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I worked at Sun Microsystems for a while and their private office layout was really nice. I can't ballpark the exact size but the office could hold 3 gigantic C

I worked at Sun Microsystems for a while and their private office layout was really nice. I can't ballpark the exact size but the office could hold 3 gigantic CRT monitors, 2 desk phones, and had space for 2 visitors. I feel that a 2 person private office is quite optimal, since we are talking about teams. It's easier to pair program or discuss and even maintain silence when required. Office designers will have to pay attention to acoustics and ensure that there is not much echoing or significant noise transmission across walls or glass panels.

matchagaucho 9y ago
The irony is that we (FB) came in and demolished all those awesome Sun offices to create "open space". No "Duke" mascots were harmed in the process, though :-)
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  It's even worse in the new building I think. Lovely park on the roof, great amenities, but cluttered open-plan hell at every desk area.
- wdb 9y ago
  But do you have an assigned desk? Every morning I am hoping there is a desk free for me and don't need to squeeze in between two colleagues. No fun.
thedarkginger 9y ago
Have never worked in a non-open office plan so I can't really conceptualize this but sounds interesting. So if I envision a floor, do you just have rows of 2-person offices with hallways in between?
- JonathonW 9y ago
  The best layouts I've seen have had 1- or 2-person offices around the perimeter of the space, with shared spaces (open spaces for collaboration when you actually need to collaborate and for big stuff, conference rooms, break rooms, etc.) on the interior, because people shouldn't always be in them so they don't need natural light as urgently. Requires a decent amount of space to do correctly, though.
ericd 9y ago
How would you feel about larger offices that fit ~8, and housed your entire immediate team, but no one else? Your manager would go to another room for their meetings with other parts of the organization, and you all would be free to collaborate as needed, or shut up as needed?
- pseudalopex 9y ago
  Team rooms are better than open plan, but 8 is enough for irrelevant discussions, mechanical keyboards, and crunchy snacks to reach critical mass.
  - ericd 9y ago
    Fair, maybe 4-6 is a better max. You can also shame the mechanical keyboard user mercilessly for bothering everyone else.
    - pseudalopex 9y ago
      Only if the majority are on your side.
- opo 9y ago
  >How would you feel about larger offices that fit ~8, and housed your entire immediate team, but no one else? I've experienced that kind of environment and it is slightly better than the sea of tables filling a floor but is still very bad. A few of the things I've noticed: - Collaboration inside an individual team was never a problem with individual offices and so it isn't noticeably improved - Unless the programming/debugging work is very simple, it will often require intense concentration. With distractions an engineer is less productive - People waste a lot of time looking for an area to have a private conversation, talk to their Dr on the phone, etc. - When we had offices, people would tend to decorate them with pictures of their kids, awards, etc. With an open floor plan, the place looks very sterile and it seems like overall morale and interest in the company is lower than it used to be. - The big issue with any organization (with more than say 10 people) is communication BETWEEN teams, not inside the team. This design of isolating each individual team has led to a lot of inefficiency as the sort of ad-hoc conversations people would have with others on other teams basically stops.
dasmoth 9y ago
While they're clearly better than open plan, I don't really get two-person offices. They're not that much more space-efficient than single offices, and seem like a none-too-subtle "we don't really trust these coder types on their own" message.
hinkley 9y ago
Lesson we learned before the original dot-bomb, both on the trip up and the path down: You want your cube to be just slightly smaller than could uncomfortably fit two people. Otherwise, someday it will be uncomfortably fitting two people.

matchagaucho 9y ago

The irony is that we (FB) came in and demolished all those awesome Sun offices to create "open space". No "Duke" mascots were harmed in the process, though :-)

abritinthebay 9y ago
It's even worse in the new building I think. Lovely park on the roof, great amenities, but cluttered open-plan hell at every desk area.
wdb 9y ago
But do you have an assigned desk? Every morning I am hoping there is a desk free for me and don't need to squeeze in between two colleagues. No fun.

thedarkginger 9y ago

Have never worked in a non-open office plan so I can't really conceptualize this but sounds interesting. So if I envision a floor, do you just have rows of 2-person offices with hallways in between?

JonathonW 9y ago
The best layouts I've seen have had 1- or 2-person offices around the perimeter of the space, with shared spaces (open spaces for collaboration when you actually need to collaborate and for big stuff, conference rooms, break rooms, etc.) on the interior, because people shouldn't always be in them so they don't need natural light as urgently. Requires a decent amount of space to do correctly, though.

ericd 9y ago

How would you feel about larger offices that fit ~8, and housed your entire immediate team, but no one else? Your manager would go to another room for their meetings with other parts of the organization, and you all would be free to collaborate as needed, or shut up as needed?

pseudalopex 9y ago
Team rooms are better than open plan, but 8 is enough for irrelevant discussions, mechanical keyboards, and crunchy snacks to reach critical mass.
- ericd 9y ago
  Fair, maybe 4-6 is a better max. You can also shame the mechanical keyboard user mercilessly for bothering everyone else.
  - pseudalopex 9y ago
    Only if the majority are on your side.
opo 9y ago
>How would you feel about larger offices that fit ~8, and housed your entire immediate team, but no one else? I've experienced that kind of environment and it is slightly better than the sea of tables filling a floor but is still very bad. A few of the things I've noticed: - Collaboration inside an individual team was never a problem with individual offices and so it isn't noticeably improved - Unless the programming/debugging work is very simple, it will often require intense concentration. With distractions an engineer is less productive - People waste a lot of time looking for an area to have a private conversation, talk to their Dr on the phone, etc. - When we had offices, people would tend to decorate them with pictures of their kids, awards, etc. With an open floor plan, the place looks very sterile and it seems like overall morale and interest in the company is lower than it used to be. - The big issue with any organization (with more than say 10 people) is communication BETWEEN teams, not inside the team. This design of isolating each individual team has led to a lot of inefficiency as the sort of ad-hoc conversations people would have with others on other teams basically stops.

dasmoth 9y ago

While they're clearly better than open plan, I don't really get two-person offices. They're not that much more space-efficient than single offices, and seem like a none-too-subtle "we don't really trust these coder types on their own" message.

hinkley 9y ago

Lesson we learned before the original dot-bomb, both on the trip up and the path down: You want your cube to be just slightly smaller than could uncomfortably fit two people. Otherwise, someday it will be uncomfortably fitting two people.