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Introverts at Work: Designing Spaces for People Who Hate Open-Plan Offices

38 points by loisaidasam 11y ago

maxxxxx 11y ago
What does this have to do with introverts? It has mainly to do with rank. You never see VPs sitting elbow by elbow in an open space office. It's just a matter of treating everybody as an adult.
- eyeJam 11y ago
  100% with you on this point. I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that even means) and I can't stand open plan offices. When I get home from a workday in an open-plan I'm much more stressed and mentally exhausted. Whereas if I'm working in peace and quiet all day in a mini-partition in the bullpen I come home feeling refreshed and satisfied with my workday. The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy. After complaining to my boss many times I eventually started wearing earmuffs and turned my workstation towards the corner so that I couldn't see people. Of course being the control-freak psychopath that he was he mocked me in front of everyone else for wearing earmuffs and when that didn't work he started calling me into his office every 5 minutes and would get angry at me if I didn't hear him calling. Wow what a shitty boss and so glad I got out of there.
  - p4wnc6 11y ago
    Are you sure you are extraverted? You say, > I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that means) But then you also say > The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy. And that's pretty close to the definition of introversion. You know introversion / extraversion is not about being shy vs outgoing. That is a very common misconception. Introversion means that social interactions and situations lacking privacy cause you to become tired and experience mental energy drain. You might love hanging out with friends and being around people, it just makes you tired. Extraverts on the other hand experience an energy boost from social situations, even if they don't prefer being in some specific social situation (e.g. an extravert may hate going to work, but still feel that "buzz of activity" just from being around everyone). It's about how your cognitive fatigue is triggered: is your fatigue triggered by social situations, or is your fatigue lessened by those situations. The effect you describe about the fatigue your open plan space causes for you makes me strongly suspect you're much closer to the introvert side of the spectrum than you believe.
    - eyeJam 11y ago
      Well i'm extroverted around people. I get a huge burst of energy. I get too excited and can't focus. I just want to keep talking to people and moving around. When it's time to dig into a rats nest of JS code I need serenity and quiet. The reason I don't really buy the whole introvert/extrovert thing is that its way too broad of a distinction and presents this binary of personalities when it's really more of a continuum. I think you just made my point.
      - p4wnc6 11y ago
        Most of the research on the introversion / extraversion workplace effects very strongly focuses on the spectrum aspect, and decidedly eschews the binarism that has held us back from correctly accommodating human beings at work.
    - ohyes 11y ago
      I think all this introversion/extroversion stuff is BS pop psychology. You might as well read someone's horoscope. I don't mind interaction with coworker's if that's part of my job, but if my job is to work on delicate computer code, you better not fucking interrupt me. Anyone who doesn't understand this probably hasn't worked on coworker's tricky legacy code. I don't feel particularly drained in either scenario beyond the normal mental fatigue of concentrating hard or putting up with people I don't like. What I really hate is that when the guy next to me in an open plan is stressed out it makes me stressed out too. Which is unfortunate because my current desk mate is pretty tightly wound. (More so than me, anyway). That's not introversion or extroversion that's empathy.
- p4wnc6 11y ago
