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Open offices have driven Panasonic to make horse blinders for humans (2018)
- 908B64B197 5y agoJust get an office with a door.
- cjsawyer 5y ago“let them eat cake“
- 908B64B197 5y agoUnless you are at a top 10 company, open floor plans are a cost-cutting measure. That's a red flag!
- dogorman 5y agoI don't think you'd be so obtuse to respond with a 'just get a better job' comment if you understood that expression, so for future reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake
- da_big_ghey 5y ago"if youre homeless, just buy a house"
- addison-lee 5y ago“If you’re poor just make more money”
- honkycat 5y agoI hate open offices for many reasons. I am one of the fortunate people who can tune out the world around me an concentrate amongst the bustle. One thing is everyone to your left, right, and behind you being able to see your screen, which makes checking any sensitive personal information annoying. Additionally: Between the person to your left and right, you only have a tiny little window of workable space for your desk. Basically just a keyboard and mouse, and a water bottle if you are lucky. What an obnoxious, stupid way to make us work. Little did we know that cubicles were the NICE version of office work.
- christkv 5y agoOpen offices was so annoying, having to look for a couch where you could sit with your back to the wall, or a meeting room to answer sensitive work emails.
- ithkuil 5y agoDid anybody try "inverted open offices" where people sit facing the center and have their back against a wall as you described? Not necessary like that, any configuration where people can't sneak behind you would work.
- elric 5y agoI suggested this to $bossman, and he shot me down. I rather liked that setup when I was in school, basically a U shape, with every desk facing towards the middle of the U.
- ithkuil 5y agoWhat was the rationale? You could hide what you were doing?
- elric 5y agoIt's not even that, he has a nice office (with a door, and a big desk, and an Aeron, of course) and can't physically watch us work anyway. He just has this idea in his head about how an office should look, and U-shapes are not it. I guess it's the management equivalent of bikeshedding.
- robocat 5y agoBosses like to see you are working. If yor screen is private, then you can surf the net, watch sports, use Facebook, play games, or any number of unproductive activities.
- city41 5y ago
- da_big_ghey 5y agoThese sound awfuly bad for wearing, i would be so nervous less my periphery vision. I have office with a door and will kill to keep it. Ability to have a call in peace and quiet, talk without being heard and without hearing others, do work without other persons looking over my shoulder, constant bothers, have not the visual distractions, are all reasons why I can have any productivity. Open office classic case of a surface cost savings but lost productivity make very expensive in actuality.
- trhway 5y agowhat is the next after horse blinders? Naturally - VR. No need for the desk space for monitor, so the office density can be increased again, like 2x, while you'll be having prime corner office in VR (though probably bean counters would soon find a way/reason to "save" in VR too, and you'll get a nice collaborative VR open office :). Facebook Horizon and "metaverse" somehow come to mind in this context.
- DesiLurker 5y agofollowed by a neurolink in the brain to just type and see & maybe a reclining chair with probes plugging directly into spine for high b/w connection. eventually if you can work you way out of student loans then you start losing your physical body parts for virtual until you are finally left as a brain in a jar. Then the real fun begins..
- christophilus 5y agoSounds like a plot from Silicon Valley (the TV show).
- squarefoot 5y agoI've had mostly positive experiences in open offices, but the one I liked the most was in the mid 90s (if about 10 people in a room qualifies as open office): a room in which we had our desktops arranged as a square around and facing a giant aquarium. The positive environment, the soft music we had 100% control on, fishes, and the gentle bubbling of the air in the aquarium all contributed to a very relaxing and creative environment. As of today however, I very much prefer a libre office than an open one (pun intended); that is, my home.
- floren 5y agoA good open office can be very good, when each person gets plenty of space around them, things are generally quiet, and management isn't always wandering around (everybody wants to check HN or reddit occasionally, but feels weird doing it when management can see). Defaulting to a setup where most people can't see each other's screens is a nice touch, and the aquarium is cool.
- xur17 5y agoAdd this to the list of reasons I prefer to work remotely. I get a private office with full control over the air conditioning, my own chair, desk, monitors, etc, and no coworkers staring at my computer.
- ChrisArchitect 5y ago'news' from 2018? anything new to add to this? Like there hasn't been a million further articles about open plan offices and strategies Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19884448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19884448
- saint_olms 5y agoThese seem nice, actually. Even in an empty office peripheral motion distracts me easily so I'd get some use out of them. But 'horse blinders' is not the comparison I'd use, especially given the field... this is a professional (ie. expensive) take on the stereotypical hacker hoodie.
- quercusa 5y agoAnd we thought the 1996 Dilbert 'Head Cubicle' was satire. https://dilbert.com/strip/1996-09-15 https://dilbert.com/strip/1996-09-15
- Apocryphon 5y agoUbiquitous open offices are one of those trends that highlight that despite high compensation, mobility, and demand, Silicon Valley software engineers don't always possess the leverage they think they have. Some decisions are just completely in management's hands, and if the prevailing management trend is to embrace open offices, well- there's no current solution against it other than WFH.
- nahuel0x 5y agoFocus Cap, a similar product: https://focuscap.io/ https://focuscap.io/
- abraxas 5y agoThis one looks even more demeaning with its fast food server fashion style.
- hedora 5y agoYes, but in lowers your error rate by over 600%.
- Octopodes 5y agoThe Isolator Helmet is from 1925: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/12/22/the-isolator-an-invention-from-1925-designed-to-improve-work-productivity/ https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/12/22/the-isolator-an-in...
- anotherevan 5y agoJust say neigh.
- ickelbawd 5y agoLove it. So dystopian—-giving one the illusion of space while giving none at all. Create your own panopticon…
- oxplot 5y agoYep, I made something similar out of cardboard for myself and used it in office in the past. I'm super sensitive to motion in my peripheral vision.