4 ms·

People are not working collaboratively in libraries. Offices exist for people to work collaboratively, otherwise they could work at home.

analog31 4y ago
Offices exist for a variety of reasons: Supervision, access to information (paper files), equipment (phones, computers), status signaling, and moving information efficiently. The "collaboration" ruse seems like a recent invention. Managers collaborate just fine with private offices. Collaboration is certainly valuable, but at the same time, I have a hunch that 90% of the time spent collaborating, is spent getting the stuff done that you agreed to do. Also, much of the communication involved in collaboration is not necessarily done best in front of an audience. These may be a couple of the reasons for reports that open-plan offices actually degrade collaboration. A lot of the time I spent in libraries as a grad student was doing work that contributed to a collaboration. Likewise a lot of the coding that I do in isolation.
cratermoon 4y ago
People are not working collaboratively in open-plan offices. "Recent research shows that such offices result in 73 per cent less face-to-face interaction, and a 67 per cent increase in email interaction." https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325959 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325959
- spoonjim 4y ago
  I believe it about open plan vs private offices, but this is a comparison between offices in general and libraries (which have effectively zero collaboration)
  - cyphar 4y ago
    > libraries (which have effectively zero collaboration) Have you never studied with other people together at a library? Most of my time spent in library during high school and university was spent working together on assignments or studying in groups for exams. It's not just me, whenever I go to my local libraries, they're always full of students studying (many studying in groups).
    - ghaff 4y ago
      It's not unusual to have small rooms that groups can use to work together in a library. But in my experience with large libraries, the main reading rooms are pretty quiet and don't have groups speaking more than a token amount.
  - cratermoon 4y ago
    Not offices in general, but open plan offices specifically.

analog31 4y ago

Offices exist for a variety of reasons: Supervision, access to information (paper files), equipment (phones, computers), status signaling, and moving information efficiently. The "collaboration" ruse seems like a recent invention. Managers collaborate just fine with private offices. Collaboration is certainly valuable, but at the same time, I have a hunch that 90% of the time spent collaborating, is spent getting the stuff done that you agreed to do. Also, much of the communication involved in collaboration is not necessarily done best in front of an audience. These may be a couple of the reasons for reports that open-plan offices actually degrade collaboration. A lot of the time I spent in libraries as a grad student was doing work that contributed to a collaboration. Likewise a lot of the coding that I do in isolation.

cratermoon 4y ago

People are not working collaboratively in open-plan offices. "Recent research shows that such offices result in 73 per cent less face-to-face interaction, and a 67 per cent increase in email interaction." https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325959 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325959

spoonjim 4y ago
I believe it about open plan vs private offices, but this is a comparison between offices in general and libraries (which have effectively zero collaboration)
- cyphar 4y ago
  > libraries (which have effectively zero collaboration) Have you never studied with other people together at a library? Most of my time spent in library during high school and university was spent working together on assignments or studying in groups for exams. It's not just me, whenever I go to my local libraries, they're always full of students studying (many studying in groups).
  - ghaff 4y ago
    It's not unusual to have small rooms that groups can use to work together in a library. But in my experience with large libraries, the main reading rooms are pretty quiet and don't have groups speaking more than a token amount.
- cratermoon 4y ago
  Not offices in general, but open plan offices specifically.