novel concept there) someone comes up with whatever the hell these things are.

This thing reminds me of the blinders you put on animals to keep them from getting stressed when you are transporting them. That's what this is. This is the bag you put over a bird's head or the muzzle you put on a pissed off cat to keep them in the dark. This is just an amazingly insulting 'solution' to an amazingly stupid, intentionally created problem.

Head cubicles from Dilbert

[Zarhan]

I thought these were thought of more than 20 years ago...

http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-...

Re:Head cubicles from Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, but Scott Adams is a fucking dildo.

Re:Head cubicles from Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

Another one with actual blinders, but still in the context of cubicles: http://dilbert.com/strip/2012-11-14

Re:Head cubicles from Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember 3-ish years ago when you could just enjoy things without constantly needing to find reasons to be offended and bitter? Boy I bet you miss that.

ObDilbert

[Cyrano de Maniac]

Sounds like Panasonic owes Scott Adams some royalties:

http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-...

Re:ObDilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like Panasonic owes Scott Adams some royalties:

http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-...

Wow that's 22 years ago! Scott is a genius

Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[forkfail]

But - I thought that the whole purpose of the open office was to facilitate communication.

How can this be a good idea?

Unless... it was never about communication and collaboration at all, but about the cost of office space.

But how could that be?

"I literally just can't..."

No half measures, no reinventing the wheel.

[PingSpike]

The compubody sock is the future of open office productivity

https://www.instructables.com/...

A good punishment for complaining.

[Seor Jojoba]

If you complain too much at work about open plan distractions ruining your productivity, you'll see a pair of these on your desk and wish you hadn't said anything.

won't make a difference

[Anil]

>> Think of it as a sign for potential bothersome coworkers that broadcasts, "I'm busy."

If headphones don't work to say "I'm busy", then these won't either.

Also, where are my headphones supposed to go with these blinders on; need to block the noise, too.

They will have a hard time patenting

[Anonymous Coward]

This was already proposed. First to discover should get the patent.
https://assets.amuniversal.com...

Or...Or...Or you can alway use a...

[Anonymous Coward]

Cubicle...

I swear these people can just cannot seem to admit that they truly screwed the pooch when it comes to this. I would bet money that the vast majority of the people that do tech work are introverts. You know the people that do not like other people right next to them? The very people that need their own space to actually think?

Open floor plans run completely contrary to what techies actually work best in*cough*their own god d*** space*cough*. This non-sense merely reinforces the fact that they again...effed up.

I get the nagging feeling...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen these before.

https://ohgodmywifeisgerman.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/horse-blinders.jpg

https://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lady-horse-blinders-1-1-1-2-1-1-2-1-1-2-2-2-3-1-1-1-1-1.jpg

Seriously... bosses who get these for workers are nothing more then monsters.

Horse Blinders

[CanadianMacFan]

Actual horse blinders look better.

You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job stop pretending and giving advice like your dumb faggot as knows what you're blathering about. Go gainfully employ yourself getting fucked you boring whore.

Re:You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job

[HornWumpus]

Incoherent blather is a commodity. You're fucked.

Re:You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job stop pretending and giving advice like your dumb faggot as knows what you're blathering about. Go gainfully employ yourself getting fucked you boring whore.

Re:You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job

[HornWumpus]

Do you get paid for this idiocy?

If you don't, you are even dumber.

Re: You're a fucking idiot WumpWuss get a job

[Anonymous Coward]

Quality projection right there

Move along

[Anonymous Coward]

What could we expect from a fashion designer? It looks more like an accessory to be used on runway than...

The last line OTFA has it backwards.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Has our inability to concentrate really come to this?" No, any distraction can result in upto 15 minutes of lost productivity. This isn't ADHD is universal. You want o be productive? 1. Work alone when you need to collaborate when you need to. 2. Only answer e-mail, phone, VM etc. for 2 set times a day in the morning and afternoon. 3. Take handfuls of amphetamines.

Like this! [Re:Ingenues]

[XXongo]

Just like this!
https://beta.theglobeandmail.c...

Re:Like this! [Re:Ingenues]

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like this!

https://beta.theglobeandmail.c...

Or like this?

There's a word for this...

[zarmanto]

This product doesn't actually solve any of the real problems associated with open plan offices, which essentially makes this product all but useless in the real world. The word for these types of products is Chindogu, and there is an incredible variety of similarly useless products, easily discoverable for those who're familiar with the proper search term.

