For me, one thing is the feeling of being constantly watched (even when you're not) that's detrimental to both health (stress) and productivity. So even if I'm

For me, one thing is the feeling of being constantly watched (even when you're not) that's detrimental to both health (stress) and productivity. So even if I'm less likely to browse HN when in an open office (compiling!) my productivity is much lower compared to a private office. Of course this is also due to audio and visual disturbances. Interestingly one of the pros often mentioned for open office space is that it enables collaboration, I've never seen that work out in practice very well, though. At least I'm much less prone to start a discussion with someone in an open office because it will disturb everyone else who are not interested in the topic. More often than not other people will hush you and so on. So in the end an open office is detrimental to my health, happiness, productivity and (surprise) collaboration but hey I'm saving the company some thousand $$ each year, or am I?