5 ms·

I'd bet it's the same for other countries. I'm European and I'd rather be working from home rather than an open office. Alas, the standard here is open office.

Wohlf 8y ago
I used to hate cubicles until I experienced an open office plan. I now know things could be better, but they can easily be far worse.
- spudlyo 8y ago
  Yeah, I can't believe I now look upon the times when we had cubicles as "the good old days", but compared to the open office plan hell of today they seem like a damn luxury.
mcv 8y ago
To me it matters how open. I want to share a room with the members of my team, I don't want to share it with noisy salespeople. I've worked at many companies that get it right, but a few get very wrong.
- nsnick 8y ago
  It also matters what sort of keyboards everyone is using. Horribly noisy mechanical keyboards make it impossible to concentrate.
  - brightball 8y ago
    This is definitely one of those things that I can't understand. There seem to be so many people that swear by using keyboards with the clicks...but I just don't understand it. Especially once you get out of your own house.
    - bshipp 8y ago
      I used to swear by mechanical keyboards; I wrote my entire thesis on one, much to the chagrin of my graduate student officemate. She still brings it up when I see her, twelve years later! For me, the difference was similar to weighted vs unweighted piano keys. With a mechanical keyboard I could get into a rhythm that I miss when working on a bubble-type keyboard. I've since trained myself (mostly out of necessity due to travel) to type almost as quickly and error-free on my laptop keyboard, but I do still miss the feedback from mechanical springs. If I did 'spring' for a new mech keyboard now, however, I'd find the quietest one I could get, that still provided some sense of feedback. I don't need my noisy clicks to provide a juvenile signal to my coworkers that, yes, I am indeed working really hard on something really important right now.
      - alexeiz 8y ago
        I use mechanical keyboards in an open office environment. Even clicky ones. Does it bother anyone? Nobody complained yet (in fact, barely anyone noticed I bring my own keyboards to work). On the other hand, I can hear people typing on butterfly and membrane keyboards. So in my experience, in an open space which is already pretty noisy mechanical keyboards don't create noise which is more significant than non-mechanical keyboards.
        randcraw 8y ago
        Even the makers of mechanical keyboards recognize that some key switches make considerably more noise than others. That's why Cherry MX added optional damping -- so you can be considerate of others who are within earshot. Like leaky headphones, loud keyboards reliably do annoy neighbors, whether they're willing to speak up or not.
        nsnick 8y ago
        Ask your coworkers if it bothers them. The fact that they have not complained to you does not mean that it doesn't. They are more than likely being non-confrontational. People who get called out on their mechanical keyboards often get very defensive. I have seen it ruin team dynamics.
  - kylek 8y ago
    My last role (at a FAANG) had this lovely combination of short cubicle walls, standing desks that rise above the short walls, and mechanical keyboards. Dreaded it every day.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  Even temporary room/sound-dividers do wonders. I've worked somewhere that had things like these: https://i.imgur.com/F2TDKSe.jpg https://i.imgur.com/F2TDKSe.jpg And while on paper we were one "open office," in practice the dividers created mini-cubes/"offices." Which made it a reasonable workplace. People argue that creating distinct offices is expensive, but cubicles/dividers aren't. I feel like the reason for open plan isn't about cost, it is about trust i.e. that management wants to oversee/micromanage employees.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    "Even temporary room/sound-dividers do wonders." I have mentioned to facilities that they should be putting these in to get some insulation between different groups but they refused.
    - mcv 8y ago
      A rule at my current client is that every department gets 0.7 desks per member, and facilities sticks to it. The rationale is that we're all flexible and not everybody is in all the time, and that might be for managers and other people who live in meetings, but for product teams it can mean you can't sit together. We had to fight for a spot of our own. It's not the best spot, but at least I'm sitting with my team.
  - mcv 8y ago
    I've worked at a bank where the entire floor was technically one gigantic open floor, but in practice there were dividers, plants, and various other obstacles that created separate corners per team, and blocked most of the sound. Perfectly fine place to work. > I feel like the reason for open plan isn't about cost, it is about trust i.e. that management wants to oversee/micromanage employees. That's one of those things I really don't understand. What kind of manager would want to micromanage my work? How would they even do that? And do they really have nothing better to do with their time? It's one of those caricatures I only know from Dilbert.
    - tomatocracy 8y ago

