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Currently working alone in my own windowless office in an almost completely windowless building. Compared to the previous 'open-plan' gig where I sat opposite

Currently working alone in my own windowless office in an almost completely windowless building. Compared to the previous 'open-plan' gig where I sat opposite opposite Jill-from-Comms and Sales-bro Bryan, it rules so hard. So yeah,"the #1 office perk" for me is not getting interrupted with inane shit every ten minutes.

Sileni 8y ago
I will never work in an open plan building again. It left me absolutely brain dead and begging the clock to go faster because I couldn't think at work anyway.
- dijit 8y ago
  I'm with you, it's like my brain turns off when I'm there, no amount of noise-cancelling headphones can stop me noticing movements in my periphery or the feeling of possible immediate jarring interruptions if I have my back to the room. I get all my day-work done in the evening, when I'm in the office I just browse reddit or read HN because; unless I'm in a meeting or talking to a colleague- I cannot possibly be productive. (I _really_ did try to avoid Reddit/HN but after 2 years of doing basically nothing above a 10 minute task I couldn't do it anymore, I was bored.) And my company still trucks on with an open office policy. :(
  - Timmah 8y ago
    > no amount of noise-cancelling headphones can stop me noticing movements in my periphery Or the shaking of the floor. I worked in a "modern" high-rise of a well known company with open offices and the floor felt like it was made of Ikea particle board skin of an under-floor giant African drum.
  - ryandrake 8y ago
    People have different priorities. Having worked in both environments, if I had to choose between a private windowless cave with no sunlight and an open bullpen fishbowl with ample natural light, I’m picking the fishbowl every time. You can wear headphones to block out the noise, but it doesn’t work to just hang a picture of the sun on your wall.
    - dijit 8y ago
      I think this entire thread boils down to choice. I don't have an option, the fishbowl is thrust on me and has been for many years over many jobs. Similarly; I actually prefer the dark, but were I in a situation where I walked into a dark room in the middle of a building- I would probably not like it.
- Ocerge 8y ago
  I feel the same way, but I'm just not sure I'm to the point where I can demand to not work for an open plan company; it's how it is pretty much everywhere I've interviewed. I'd be curious to see percentages in terms of tech companies that still have office rooms for their engineers.
  - TimTheTinker 8y ago
    I’d be curious how the valley compares to other places. Fog Creek (in NYC) famously trumpets their strict “offices have doors” policy. Here at Esri in Redlands (SoCal, 80mi out of LA) we have individual offices with sliding glass doors — an idea which I think we got from Microsoft in the ‘90s (also non-valley).
  - Sileni 8y ago
    Admittedly, I'm in something of a hybrid situation at the moment, and I have the benefit of being a chemist, not a programmer. My lab has a few desks in it, and technically it's "open", but since we're constantly moving in and out of the office and I can always go for a walk outside to think during the day, it works for me. Look for compromises and suss out the absolute most important point. For me, that's not having people moving around behind me. I have a large set of shelves behind me, and you can only enter my desk area from ahead-left of me.
ss2003 8y ago
I (previously) had the worst of both worlds, sharing a windowless closet with 5 other people.
- electricslpnsld 8y ago
  Sounds like our offices! No natural light, but open seating, but it is only 'open' in the sense that the workspace is in an open area, so we have assigned seats. My assigned seat happens to be about 6 feet from the men's bathroom... Also, the managers and high ups do have private offices, private office with glass walls that face into the open work area so they can watch everyone work all day. It is pretty sketchy!
  - abledon 8y ago
    Questions : What programming language tech stack do you use ? Is it a better gig than previous one ? Can you hear people farting and shitting in the bathroom ? How do you decompress after work and are you currently searching for another job?
    - electricslpnsld 8y ago
      > What programming language tech stack do you use ? CUDA, C++14, Python. > Is it a better gig than previous one ? It is! The office conditions are terrible, but my coworkers are freaking amazing, and I am genuinely excited about the work we do, which is the main reason I'm still there. > Can you hear people farting and shitting in the bathroom ? Only if the door is open and my headphones are off. :O > How do you decompress after work I hit the gym. > are you currently searching for another job? Actively, although the office conditions are mainly a symptom of utterly terrible management, which is my main reason for job hunting.
- chaostheory 8y ago
  This, the "fishbowl", is still better than an open office plan.
bstar77 8y ago
My solution was to buy a pair of headphones with good sound isolation. The building could be burning down and I'd wouldn't give a shit.
- iamdave 8y ago
  New job has me sitting next to a 20U rack cabinet with my network "lab" humming away all day long in an office I share with one other person (plenty of space for the two of us). Support is right down the hall. I don't hear a thing except every now and then someone running the ice maker but it's well buffered by the three Dell blade servers lol. It's awesome.
  - peterwwillis 8y ago
    Your setup may not be very noisy, but if it were at 88 dB, I would consider earplug headphones to reduce the risk of NIHL or tinnitus.
    - iamdave 8y ago
      I still wear headphones (because much like coffee, I gotta get my morning sports talk radio fix), but the tinnitus is already raging thanks to a past job that involved blowing things up in a distant part of the world. Measured, it's right around ~60dB.
- beat 8y ago
  I find it difficult to work while wearing headphones. Music is very distracting. I just spent two and a half years working from home, where I could leave the tv on in the background. That was awesome. A little motion out of the corner of my eye, some noise, but nothing structured in a way I cared about. Loud reality shows about mechanical stuff were my noise-companion. I could just ignore them. Music is full of structure. I love it far too much to work with it. On the positive side, the "open office" I'm in now has some restaurant-style booths set up with glass doors. They're lifesavers.
  - 8y ago
noir_lord 8y ago
Also have a (huge) windowless office to myself and it's awesome.
ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
How long have you been in the new office? I felt the same for about 6 months. It's been a couple years now, and I am getting incredibly lonely and bored. Which is weird because I've never been a "social" person. Even though my office is huge, it feels like hiding in a closet. I often wonder why I even come in instead of working from home. All my collaboration with co-workers happens over email and screen sharing programs anyway.
jdavis703 8y ago
If I don't get enough sun I fall in to depression. It's why I moved to California -- every winter I'd get really down; I'd self diagnosed as having seasonal affective disorder. Since being in California for five winters this hasn't happened yet. I also spent a summer working in a windowless office while my company was preparing for a classified DoD project (we lost the bid, but one of the requirements was "no windows."). That was easily one of the worst summers of my life. Point being, at least for some people sunlight is a key component to mental health.
- leesec 8y ago
  You're probably well aware of this, but Vitamin D supplements have been life changing for me. There was an article a while back pleading to the FDA to fix the recommended daily limit, suggesting it might be 10x too low. I take 10,000 IU a day and the difference is very noticeable.
  - PascLeRasc 8y ago
    I get pretty significant SAD and 5000 IUs of Vitamin D helps a lot, but it's not enough for me. I'm planning to move to somewhere else in a year or two, maybe Seattle.
    - ChrisClark 8y ago
      Vancouver Island isn't far from Seattle, and I had no sun at all all winter, be sure to check it out in the winter before you move there.
      - PascLeRasc 8y ago
        Thanks, I hear Vancouver is beautiful. I'm planning on taking a west coast trip next summer so hopefully I'll be able to check Seattle out, along with Portland and SF, though I don't want to have to choose SF.
      - tlavoie 8y ago
        It might not be that sunny in the winter, but it'll be warm enough that you're not completely bundled up away from the sunlight you do get if it's not actually raining. Winnipeg might be much sunnier in the winter, but I'm not sure you'd get much more sun exposure given things like wind chill. BTW, where on VI are you? Quadra here.

