4 ms·

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%

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.

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.