  This topic has a lot to do with introversion. There is even some formal research on the way that introverted styles interact with extroverted styles in the workplace, such as "Reversing the extraverted leadership advantage: The role of employee proactivity" by Grant, Gino, and Hofman (2011) < http://amj.aom.org/content/54/3/528.short http://amj.aom.org/content/54/3/528.short >. The main result of their data and qualitative analysis was that extraverted leaders tend to punish introverted proactive subordinates, because their self-sufficiency often leads them to take credit for their successes, instead of using their successes to confer success onto the manager -- whereas extraverted employees seem more willing to check that social tie to the manager first and are happier to act out of the deference necessary to use your personal success as a means to lift up your manager instead of taking credit for your own labor. There are other ways it relates to introversion too like having your fight vs flight reflex triggered all day -- I actually wrote some about it in another comment: < https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11314991 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11314991 >. However, I completely agree with you that open-plan offices are a status game. The same company will blow money on expensive parties, company ski trips, on-site massages, in-office rock climbing wall, etc. And then of course the place where people sit and work, where productivity is supposed to happen, it looks like a sweatshop had sex with an Apple store. Everything is sleek and futuristic and fashionable, and you get about 2 feet of undifferentiated lateral space to yourself. Even Paul Graham himself spent considerable time deriding the awfulness of these workspaces. From Graham's essay Great Hackers: "After software, the most important tool to a hacker is probably his office. Big companies think the function of office space is to express rank. But hackers use their offices for more than that: they use their office as a place to think in. And if you're a technology company, their thoughts are your product. So making hackers work in a noisy, distracting environment is like having a paint factory where the air is full of soot. The cartoon strip Dilbert has a lot to say about cubicles, and with good reason. All the hackers I know despise them. The mere prospect of being interrupted is enough to prevent hackers from working on hard problems. If you want to get real work done in an office with cubicles, you have two options: work at home, or come in early or late or on a weekend, when no one else is there. Don't companies realize this is a sign that something is broken? An office environment is supposed to be something that helps you work, not something you work despite. Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the CEO. But they're not so advanced as they think; obviously they still view office space as a badge of rank. Note too that Cisco is famous for doing very little product development in house. They get new technology by buying the startups that created it-- where presumably the hackers did have somewhere quiet to work. One big company that understands what hackers need is Microsoft. I once saw a recruiting ad for Microsoft with a big picture of a door. Work for us, the premise was, and we'll give you a place to work where you can actually get work done. And you know, Microsoft is remarkable among big companies in that they are able to develop software in house. Not well, perhaps, but well enough. If companies want hackers to be productive, they should look at what they do at home. At home, hackers can arrange things themselves so they can get the most done. And when they work at home, hackers don't work in noisy, open spaces; they work in rooms with doors. They work in cosy, neighborhoody places with people around and somewhere to walk when they need to mull something over, instead of in glass boxes set in acres of parking lots. They have a sofa they can take a nap on when they feel tired, instead of sitting in a coma at their desk, pretending to work. There's no crew of people with vacuum cleaners that roars through every evening during the prime hacking hours. There are no meetings or, God forbid, corporate retreats or team-building exercises. And when you look at what they're doing on that computer, you'll find it reinforces what I said earlier about tools. They may have to use Java and Windows at work, but at home, where they can choose for themselves, you're more likely to find them using Perl and Linux." Paul Graham wrote that. If you looked at YC company work spaces, would you ever guess Graham was an influential figure in YC?
- atemerev 11y ago
  In fact, I see a lots of VPs and even CEOs genuinely preferring open space plans, so they can hawkishly roam among the employees and provide their invaluable input. (Sounds of head banging against the desk)
p4wnc6 11y ago
Hilarious that Bloomberg published this -- a company famous for no offices and a leader who is insistent that if he can work without an office, so can everyone else, with zero consideration for legitimate physiological differences between workers, like introversion vs extraversion.
mcculley 11y ago
Why would they think that only introverts need quiet to get serious work done?