Sileni 8y ago

I will never work in an open plan building again. It left me absolutely brain dead and begging the clock to go faster because I couldn't think at work anyway.

dijit 8y ago
I'm with you, it's like my brain turns off when I'm there, no amount of noise-cancelling headphones can stop me noticing movements in my periphery or the feeling of possible immediate jarring interruptions if I have my back to the room. I get all my day-work done in the evening, when I'm in the office I just browse reddit or read HN because; unless I'm in a meeting or talking to a colleague- I cannot possibly be productive. (I _really_ did try to avoid Reddit/HN but after 2 years of doing basically nothing above a 10 minute task I couldn't do it anymore, I was bored.) And my company still trucks on with an open office policy. :(
- Timmah 8y ago
  > no amount of noise-cancelling headphones can stop me noticing movements in my periphery Or the shaking of the floor. I worked in a "modern" high-rise of a well known company with open offices and the floor felt like it was made of Ikea particle board skin of an under-floor giant African drum.
- ryandrake 8y ago
  People have different priorities. Having worked in both environments, if I had to choose between a private windowless cave with no sunlight and an open bullpen fishbowl with ample natural light, I’m picking the fishbowl every time. You can wear headphones to block out the noise, but it doesn’t work to just hang a picture of the sun on your wall.
  - dijit 8y ago
    I think this entire thread boils down to choice. I don't have an option, the fishbowl is thrust on me and has been for many years over many jobs. Similarly; I actually prefer the dark, but were I in a situation where I walked into a dark room in the middle of a building- I would probably not like it.
Ocerge 8y ago
I feel the same way, but I'm just not sure I'm to the point where I can demand to not work for an open plan company; it's how it is pretty much everywhere I've interviewed. I'd be curious to see percentages in terms of tech companies that still have office rooms for their engineers.
- TimTheTinker 8y ago
  I’d be curious how the valley compares to other places. Fog Creek (in NYC) famously trumpets their strict “offices have doors” policy. Here at Esri in Redlands (SoCal, 80mi out of LA) we have individual offices with sliding glass doors — an idea which I think we got from Microsoft in the ‘90s (also non-valley).
- Sileni 8y ago
  Admittedly, I'm in something of a hybrid situation at the moment, and I have the benefit of being a chemist, not a programmer. My lab has a few desks in it, and technically it's "open", but since we're constantly moving in and out of the office and I can always go for a walk outside to think during the day, it works for me. Look for compromises and suss out the absolute most important point. For me, that's not having people moving around behind me. I have a large set of shelves behind me, and you can only enter my desk area from ahead-left of me.