Wohlf 8y ago

I used to hate cubicles until I experienced an open office plan. I now know things could be better, but they can easily be far worse.

spudlyo 8y ago
Yeah, I can't believe I now look upon the times when we had cubicles as "the good old days", but compared to the open office plan hell of today they seem like a damn luxury.

mcv 8y ago

To me it matters how open. I want to share a room with the members of my team, I don't want to share it with noisy salespeople. I've worked at many companies that get it right, but a few get very wrong.

nsnick 8y ago
It also matters what sort of keyboards everyone is using. Horribly noisy mechanical keyboards make it impossible to concentrate.
- brightball 8y ago
  This is definitely one of those things that I can't understand. There seem to be so many people that swear by using keyboards with the clicks...but I just don't understand it. Especially once you get out of your own house.
  - bshipp 8y ago
    I used to swear by mechanical keyboards; I wrote my entire thesis on one, much to the chagrin of my graduate student officemate. She still brings it up when I see her, twelve years later! For me, the difference was similar to weighted vs unweighted piano keys. With a mechanical keyboard I could get into a rhythm that I miss when working on a bubble-type keyboard. I've since trained myself (mostly out of necessity due to travel) to type almost as quickly and error-free on my laptop keyboard, but I do still miss the feedback from mechanical springs. If I did 'spring' for a new mech keyboard now, however, I'd find the quietest one I could get, that still provided some sense of feedback. I don't need my noisy clicks to provide a juvenile signal to my coworkers that, yes, I am indeed working really hard on something really important right now.
    - alexeiz 8y ago
      I use mechanical keyboards in an open office environment. Even clicky ones. Does it bother anyone? Nobody complained yet (in fact, barely anyone noticed I bring my own keyboards to work). On the other hand, I can hear people typing on butterfly and membrane keyboards. So in my experience, in an open space which is already pretty noisy mechanical keyboards don't create noise which is more significant than non-mechanical keyboards.
      - randcraw 8y ago
        Even the makers of mechanical keyboards recognize that some key switches make considerably more noise than others. That's why Cherry MX added optional damping -- so you can be considerate of others who are within earshot. Like leaky headphones, loud keyboards reliably do annoy neighbors, whether they're willing to speak up or not.
      - nsnick 8y ago
        Ask your coworkers if it bothers them. The fact that they have not complained to you does not mean that it doesn't. They are more than likely being non-confrontational. People who get called out on their mechanical keyboards often get very defensive. I have seen it ruin team dynamics.
- kylek 8y ago
  My last role (at a FAANG) had this lovely combination of short cubicle walls, standing desks that rise above the short walls, and mechanical keyboards. Dreaded it every day.
Someone1234 8y ago
Even temporary room/sound-dividers do wonders. I've worked somewhere that had things like these: https://i.imgur.com/F2TDKSe.jpg https://i.imgur.com/F2TDKSe.jpg And while on paper we were one "open office," in practice the dividers created mini-cubes/"offices." Which made it a reasonable workplace. People argue that creating distinct offices is expensive, but cubicles/dividers aren't. I feel like the reason for open plan isn't about cost, it is about trust i.e. that management wants to oversee/micromanage employees.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  "Even temporary room/sound-dividers do wonders." I have mentioned to facilities that they should be putting these in to get some insulation between different groups but they refused.
  - mcv 8y ago
    A rule at my current client is that every department gets 0.7 desks per member, and facilities sticks to it. The rationale is that we're all flexible and not everybody is in all the time, and that might be for managers and other people who live in meetings, but for product teams it can mean you can't sit together. We had to fight for a spot of our own. It's not the best spot, but at least I'm sitting with my team.
- mcv 8y ago
  I've worked at a bank where the entire floor was technically one gigantic open floor, but in practice there were dividers, plants, and various other obstacles that created separate corners per team, and blocked most of the sound. Perfectly fine place to work. > I feel like the reason for open plan isn't about cost, it is about trust i.e. that management wants to oversee/micromanage employees. That's one of those things I really don't understand. What kind of manager would want to micromanage my work? How would they even do that? And do they really have nothing better to do with their time? It's one of those caricatures I only know from Dilbert.
  - tomatocracy 8y ago