The only real question is, did Panasonic knowingly engage in designing a Chindogu product, or were they duped into marketing this particular example of the art form, outside of the limits of its traditional (predominantly Japanese) target audience?

blinders not blinkers

[klashn]

Cool concept. Add in BlueTooth headphones and Boss detection on the outer collar and I'll be sold!

Horses reading Slashdot ask one question

[Provocateur]

This is news for nerds??

Clear case for augmented reality.

[nospam007]

You see only your desk and your files, the rest is a tropical beach, instead of annoying cubicle neighbors.

Or you use a glacier as background if the damn air-conditioner is broken again.

Or just a bunch of nekkid ladies, if it's a slow day.

Need to Rein this in a bit

[Justathot]

The next innovation will be a set of ribbons - possibly made of stylish leather - leading from the sides of the blinders to the boss' desk, allowing him/her to pull your head left or right to direct you to different work, depending on what direction s/he wishes you to go in next.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[anegg]

No matter if someone say cost isn't a factor... cost is a factor.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[lgw]

Open plan offices aren't actually any cheaper, because you need more meeting rooms. Open plan offices serve only one goal: management hates you and wants you to be unhappy.

Dual use

[portwojc]

Workers can also cross over bridges without getting spooked.

Been done before:

[ClarkMills]

horse blinkers for people

Re:Been done before:

[Anonymous Coward]

lol, number 7 is a perfect match.

Blinkers vs blinders....Is blinkers another UK thing? Blinkers would get you a harassment suit here.....

And...ummm...HOW exactly does this go on? I don't see a strap to hold it on. Do they install a mount point when you start work or WTF?

Bean Counters

[Anonymous Coward]

This, right here, is why bean counters get a bad rap. After all, think about what you are really saying:

"We don't know anything about productivity or the relative value of things, nor do we care. However we have this easy to measure item on this invoice right here, and it's money, and we are all about the money. Job done!"

Or this...

[BrianMarshall]

To get as much work done as you want....

the choice

Life Factory

[Anonymous Coward]

Your Future is to live in a Life Factory. I would definitely need blinders for that.

Panopticon

[Anonymous Coward]

Designer love open space not packed spaces, no designer ever signs off on these crazy chicken farm environments.

This is more likely a mix of wanting to reduce privacy and expenses.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[kiminator]

I actually prefer to work in open plan offices. Probably helps that it's easy for me to tune out others' conversations.

This subject is widely misuderstood.

[Anonymous Coward]

Open floor plans can be good for teams with nearly full time face to face collaboration.
Open floor plans are not good for people who spend most of their time doing focused work - engineers, designers, developers, etc
They're terrible for productivity for many people and types of businesses.

Reins are optional at least

[Anonymous Coward]

ROFL, if you click thru a couple links to the Japanese version it shows they are waaaaay ahead of you....the mount points for them are already installed!

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[ctilsie242]

Every open plan place I worked at had the meeting rooms full, just because you cannot do work while one co-worker is chowing down on chips, another is talking about his hysterectomy, another is running around dropping Pokemon lures, and others are just shooting the shit. Before you say "just use headphones", those just mean that people stick their face in front of you or constantly poke you on the shoulder to get your attention, which gets even distracting, because they want their thing resolved now.

I worked at places like that. Nothing ever got done because there were too many distractions. Lots of meetings, and boy, the place looked mighty fine with all the reflective glass and brushed aluminum, but your ears hurt after a few hours in that place due to the constant din, and the "hip, edgy" decor with zero sound dampening.

Now showing fault lines

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the fault lines were evident generations ago.

Lok up "flow time" and "peopleware" for coders.

Lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone 'will' bump into something from lack of peripheral vision, get injured, and Panasonic will have its day in court.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[n3r0.m4dski11z]

For our office its about space savings. Luckily i share a real office.

We fit like 30 people in a room, but if it was dedicated offices, that would take up an entire floor. So i disagree about the lack of space savings, i think it does save space.

No one likes working in that part of the office though. Its a horrible design, and should only be for those buildings where you simply cannot expand at all. I have noticed that most young people wear earphones all the time now. So perhaps they would not mind as much. They are living in their own worlds anyway.

Open office design

[beep54]

So beloved, you need blinders to operate in it.

Not a new idea

[misnohmer]

Horses blinders have been around for ages now. I saw a Dilbert cartoon years ago with people wearing mini-cubes on their shoulders (probably where Panasonic got their idea). Unfortunately this does nothing about the noise all around, because people can't find open conference rooms to meet or phone rooms to take phone calls in. It also doesn't stop coworkers from interrupting you every few minutes, which is often shorter than it takes to context switch back to work.If the idea is to signal people that you don't want to be disturbed, just wear a "Do Not Disturb" flashing light on your head.

