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I consistently see criticism towards the space thats provided by an employer. I think there needs to be params on the culture of working in an open space enviro

I consistently see criticism towards the space thats provided by an employer. I think there needs to be params on the culture of working in an open space environment. The truth is its just cheaper than everyone having their own office. Headphones, Slack/Email and not having conversations in the open has worked in my experience.

tluyben2 8y ago
Great that you found a way to work like that; I for one cannot. And in my experience, even with headphones, it is far less productive especially for coders.
coldtea 8y ago
>The truth is its just cheaper than everyone having their own office. Crappy plastic chairs, $5 non-brand keyboards and recycled CRT monitors are also cheaper. If you want results from people working in a highly focus intensive and cognitive loaded job, and care about their mental health, adding divider walls is an irrelevant cost. You already pay them 70K+ per year, it's not some 20K/year developing world call center. You also don't need to give everyone their own office -- you could have people in smaller units of 2 to 4 persons.
- smacktoward 8y ago
  But this is only true if you plan on holding on to those people over the long term, which you don't. You work them until they leave voluntarily or burn out, at which point you replace them with a new crop of fresh-faced university grads. This has the added benefit of ensuring that the $70K/year or whatever you're paying these people stays static. Experienced people have a bad habit of expecting to earn more money as their skills deepen. By keeping your workforce in a constant state of churn, you drive those people away before they can start making demands.
TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
> Headphones, Slack/Email and not having conversations in the open has worked in my experience. This is fine when it's 5, 10, 20 people but open offices of 200+ people that is a combination of engineering, product, sales, marketing, etc does not. Even when small groups have conversations it's suddenly magnified through the whole office.
closeparen 8y ago
Employers are generally adamant that having conversations out in the open is the point of an open office.
OnlyRepliesToBS 8y ago
lol

tluyben2 8y ago

Great that you found a way to work like that; I for one cannot. And in my experience, even with headphones, it is far less productive especially for coders.

coldtea 8y ago

>The truth is its just cheaper than everyone having their own office. Crappy plastic chairs, $5 non-brand keyboards and recycled CRT monitors are also cheaper. If you want results from people working in a highly focus intensive and cognitive loaded job, and care about their mental health, adding divider walls is an irrelevant cost. You already pay them 70K+ per year, it's not some 20K/year developing world call center. You also don't need to give everyone their own office -- you could have people in smaller units of 2 to 4 persons.

smacktoward 8y ago
But this is only true if you plan on holding on to those people over the long term, which you don't. You work them until they leave voluntarily or burn out, at which point you replace them with a new crop of fresh-faced university grads. This has the added benefit of ensuring that the $70K/year or whatever you're paying these people stays static. Experienced people have a bad habit of expecting to earn more money as their skills deepen. By keeping your workforce in a constant state of churn, you drive those people away before they can start making demands.

TarpitCarnivore 8y ago

> Headphones, Slack/Email and not having conversations in the open has worked in my experience. This is fine when it's 5, 10, 20 people but open offices of 200+ people that is a combination of engineering, product, sales, marketing, etc does not. Even when small groups have conversations it's suddenly magnified through the whole office.

closeparen 8y ago

Employers are generally adamant that having conversations out in the open is the point of an open office.

OnlyRepliesToBS 8y ago

lol