5 ms·

I've got an amazing idea. Go away from open plan offices. I'm really baffled that that wasn't one of the solutions in the article. Red and Green coloured cub

by Twirrim 10y ago

I've got an amazing idea. Go away from open plan offices. I'm really baffled that that wasn't one of the solutions in the article. Red and Green coloured cubes? Lights? Ugly attempts to mask the symptoms, rather than fix the real problem: Open plan offices suck for productivity.

greenshackle2 10y ago
That's what I was thinking, especially reading this line: > With the vast majority of us now working in open concept offices — some studies have said that 70% of US workers work in this kind of environment — companies are being forced to come up with novel ways to ensure we stay productive and don’t find ourselves driven delirious from the noise and chaos. They are being forced. Who chose the open office concept in the first place!?
- angusp 10y ago
  they're being 'forced' insofar as they're usually locked in to continuing to occupying their current office.
  - flukus 10y ago
    Cubicle walls are cheap and you can keep the current office.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- fokov 10y ago
  Stupid managers that will then either go to conference rooms for meetings or into their own office. That's the way it works here. All of the devs & qa that need a quiet environment are stuck in cubes or open offices while the managers, directors, VP, etc all sit in their offices with the doors closed. I absolutely hate it. About 10 years ago at a different employer, we planned a trip to a customer's office but I woke up late and missed the car by literally 5 minutes. We were in an open office plan where we faced each other...sales was also in the same room sitting right next to me. Since I missed the trip, I was the only person in the office for the rest of the week. Holy-cow did I get stuff done. My productivity shot through the roof and I swear in a few days I did probably 1 - 1.5 months of work. I told the owner about this and listed the things I did while they were away. He said something along these lines: "800 bucks per month to rent an office for you is nothing compared to your salary." A couple weeks later we all had our own offices. That should be an easy message for management. Don't nickle and dime the small stuff that greatly increases ROI. I miss having competent management around.
- MichaelBurge 10y ago
  > Who chose the open office concept in the first place!? I always figured zoning laws usually discourage heavy development, so companies are heavily incentivized to use open-plan offices to save on rent. Here's a listing for 3 offices for 900 sq. feet for $63.33/year, or $55,197/year. Each office might be something like 10% of your fully loaded cost, so a company with at 10 employees is spending an entire employee on rent. https://42floors.com/us/ca/san-francisco/235-montgomery-st?listings=581568 https://42floors.com/us/ca/san-francisco/235-montgomery-st?l... . You could cram them into a box and they would whine, but it might be worth it if you can get an entire extra employee out of it. Though, there are 3 8-hour shifts in a single 24-hour day, so I'm surprised they don't stagger scheduled times for employees so they can share the same space. I myself usually like starting work at 4 or 5 AM, since there are fewer people around. There's probably way too much social inertia for that in general, compared to spending a few thousand $ on some cubicle walls. If you can afford more than 10 employees, you're probably quite profitable and the margin on well-run software companies is pretty high, so maybe they don't care about rent at that point.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  > Who chose the open office concept in the first place!? For startups — budgets. If closed offices were the same price I doubt we'd hear so much discussion about the benefits of open offices while turning one's head the other way when it comes to the downsides.
imh 10y ago
I'm pretty sure open floor plans are so prevalent because they are so much cheaper. I've been places where they actually switched out all our desks for smaller ones so we could fit more employees. These proposals are at least stabs at getting privacy and productivity in the horrible low cost setting that's taken over.
- loco5niner 10y ago
  Yep. At my company, first they got rid of cubicles and set up the open office plan. Then they moved us into rows facing each other getting rid of any extra space we had ( with only monitors keeping us from staring at each other). Then they moved us to a smaller building (right next our apparently very funny finance group). I cherish the hour when everyone else goes to lunch.
clifanatic 10y ago
> Open plan offices suck for productivity. You're forgetting the mentality you're dealing with: as far as they're concerned, if you're not productive, regardless of the environment, the problem is you. Never them.
copperx 10y ago
What about small open offices? Like an office with 5-7 people in the team sharing the office? That's sounds kind of coo.
- loco5niner 10y ago
  It depends on the 5-7 people. It only takes one person clipping their fingernails at their desk (yes, it happens), chewing with their mouth open, and talking loudly (all the time) to ruin it for everyone. Yes, I'm talking about the same person.

