> Rooms for 6-8 people isolated from external noises is a good sweet spot Sweet spot for me does not depend on the number of people. I used to work for a compa

> Rooms for 6-8 people isolated from external noises is a good sweet spot Sweet spot for me does not depend on the number of people. I used to work for a company in a huge open space with 25+ devs who understood the need for silence. Now I'm in an open space with 8 people who do not understand the need for silence. One guy's been on a diet for the past year and eats only raw carrots for lunch. The crunching is so loud I can hear it through my Bose QC15 headphones. It starts with the screeching carrot peeler, I want to hang myself. The same guy spends all day making obnoxious snorting sounds and doesn't know what a Kleenex is. Then another colleague decides to go on the same raw carrot diet. Is this a candid camera episode? Then there's the daily chatter about last night's football game, incessant complaining about whatever the latest company announcement was, other people coming in to the room to yak about their code. Other people fart and stink out the whole room. I understand the need people to be able to have a chat behind their desk, for professional or personal reasons. But that also bothers others. Conclusion is, open plan doesn't work. I'm now on the verge of quitting my job for this reason and it's the same reason I quit my previous job. When I start interviewing for other jobs, how can I ask "do people here understand the need to shut up" without appearing like an asshole? If I didn't have kids I'd move to outer Mongolia and farm sheep.