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Is anyone arguing in favour of open offices? I thought they existed because they were cheaper and then management tries to justify them after the fact by saying

Is anyone arguing in favour of open offices? I thought they existed because they were cheaper and then management tries to justify them after the fact by saying they foster collaboration. Aren't these blog posts just preaching to the choir?

nkrisc 8y ago
Open offices are a success because they achieve their goal of reducing costs. The "collaboration" was wishful thinking that didn't pan out.
- lord_ring_111 8y ago
  Its measurable vs non measurable. Cost saving is easy to measure. You can always claim collaboration increased with hand waving.
s3r3nity 8y ago
Annecdotally from experience of advocating for less-open offices and more cubes / mini-offices, there's not a lot of concrete data out there from reputable sources to counter research from strong sources like HBS and the like justifying open-office collaboration to convincingly make the case to Management Execs. I personally like seeing articles like this because it helps add to my backlog of research to point to for when I make the case yet again in the future.
jakelarkin 8y ago
cheaper yes but I think they are also perpetuated because they satisfy the egos of leadership. There's the visual satisfaction of seeing rows and rows of their diligent workers, and managers can easily inspect anyone's availability, walk up and demand instant attention.
deleted 8y ago
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Joky 8y ago
Having worked on a floor with individual (or dual) offices, and now being in an open-space for over a year, I personally feel a lot more collaborative in an open-space environment.
IOT_Apprentice 8y ago
Mostly startups and then to management types in Silicon Valley, which has been picked up spread beyond corporations and educational institutions used to justify more cramming people together in the interests of "collaboration". I saw it over at PayPal, where they were pushing it as a means for "fostering creativity and collaboration". Tore down cubicles and put in long rows with 1 ft high partitions. Just awful for concentration, focus work, staying in a flow and getting work done.
duxup 8y ago
There have to be jobs where it works better than the typical coder focused world we see in hacker news. I would think.... At the same time I think every world requires everyone to have SOME space.

nkrisc 8y ago

Open offices are a success because they achieve their goal of reducing costs. The "collaboration" was wishful thinking that didn't pan out.

lord_ring_111 8y ago
Its measurable vs non measurable. Cost saving is easy to measure. You can always claim collaboration increased with hand waving.

s3r3nity 8y ago

Annecdotally from experience of advocating for less-open offices and more cubes / mini-offices, there's not a lot of concrete data out there from reputable sources to counter research from strong sources like HBS and the like justifying open-office collaboration to convincingly make the case to Management Execs. I personally like seeing articles like this because it helps add to my backlog of research to point to for when I make the case yet again in the future.

jakelarkin 8y ago

cheaper yes but I think they are also perpetuated because they satisfy the egos of leadership. There's the visual satisfaction of seeing rows and rows of their diligent workers, and managers can easily inspect anyone's availability, walk up and demand instant attention.

deleted 8y ago

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Joky 8y ago

Having worked on a floor with individual (or dual) offices, and now being in an open-space for over a year, I personally feel a lot more collaborative in an open-space environment.

IOT_Apprentice 8y ago

Mostly startups and then to management types in Silicon Valley, which has been picked up spread beyond corporations and educational institutions used to justify more cramming people together in the interests of "collaboration". I saw it over at PayPal, where they were pushing it as a means for "fostering creativity and collaboration". Tore down cubicles and put in long rows with 1 ft high partitions. Just awful for concentration, focus work, staying in a flow and getting work done.

duxup 8y ago

There have to be jobs where it works better than the typical coder focused world we see in hacker news. I would think.... At the same time I think every world requires everyone to have SOME space.