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Open-Plan Offices Are Making Us Less Social
- oblio 8y agoCan companies just come out and say it? They’re all adopting open offices because they’re cheaper and the cogs are easy to move around. Though it baffles me why Facebook, Google, etc., companies that can afford it, don’t switch to 2-4-6-8 person offices. Best option: not too isolated, not too bunched up together.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI think the main reason is that it looks good. Nothing better than overlooking a wide open space where the worker bees are moving around. That is, as long as you can then retreat into your quiet corner office.
- Felz 8y agoI feel like optimizing for manageability is a great way to run a tech company into the ground. And I notice that Microsoft, which gives its programmers offices, seems like the only tech megacompany that can still produce software.
- bgorman 8y agoMicrosoft Windows is probably the worst software product of all time. All Microsoft has is lawyers and a good marketing department
- oblio 8y agoMany people have been using Windows successfully since at least 95. There’s definitely worse products out there.
- slededit 8y agoDon't worry Microsoft is doing their best to change to open offices.
- zeroxfe 8y ago> seems like the only tech megacompany that can still produce software. Pretty sure Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, can produce software too. I could be wrong.
- betadreamer 8y agoI’m not sure if it makes us less social but I noticed that open plan creates one of the two environments: 1) Super distracting. Everyone is talking the whole time and it’s hard to focus. Your team member bugs you all the time and you realize that your team is part of the noise. 2) Slack driven communication. No one bothers anyone and all the conversation is done on Slack. You slack a person even if they are sitting next to you. Pretty awkward and can be time consuming.
- sidibe 8y agoThis and preferring ads to subscriptions are the two topics I feel like I disagree with 99% of HN. I much prefer open offices and I don't mind my neighbors having conversations. Sometimes it turns out to be pretty useful what you overhear by accident. Otherwise headphones work.
- derekp7 8y agoSame here -- it's not too noisy, and it is really useful to overhear someone having an issue and then jumping in to help. Only on relatively few occasions is it a problem, specifically when one of my team members who speaks English as a second language is having trouble with HP support, he tends to get a bit louder and more excited. At that point I just take a quick tea break.
- dingaling 8y agoI have only ever worked in open-plans. Sometimes it is useful to take an hour alone in a meeting room, or after core hours when it is empty, but I've been of the opinion that I am paid to facilitate the company's goals. Generally that requires collaborating and helping team members, so open-plan works for me.
- hyperrail 8y agoHere's the academic paper on which this article is based: http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1753/20170239 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1753/2017... and here is the HN discussion of that paper from a couple days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17448187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17448187