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I hear this a lot too. All the research I've ever been able to find on the topic suggests the opposite. Teams become less productive when using open-plan style

by p4wnc6 11y ago

I hear this a lot too. All the research I've ever been able to find on the topic suggests the opposite. Teams become less productive when using open-plan style offices, not more productive. But you'll never win that argument with a manager in a company that has decided to double down on open-plan layouts. If someone higher up is dogmatic about open-plan, then managers can't talk bad about open-plan or else they face career roadblocks. This gets funneled to HR, so then they create bullshit codewords like "team player" or "good cultural fit" that really just mean "someone who agrees to sublimate their natural need for privacy for no other reason than that we told them to." The only thing you can do is rejection-sample employers until you find one of the rare ones where the upper management just happen to already share your views about offices and productivity.

jchewitt 11y ago
It's also possible that employee productivity doesn't matter as much as the speculative price of the company's shares. If the company's office plan looks like Google's, then surely they're going to generate earnings like Google one day. I don't think the analysis necessarily goes that much deeper than that. We've gone from managerial pseudoscience of the early 20th century that attempted to measure and optimize productivity into full on mysticism that rests on vague notions of 'increasing opportunities for collaboration.' At least scientific management attempted to use quantitative analysis and empiricism to make employees more productive. In the new age, we just need vague slogans, beanbags, and chi consultants.
- p4wnc6 11y ago
  I definitely agree. This is why I almost always reject further interviews with a company that unnecessarily uses open-plan offices. What bigger slap in the face can they give to a developer? They are basically saying, up-front in one of the earliest conversations they have with you, that your value to them is more determined by your ability to look like a good piece of office furniture than by the product of your software development labor.

by p4wnc6 11y ago

jchewitt 11y ago

It's also possible that employee productivity doesn't matter as much as the speculative price of the company's shares. If the company's office plan looks like Google's, then surely they're going to generate earnings like Google one day. I don't think the analysis necessarily goes that much deeper than that. We've gone from managerial pseudoscience of the early 20th century that attempted to measure and optimize productivity into full on mysticism that rests on vague notions of 'increasing opportunities for collaboration.' At least scientific management attempted to use quantitative analysis and empiricism to make employees more productive. In the new age, we just need vague slogans, beanbags, and chi consultants.

p4wnc6 11y ago
I definitely agree. This is why I almost always reject further interviews with a company that unnecessarily uses open-plan offices. What bigger slap in the face can they give to a developer? They are basically saying, up-front in one of the earliest conversations they have with you, that your value to them is more determined by your ability to look like a good piece of office furniture than by the product of your software development labor.