38 points by loisaidasam 11y ago

What does this have to do with introverts? It has mainly to do with rank. You never see VPs sitting elbow by elbow in an open space office. It's just a matter of treating everybody as an adult.

eyeJam 11y ago
100% with you on this point. I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that even means) and I can't stand open plan offices. When I get home from a workday in an open-plan I'm much more stressed and mentally exhausted. Whereas if I'm working in peace and quiet all day in a mini-partition in the bullpen I come home feeling refreshed and satisfied with my workday. The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy. After complaining to my boss many times I eventually started wearing earmuffs and turned my workstation towards the corner so that I couldn't see people. Of course being the control-freak psychopath that he was he mocked me in front of everyone else for wearing earmuffs and when that didn't work he started calling me into his office every 5 minutes and would get angry at me if I didn't hear him calling. Wow what a shitty boss and so glad I got out of there.
- p4wnc6 11y ago
  Are you sure you are extraverted? You say, > I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that means) But then you also say > The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy. And that's pretty close to the definition of introversion. You know introversion / extraversion is not about being shy vs outgoing. That is a very common misconception. Introversion means that social interactions and situations lacking privacy cause you to become tired and experience mental energy drain. You might love hanging out with friends and being around people, it just makes you tired. Extraverts on the other hand experience an energy boost from social situations, even if they don't prefer being in some specific social situation (e.g. an extravert may hate going to work, but still feel that "buzz of activity" just from being around everyone). It's about how your cognitive fatigue is triggered: is your fatigue triggered by social situations, or is your fatigue lessened by those situations. The effect you describe about the fatigue your open plan space causes for you makes me strongly suspect you're much closer to the introvert side of the spectrum than you believe.
  - eyeJam 11y ago
    Well i'm extroverted around people. I get a huge burst of energy. I get too excited and can't focus. I just want to keep talking to people and moving around. When it's time to dig into a rats nest of JS code I need serenity and quiet. The reason I don't really buy the whole introvert/extrovert thing is that its way too broad of a distinction and presents this binary of personalities when it's really more of a continuum. I think you just made my point.
    - p4wnc6 11y ago
      Most of the research on the introversion / extraversion workplace effects very strongly focuses on the spectrum aspect, and decidedly eschews the binarism that has held us back from correctly accommodating human beings at work.
  - ohyes 11y ago
    I think all this introversion/extroversion stuff is BS pop psychology. You might as well read someone's horoscope. I don't mind interaction with coworker's if that's part of my job, but if my job is to work on delicate computer code, you better not fucking interrupt me. Anyone who doesn't understand this probably hasn't worked on coworker's tricky legacy code. I don't feel particularly drained in either scenario beyond the normal mental fatigue of concentrating hard or putting up with people I don't like. What I really hate is that when the guy next to me in an open plan is stressed out it makes me stressed out too. Which is unfortunate because my current desk mate is pretty tightly wound. (More so than me, anyway). That's not introversion or extroversion that's empathy.
p4wnc6 11y ago
This topic has a lot to do with introversion. There is even some formal research on the way that introverted styles interact with extroverted styles in the workplace, such as "Reversing the extraverted leadership advantage: The role of employee proactivity" by Grant, Gino, and Hofman (2011) < http://amj.aom.org/content/54/3/528.short http://amj.aom.org/content/54/3/528.short >. The main result of their data and qualitative analysis was that extraverted leaders tend to punish introverted proactive subordinates, because their self-sufficiency often leads them to take credit for their successes, instead of using their successes to confer success onto the manager -- whereas extraverted employees seem more willing to check that social tie to the manager first and are happier to act out of the deference necessary to use your personal success as a means to lift up your manager instead of taking credit for your own labor. There are other ways it relates to introversion too like having your fight vs flight reflex triggered all day -- I actually wrote some about it in another comment: < https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11314991 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11314991 >. However, I completely agree with you that open-plan offices are a status game. The same company will blow money on expensive parties, company ski trips, on-site massages, in-office rock climbing wall, etc. And then of course the place where people sit and work, where productivity is supposed to happen, it looks like a sweatshop had sex with an Apple store. Everything is sleek and futuristic and fashionable, and you get about 2 feet of undifferentiated lateral space to yourself. Even Paul Graham himself spent considerable time deriding the awfulness of these workspaces. From Graham's essay Great Hackers: "After software, the most important tool to a hacker is probably his office. Big companies think the function of office space is to express rank. But hackers use their offices for more than that: they use their office as a place to think in. And if you're a technology company, their thoughts are your product. So making hackers work in a noisy, distracting environment is like having a paint factory where the air is full of soot. The cartoon strip Dilbert has a lot to say about cubicles, and with good reason. All the hackers I know despise them. The mere prospect of being interrupted is enough to prevent hackers from working on hard problems. If you want to get real work done in an office with cubicles, you have two options: work at home, or come in early or late or on a weekend, when no one else is there. Don't companies realize this is a sign that something is broken? An office environment is supposed to be something that helps you work, not something you work despite. Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the CEO. But they're not so advanced as they think; obviously they still view office space as a badge of rank. Note too that Cisco is famous for doing very little product development in house. They get new technology by buying the startups that created it-- where presumably the hackers did have somewhere quiet to work. One big company that understands what hackers need is Microsoft. I once saw a recruiting ad for Microsoft with a big picture of a door. Work for us, the premise was, and we'll give you a place to work where you can actually get work done. And you know, Microsoft is remarkable among big companies in that they are able to develop software in house. Not well, perhaps, but well enough. If companies want hackers to be productive, they should look at what they do at home. At home, hackers can arrange things themselves so they can get the most done. And when they work at home, hackers don't work in noisy, open spaces; they work in rooms with doors. They work in cosy, neighborhoody places with people around and somewhere to walk when they need to mull something over, instead of in glass boxes set in acres of parking lots. They have a sofa they can take a nap on when they feel tired, instead of sitting in a coma at their desk, pretending to work. There's no crew of people with vacuum cleaners that roars through every evening during the prime hacking hours. There are no meetings or, God forbid, corporate retreats or team-building exercises. And when you look at what they're doing on that computer, you'll find it reinforces what I said earlier about tools. They may have to use Java and Windows at work, but at home, where they can choose for themselves, you're more likely to find them using Perl and Linux." Paul Graham wrote that. If you looked at YC company work spaces, would you ever guess Graham was an influential figure in YC?
atemerev 11y ago
In fact, I see a lots of VPs and even CEOs genuinely preferring open space plans, so they can hawkishly roam among the employees and provide their invaluable input. (Sounds of head banging against the desk)

p4wnc6 11y ago

Hilarious that Bloomberg published this -- a company famous for no offices and a leader who is insistent that if he can work without an office, so can everyone else, with zero consideration for legitimate physiological differences between workers, like introversion vs extraversion.

mcculley 11y ago

Why would they think that only introverts need quiet to get serious work done?