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Maybe you're an extrovert? Being around people gives you energy. For us introverts it's the opposite. Being around people drains us of energy. Even if we enjoy

by Swizec 10y ago

Maybe you're an extrovert? Being around people gives you energy. For us introverts it's the opposite. Being around people drains us of energy. Even if we enjoy their company and enjoy social interaction. It's tiring. There's probably no silver bullet for office design. People are different, as you say.

Matachines 10y ago
There's sort of a silver bullet: Individual offices around an open area. Want to work alone? Close door. Want to work alone but be aware of things going on? Leave the door open. Can't stand working alone? Go to the open area.
- clifanatic 10y ago
  > Can't stand working alone? Go to the open area. But the low-grade sadists that rise to positions of authority in U.S. corporations will punish the people that don't go to the open area. It's not about what you produce, it's about how much torture you're willing to self-inflict.
  - Swizec 10y ago
    > It's not about what you produce, it's about how much torture you're willing to self-inflict. Could it be about social dynamics? It's like caching. When you're thinking about whom to give an opportunity to, are you going to think of the friendly person that you see every day, or to that guy you've heard of once who's always in his office and might be a myth?
ghurtado 10y ago
I don't know why you got downvoted. I'm a software engineer and I identify with every sentence in your comment. I suspect I'm far from the only one.
- gerbilly 10y ago
  I'd go further and say that many introverts self select for jobs like programmer, researcher etc that require deep sustained focus. I would bet that introverts are _over represented_ in tech, but of course they put us all in open office plans.
TheOneTrueKyle 10y ago
I'm introverted, but still enjoy working in an open office space than in the cube farm. Isolation is worse than emotional drainage from interacting with people in my opinion. Although I will admit it is hard to start my side project after work and is probably due to being drained.
xixi77 10y ago
I don't think it's purely an intro- vs. extrovert thing: as an anecdote, I tend to test as introvert, but find what the sister comment says very much applicable: it is hard to impossible to focus and/or maintain motivation without "seeing other people do things". Perhaps this has something with the ADD<->OCD scale, which I am firmly at the left end of: generally, I do not get distracted by sounds/questions/etc and very easily go back to what I was doing before distraction; but at the same time I find it rather difficult to e.g. avoid going off on unnecessary tangents, which is where seeing other people work helps.

by Swizec 10y ago

Matachines 10y ago

There's sort of a silver bullet: Individual offices around an open area. Want to work alone? Close door. Want to work alone but be aware of things going on? Leave the door open. Can't stand working alone? Go to the open area.

clifanatic 10y ago
> Can't stand working alone? Go to the open area. But the low-grade sadists that rise to positions of authority in U.S. corporations will punish the people that don't go to the open area. It's not about what you produce, it's about how much torture you're willing to self-inflict.
- Swizec 10y ago
  > It's not about what you produce, it's about how much torture you're willing to self-inflict. Could it be about social dynamics? It's like caching. When you're thinking about whom to give an opportunity to, are you going to think of the friendly person that you see every day, or to that guy you've heard of once who's always in his office and might be a myth?

ghurtado 10y ago

I don't know why you got downvoted. I'm a software engineer and I identify with every sentence in your comment. I suspect I'm far from the only one.

gerbilly 10y ago
I'd go further and say that many introverts self select for jobs like programmer, researcher etc that require deep sustained focus. I would bet that introverts are _over represented_ in tech, but of course they put us all in open office plans.

TheOneTrueKyle 10y ago

I'm introverted, but still enjoy working in an open office space than in the cube farm. Isolation is worse than emotional drainage from interacting with people in my opinion. Although I will admit it is hard to start my side project after work and is probably due to being drained.

xixi77 10y ago

I don't think it's purely an intro- vs. extrovert thing: as an anecdote, I tend to test as introvert, but find what the sister comment says very much applicable: it is hard to impossible to focus and/or maintain motivation without "seeing other people do things". Perhaps this has something with the ADD<->OCD scale, which I am firmly at the left end of: generally, I do not get distracted by sounds/questions/etc and very easily go back to what I was doing before distraction; but at the same time I find it rather difficult to e.g. avoid going off on unnecessary tangents, which is where seeing other people work helps.