HEB (a large supermarket chain in Texas) did metrics on programmers and found that, on average, it takes 30 minutes for programmers to return to the concentration flow they had before being interrupted by a question from a co-worker. We were able to use this metric to have the programmers put in a closed room vs. the cube farm for everyone else. Everyone wore headphones and we turned off all overhead lights and used local desk lamps instead.
This worked well until others got jealous of the programmer's hide-out, but by then the company had been sold and we were all laid off.
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HEB (a large supermarket chain in Texas) did metrics on programmers and found that, on average, it takes 30 minutes for programmers to return to the concentration flow they had before being interrupted by a question from a co-worker. We were able to use this metric to have the programmers put in a closed room vs. the cube farm for everyone else. Everyone wore headphones and we turned off all overhead lights and used local desk lamps instead. This worked well until others got jealous of the programmer's hide-out, but by then the company had been sold and we were all laid off.