Re:Not a new idea

[burningcpu]

"Rick! Hey Rick! Rick! Rick! Heyyyy Rick! Earth to Rick!"

-- Shoulder tap --

"That's a hilarious 'Do not Disturb' flashing light on your head, man! Where'd you get it? OMG that reminds me of this Sportball thing that happened this weekend! Can you believe they aren't standing for the National Anthem? OMG, so what do you think of this weather? Crazy right???"

"Oh, I'm probably bugging you, and with you wearing that stupid hat! Sorry about that! So anyway, did you hear about what Francine from accounting said to Bill from QA?...."

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[Anonymous Coward]

his hysterectomy

Wut?

This would help people with ADHD

[burningcpu]

I can't help it.

If I'm focused on a task and quick movement occurs in my periphery, I get an adrenaline rush and a jolt. Instinct is difficult to overcome.

My last job, I had a small cube located on a main aisle / entrance to the floor, where approximately 70 people worked. Imagine the number of disruptions.

Worse yet, I performed R&D for the company and continually needed to hide sensitive documents from view, even when taking a piss. You see, customers were paraded through this maze of engineers and scientists on their way to meeting rooms.

My 'solution' was to wear safety glasses, where the sides were blacked-out with sharpie, and a hat. It gave an effect similar to this setup, but the Panasonic "solution" would be preferred.

As an aside, if you visit someone at their cube and there is limited space, please make sure that you don't block the cube-owner's egress, or appear to do so.
I can "know" that I'm safe and that this guy is a coworker and that I'm in a safe space and all that jazz, but thoughts can fall away to instinct.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[Opportunist]

Every time someone says "it's about principles", it's about money.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[plopez]

I used to quite pointedly wear a pair of orange hearing protectors. It helped but management never got a clue.

I'm not a fucking horse!

[Opportunist]

What's next, feeder bags instead of a cafeteria?

I want to see one of those overpaid, useless sponges, oh, sorry, how un-PC of me, I mean managers, to work for ONE day in an open floor office space. And then discuss with him the merits of this.

Sorry, but you won't find me working in one of those environments. At least not for longer than it takes to hang that asshole who decided it from his tie 'til he croaks.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[mikael]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[mikael]

Some offices actually just had floor to ceiling partitions that pretended to be offices. Instead of swing doors, there were sliding doors. It helped mitigate some of the noise, but when your neighbor decided to have a mini basketball hoop on his wall, it didn't help.

Re: Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish I could tune them out. I can't :(

I wear noise cancelling earphones and usually I need to have music on to drown out the people talking. And that sucks because I prefer to work in quiet.

So the open office makes me less productive and ironically management doesn't like people working from home because they think we wouldn't be productive at home.

If managers were smart enough to have quiet spaces vs talking spaces it would be so much better. I don't need to be at the same desk all the time, I'm perfectly ok to move to a different room when I'm going to be in a meeting.

Quiet spaces need tall cube walls to help block noises. Meeting spaces don't neeed cubes at all. That would be cheaper right?

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was all about doing something different from others. Different therefore innovative. The world just keeps going round in circles. Next up; transparent blinkers.

And how much noise does it block out??

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always found that the inescapable open office distraction was the noise. Sure I could face into a corner or partition and block out the optical distraction, but nothing blocks out the noise and this is what drove me insane.

This thing does nothing useful.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[lgw]

So you don't do any collaborative work? You don't need any meeting rooms? Or you just talk to each other all the time, disrupting everyone?

30 People in a room? Sounds like 18th century squallor, or a third-world shithole.

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[Anonymous Coward]

I generally don't like working open-plan, but it does vary a lot by environment. I have pretty bad tinnitus and find it quite pleasant having a constant level of ambient noise, but it really comes down to the cultural approach to distractions, interruptions, and respect in the workplace. I have worked in environments that have been really good around those things, but most have been absolutely terrible.

Dilbert predicts the future once again

[Anonymous Coward]

http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-09-15

Now You're Just Going to Miss...

[rally2xs]

Michael Meyers sneaking up on you with that big knife...

Re:Ingenues. Wait...wut?

[Anonymous Coward]

"another is talking about his hysterectomy"

My head just asploded.

Ultimate workspace blinders are called ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... VR heatsets. The problem is that your boss won't be able to look over your shoulder and see if you're working.