by Twirrim 10y ago

greenshackle2 10y ago

That's what I was thinking, especially reading this line: > With the vast majority of us now working in open concept offices — some studies have said that 70% of US workers work in this kind of environment — companies are being forced to come up with novel ways to ensure we stay productive and don’t find ourselves driven delirious from the noise and chaos. They are being forced. Who chose the open office concept in the first place!?

angusp 10y ago
they're being 'forced' insofar as they're usually locked in to continuing to occupying their current office.
- flukus 10y ago
  Cubicle walls are cheap and you can keep the current office.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
fokov 10y ago
Stupid managers that will then either go to conference rooms for meetings or into their own office. That's the way it works here. All of the devs & qa that need a quiet environment are stuck in cubes or open offices while the managers, directors, VP, etc all sit in their offices with the doors closed. I absolutely hate it. About 10 years ago at a different employer, we planned a trip to a customer's office but I woke up late and missed the car by literally 5 minutes. We were in an open office plan where we faced each other...sales was also in the same room sitting right next to me. Since I missed the trip, I was the only person in the office for the rest of the week. Holy-cow did I get stuff done. My productivity shot through the roof and I swear in a few days I did probably 1 - 1.5 months of work. I told the owner about this and listed the things I did while they were away. He said something along these lines: "800 bucks per month to rent an office for you is nothing compared to your salary." A couple weeks later we all had our own offices. That should be an easy message for management. Don't nickle and dime the small stuff that greatly increases ROI. I miss having competent management around.
MichaelBurge 10y ago
> Who chose the open office concept in the first place!? I always figured zoning laws usually discourage heavy development, so companies are heavily incentivized to use open-plan offices to save on rent. Here's a listing for 3 offices for 900 sq. feet for $63.33/year, or $55,197/year. Each office might be something like 10% of your fully loaded cost, so a company with at 10 employees is spending an entire employee on rent. https://42floors.com/us/ca/san-francisco/235-montgomery-st?listings=581568 https://42floors.com/us/ca/san-francisco/235-montgomery-st?l... . You could cram them into a box and they would whine, but it might be worth it if you can get an entire extra employee out of it. Though, there are 3 8-hour shifts in a single 24-hour day, so I'm surprised they don't stagger scheduled times for employees so they can share the same space. I myself usually like starting work at 4 or 5 AM, since there are fewer people around. There's probably way too much social inertia for that in general, compared to spending a few thousand $ on some cubicle walls. If you can afford more than 10 employees, you're probably quite profitable and the margin on well-run software companies is pretty high, so maybe they don't care about rent at that point.
tedmiston 10y ago
> Who chose the open office concept in the first place!? For startups — budgets. If closed offices were the same price I doubt we'd hear so much discussion about the benefits of open offices while turning one's head the other way when it comes to the downsides.

imh 10y ago

I'm pretty sure open floor plans are so prevalent because they are so much cheaper. I've been places where they actually switched out all our desks for smaller ones so we could fit more employees. These proposals are at least stabs at getting privacy and productivity in the horrible low cost setting that's taken over.

loco5niner 10y ago
Yep. At my company, first they got rid of cubicles and set up the open office plan. Then they moved us into rows facing each other getting rid of any extra space we had ( with only monitors keeping us from staring at each other). Then they moved us to a smaller building (right next our apparently very funny finance group). I cherish the hour when everyone else goes to lunch.

clifanatic 10y ago

> Open plan offices suck for productivity. You're forgetting the mentality you're dealing with: as far as they're concerned, if you're not productive, regardless of the environment, the problem is you. Never them.

copperx 10y ago

What about small open offices? Like an office with 5-7 people in the team sharing the office? That's sounds kind of coo.

loco5niner 10y ago
It depends on the 5-7 people. It only takes one person clipping their fingernails at their desk (yes, it happens), chewing with their mouth open, and talking loudly (all the time) to ruin it for everyone. Yes, I'm talking about the same person.