4 ms·

> the flickering fluorescent lights, the noise of coworkers, the smell of burnt coffee or popcorn, the boss that drops by to see how you're doing and causes you

> the flickering fluorescent lights, the noise of coworkers, the smell of burnt coffee or popcorn, the boss that drops by to see how you're doing and causes you to lose a hour of concentration so I might as browse the web until quitting time. Was this at a "tech" company of any kind, or a non-tech company with a small number of software engineers? This sounds more like an archetype based on Office Space rather than a real office that I have been in any time in the last 6 years.

standardUser 5y ago
I think the inability to control light, noise, temperature, scents and walk-up bosses/coworkers are more of less universal among offices. But all of those things are trivial and unimportant in the shadow of the miserable 1-2 hour of commute every day, which is truly a waste of time, resources and our limited human lives.
okareaman 5y ago
These were all software companies in or near Silicon Valley. Cube farms, not open office. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones to get your own office (with a door)
- astrange 5y ago
  The one time I had an office with a door it was my worst location, because it didn't have a thermostat so it got too hot to leave the door closed. It's surprising how bad smelling the coffee from a Starbucks iCup machine is though.
handrous 5y ago
This basically just describes the offices of most small- to large-sized tech companies that aren't part of West-coast tech culture (some of which has spread beyond the West coast, but does not dominate like it does there). There are lots of them and they may well represent a larger proportion of dev employment in the US than either stodgy-old-established-bigtech (IBM, telcos) or ones that are a part of the aforementioned West-coast tech culture. They tend to develop industry-specific products (or, often, a whole bunch of industry-specific products) but are definitely tech—and often even purely-software—companies.

standardUser 5y ago

I think the inability to control light, noise, temperature, scents and walk-up bosses/coworkers are more of less universal among offices. But all of those things are trivial and unimportant in the shadow of the miserable 1-2 hour of commute every day, which is truly a waste of time, resources and our limited human lives.

okareaman 5y ago

These were all software companies in or near Silicon Valley. Cube farms, not open office. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones to get your own office (with a door)

astrange 5y ago
The one time I had an office with a door it was my worst location, because it didn't have a thermostat so it got too hot to leave the door closed. It's surprising how bad smelling the coffee from a Starbucks iCup machine is though.

handrous 5y ago

This basically just describes the offices of most small- to large-sized tech companies that aren't part of West-coast tech culture (some of which has spread beyond the West coast, but does not dominate like it does there). There are lots of them and they may well represent a larger proportion of dev employment in the US than either stodgy-old-established-bigtech (IBM, telcos) or ones that are a part of the aforementioned West-coast tech culture. They tend to develop industry-specific products (or, often, a whole bunch of industry-specific products) but are definitely tech—and often even purely-software—companies.