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This holds up to a point, but if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to

This holds up to a point, but if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations, or your good and the employer is realistic but you just want to get ahead. I've worked with people that are a clamshell. It's not a very nice environment. Nobody in a company works "on an island".

deleted 9y ago
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noir_lord 9y ago
None of those, I simply don't like getting dropped out the zone for things that aren't immediately important or can't be done over email. For what it's worth I'm good at my job and my employer doesn't set unrealistic expectations, work time is work time, home time is home time. I don't blur the boundaries, if you want a social chat that's what lunch times are for. I've worked with Germans in the past, they are much more like me (I'm English) in that regard.
ctrl-j 9y ago
> if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations... Or they are a developer. Being interrupted while programming is really rough. It's like being an insomniac and having trouble falling asleep, when someone walks up and starts talking to you riiiight as you're drifting off. Now you're up for another two hours. Another analogy is you're building a house of cards using your mental concentration - someone distracting you causes you to knock the whole thing down. Oh, and the house of cards is due Friday.
- NikolaeVarius 9y ago
  I don't know why people think devs are special in this regard. Being interrupted is a universal human problem, there is no need for an analogy for something that anyone who works in a professional (or hell even non professional) job experiences.
  - Clubber 9y ago
    Are you a developer? I recall studies that say any interruption costs 30 minutes of productivity for developers. When you put it into cost terms, someone talking in an open office for 30 seconds can literally cost hundreds or thousands of dollars of productivity.
    - watwut 9y ago
      I think that his point was that similar drop of productivity happen to other professions. Programming is not the only work that requires focus. Even with programming it does matter what tasks you are working on. Many tasks don't need that much time to get into and out of it, only some do.
      - Clubber 9y ago
        >I think that his point was that similar drop of productivity happen to other professions. Oh, I see. Yes, I would wholeheartedly agree with that. To his point, I would say many people on here don't necessarily think developers are special in that regard, but most people are developers and they are speaking on that which they know. I'm a developer (obviously) and I couldn't intelligently speak on how interruptions would disrupt a soft skill profession such as marketing, sales or HR.
        watwut 9y ago
        Imo, both marketing and sales cause so many interruptions to everyone around, that if their own productivity is harmed by it, they really should do something about it. They are seriously winning the "who is the most noisy most interrupting office" competition.
    - NikolaeVarius 9y ago
      I've worked in multiple roles, including developer. 30 minutes of lost productivity in a dev role is peanuts compared to lost productivity in an engineering job where an hour of engineering work is $300+ of charged time. And with all this complaining about interruptions and lost productivity, its really only the "sexy tech startups" that seem to have ping pong and foosball tables to waste time playing.
- laythea 9y ago
  I am a developer and get lots done, but I don't have to work in a sweat shop where I have so much pressure that I cannot have the occasional social conversation or entertain someone else's occasional social conversation. In my opinion an office full of head down developers who don't feel they can talk to anyone, is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.
  - loco5niner 9y ago
    > In my opinion an office full of head down developers who don't feel they can talk to anyone, is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in. I agree with that. But I also think that being in an office full of developers that can't use their "inside voice" is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.
    - laythea 9y ago
      Agreed. As most things in life, a balance is required.

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noir_lord 9y ago

None of those, I simply don't like getting dropped out the zone for things that aren't immediately important or can't be done over email. For what it's worth I'm good at my job and my employer doesn't set unrealistic expectations, work time is work time, home time is home time. I don't blur the boundaries, if you want a social chat that's what lunch times are for. I've worked with Germans in the past, they are much more like me (I'm English) in that regard.

ctrl-j 9y ago

> if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations... Or they are a developer. Being interrupted while programming is really rough. It's like being an insomniac and having trouble falling asleep, when someone walks up and starts talking to you riiiight as you're drifting off. Now you're up for another two hours. Another analogy is you're building a house of cards using your mental concentration - someone distracting you causes you to knock the whole thing down. Oh, and the house of cards is due Friday.

NikolaeVarius 9y ago
I don't know why people think devs are special in this regard. Being interrupted is a universal human problem, there is no need for an analogy for something that anyone who works in a professional (or hell even non professional) job experiences.
- Clubber 9y ago
  Are you a developer? I recall studies that say any interruption costs 30 minutes of productivity for developers. When you put it into cost terms, someone talking in an open office for 30 seconds can literally cost hundreds or thousands of dollars of productivity.
  - watwut 9y ago
    I think that his point was that similar drop of productivity happen to other professions. Programming is not the only work that requires focus. Even with programming it does matter what tasks you are working on. Many tasks don't need that much time to get into and out of it, only some do.
    - Clubber 9y ago
      >I think that his point was that similar drop of productivity happen to other professions. Oh, I see. Yes, I would wholeheartedly agree with that. To his point, I would say many people on here don't necessarily think developers are special in that regard, but most people are developers and they are speaking on that which they know. I'm a developer (obviously) and I couldn't intelligently speak on how interruptions would disrupt a soft skill profession such as marketing, sales or HR.
      - watwut 9y ago
        Imo, both marketing and sales cause so many interruptions to everyone around, that if their own productivity is harmed by it, they really should do something about it. They are seriously winning the "who is the most noisy most interrupting office" competition.
  - NikolaeVarius 9y ago
    I've worked in multiple roles, including developer. 30 minutes of lost productivity in a dev role is peanuts compared to lost productivity in an engineering job where an hour of engineering work is $300+ of charged time. And with all this complaining about interruptions and lost productivity, its really only the "sexy tech startups" that seem to have ping pong and foosball tables to waste time playing.
laythea 9y ago
I am a developer and get lots done, but I don't have to work in a sweat shop where I have so much pressure that I cannot have the occasional social conversation or entertain someone else's occasional social conversation. In my opinion an office full of head down developers who don't feel they can talk to anyone, is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.
- loco5niner 9y ago
  > In my opinion an office full of head down developers who don't feel they can talk to anyone, is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in. I agree with that. But I also think that being in an office full of developers that can't use their "inside voice" is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.
  - laythea 9y ago
    Agreed. As most things in life, a balance is required.