4 ms·

> The best part is that the cubicle doesn't have tall walls so I can literally see/hear everything, including other people's monitors. Open offices are awful.

> The best part is that the cubicle doesn't have tall walls so I can literally see/hear everything, including other people's monitors. Open offices are awful. In my experience most people end up wearing headphones all day, and I did too. My ears would get red and irritated after a while. But I'd keep them on because it was like an unspoken social rule; that if you looked busy and had headphones on, people won't interrupt you as much.

beebmam 5y ago
I originally hated open spaces. But eventually I grew to love open spaces for being social. In fact, I had one of the most enjoyable times I ever had at a big tech company being in an open space! But I was probably producing about 10% of what I normally produced in a closed space. I was OK with that :-) My company probably wasn't, but hey, I was salary; that's their problem.
petters 5y ago
Not sure about the definition, but a "cubicle" without high walls is not really a cubicle, right? I have worked at Google and a cubicle would have been better than the open source we had.
dkdbejwi383 5y ago
I have a mild case of tinnitus which I attribute to headphone use for 9 or so hours a day (commute plus time trying to work in the office). At home these days I rarely have music or anything on, I can work for the most part in comfortable silence. Means that music is saved for when I actually want to listen to it and can give it my attention, instead of while I'm trying to debug or avoid someone's armpit on the train.
- test1235 5y ago
  A lot of the time I had my over-the-ears headphones on in the office, I wasn't even listening to anything - it was just nice to block out the environment noise a bit, and let people know not to bother me.
haraball 5y ago
The book Peopleware had a nice description of cubicles: "Today’s modular cubicle is a masterpiece of compromise: It gives you no meaningful privacy and yet still manages to make you feel isolated. You are poorly protected from noise and disruption; indeed in some cases, sources of noise and disruption are actively piped into your space. You’re isolated because that small lonely space excludes everyone but you (it’s kind of a toilet stall without a toilet). The space makes it difficult to work alone and almost impossible to participate in the social unit that might form around your work."
itronitron 5y ago
I wonder if wearing a reflective face shield would be a more effective deterrent to interruptions. If people can't see your face then they would probably be much less likely to engage in conversation. You could just take a normal face shield and put reflective sunscreen window film on the inside.
- Zababa 5y ago
  I think this would work the opposite way because people would think it's a great conversation starter.
  - itronitron 5y ago
    You make a good point. Maybe it would need to also be worn with hearing protection until the novelty wears off. And adding a chin strap would prevent other people from removing it.
mobilemidget 5y ago
I'm bit puzzled what sound a monitor makes?
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  You can't hear it but you can see it.

beebmam 5y ago

I originally hated open spaces. But eventually I grew to love open spaces for being social. In fact, I had one of the most enjoyable times I ever had at a big tech company being in an open space! But I was probably producing about 10% of what I normally produced in a closed space. I was OK with that :-) My company probably wasn't, but hey, I was salary; that's their problem.

petters 5y ago

Not sure about the definition, but a "cubicle" without high walls is not really a cubicle, right? I have worked at Google and a cubicle would have been better than the open source we had.

dkdbejwi383 5y ago

I have a mild case of tinnitus which I attribute to headphone use for 9 or so hours a day (commute plus time trying to work in the office). At home these days I rarely have music or anything on, I can work for the most part in comfortable silence. Means that music is saved for when I actually want to listen to it and can give it my attention, instead of while I'm trying to debug or avoid someone's armpit on the train.

test1235 5y ago
A lot of the time I had my over-the-ears headphones on in the office, I wasn't even listening to anything - it was just nice to block out the environment noise a bit, and let people know not to bother me.

haraball 5y ago

The book Peopleware had a nice description of cubicles: "Today’s modular cubicle is a masterpiece of compromise: It gives you no meaningful privacy and yet still manages to make you feel isolated. You are poorly protected from noise and disruption; indeed in some cases, sources of noise and disruption are actively piped into your space. You’re isolated because that small lonely space excludes everyone but you (it’s kind of a toilet stall without a toilet). The space makes it difficult to work alone and almost impossible to participate in the social unit that might form around your work."

itronitron 5y ago

I wonder if wearing a reflective face shield would be a more effective deterrent to interruptions. If people can't see your face then they would probably be much less likely to engage in conversation. You could just take a normal face shield and put reflective sunscreen window film on the inside.

Zababa 5y ago
I think this would work the opposite way because people would think it's a great conversation starter.
- itronitron 5y ago
  You make a good point. Maybe it would need to also be worn with hearing protection until the novelty wears off. And adding a chin strap would prevent other people from removing it.

mobilemidget 5y ago

I'm bit puzzled what sound a monitor makes?

vineyardmike 5y ago
You can't hear it but you can see it.