ss2003 8y ago

I (previously) had the worst of both worlds, sharing a windowless closet with 5 other people.

electricslpnsld 8y ago
Sounds like our offices! No natural light, but open seating, but it is only 'open' in the sense that the workspace is in an open area, so we have assigned seats. My assigned seat happens to be about 6 feet from the men's bathroom... Also, the managers and high ups do have private offices, private office with glass walls that face into the open work area so they can watch everyone work all day. It is pretty sketchy!
- abledon 8y ago
  Questions : What programming language tech stack do you use ? Is it a better gig than previous one ? Can you hear people farting and shitting in the bathroom ? How do you decompress after work and are you currently searching for another job?
  - electricslpnsld 8y ago
    > What programming language tech stack do you use ? CUDA, C++14, Python. > Is it a better gig than previous one ? It is! The office conditions are terrible, but my coworkers are freaking amazing, and I am genuinely excited about the work we do, which is the main reason I'm still there. > Can you hear people farting and shitting in the bathroom ? Only if the door is open and my headphones are off. :O > How do you decompress after work I hit the gym. > are you currently searching for another job? Actively, although the office conditions are mainly a symptom of utterly terrible management, which is my main reason for job hunting.
chaostheory 8y ago
This, the "fishbowl", is still better than an open office plan.

bstar77 8y ago

My solution was to buy a pair of headphones with good sound isolation. The building could be burning down and I'd wouldn't give a shit.

iamdave 8y ago
New job has me sitting next to a 20U rack cabinet with my network "lab" humming away all day long in an office I share with one other person (plenty of space for the two of us). Support is right down the hall. I don't hear a thing except every now and then someone running the ice maker but it's well buffered by the three Dell blade servers lol. It's awesome.
- peterwwillis 8y ago
  Your setup may not be very noisy, but if it were at 88 dB, I would consider earplug headphones to reduce the risk of NIHL or tinnitus.
  - iamdave 8y ago
    I still wear headphones (because much like coffee, I gotta get my morning sports talk radio fix), but the tinnitus is already raging thanks to a past job that involved blowing things up in a distant part of the world. Measured, it's right around ~60dB.
beat 8y ago
I find it difficult to work while wearing headphones. Music is very distracting. I just spent two and a half years working from home, where I could leave the tv on in the background. That was awesome. A little motion out of the corner of my eye, some noise, but nothing structured in a way I cared about. Loud reality shows about mechanical stuff were my noise-companion. I could just ignore them. Music is full of structure. I love it far too much to work with it. On the positive side, the "open office" I'm in now has some restaurant-style booths set up with glass doors. They're lifesavers.
- 8y ago

noir_lord 8y ago

Also have a (huge) windowless office to myself and it's awesome.

ghostbrainalpha 8y ago

How long have you been in the new office? I felt the same for about 6 months. It's been a couple years now, and I am getting incredibly lonely and bored. Which is weird because I've never been a "social" person. Even though my office is huge, it feels like hiding in a closet. I often wonder why I even come in instead of working from home. All my collaboration with co-workers happens over email and screen sharing programs anyway.

jdavis703 8y ago

If I don't get enough sun I fall in to depression. It's why I moved to California -- every winter I'd get really down; I'd self diagnosed as having seasonal affective disorder. Since being in California for five winters this hasn't happened yet. I also spent a summer working in a windowless office while my company was preparing for a classified DoD project (we lost the bid, but one of the requirements was "no windows."). That was easily one of the worst summers of my life. Point being, at least for some people sunlight is a key component to mental health.

leesec 8y ago
You're probably well aware of this, but Vitamin D supplements have been life changing for me. There was an article a while back pleading to the FDA to fix the recommended daily limit, suggesting it might be 10x too low. I take 10,000 IU a day and the difference is very noticeable.
- PascLeRasc 8y ago
  I get pretty significant SAD and 5000 IUs of Vitamin D helps a lot, but it's not enough for me. I'm planning to move to somewhere else in a year or two, maybe Seattle.
  - ChrisClark 8y ago
    Vancouver Island isn't far from Seattle, and I had no sun at all all winter, be sure to check it out in the winter before you move there.
    - PascLeRasc 8y ago
      Thanks, I hear Vancouver is beautiful. I'm planning on taking a west coast trip next summer so hopefully I'll be able to check Seattle out, along with Portland and SF, though I don't want to have to choose SF.
    - tlavoie 8y ago
      It might not be that sunny in the winter, but it'll be warm enough that you're not completely bundled up away from the sunlight you do get if it's not actually raining. Winnipeg might be much sunnier in the winter, but I'm not sure you'd get much more sun exposure given things like wind chill. BTW, where on VI are you? Quadra here.