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Thank you to the writer of this. This is actually the reason I only take work that allows me to mainly work remotely. I used to work in an open layout as desc

Thank you to the writer of this. This is actually the reason I only take work that allows me to mainly work remotely. I used to work in an open layout as described and I would be interrupted for every little thing resulting in not much actual work being achieved. Oddly enough the open layout seems to be'the way' for cool startups - maybe in actuality this driven more by the cost savings of having an open layout office versus the alternative. I find it to be a poor setup for having to do anything that requires mental concentration.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
joezydeco 15y ago
I'm sitting here in one of these "cool startup" offices right now. I absolutely hate it. No place to stack anything, no walls to hang whiteboards, calendars, pictures. No DOOR to close when I just want to get something done. I have noise everywhere that headphones can't drown out. I have people tapping me on the back constantly because, apparently, having headphones on isn't a big enough signal that I'm trying to shut out the world. Yeah yeah, I know, sit people down and tell them. People forget. Just give me a door I can LOCK and that will work just fine. I'm a few hours away from commandeering an unused storage room and making it the new Software Lab.
- whamill 15y ago
  No whiteboards? What kind of startup doesn't have loads of whiteboards? You should go buy a load of that paint you can use to turn walls into whiteboards and paint your desk and cupboards and floor - www.ideapaint.com
  - joezydeco 15y ago
    No, we have whiteboards. They're just across the room on the outer walls where I can't reach them easily. We also went cheap and bought melamine bathroom panels that are impossible to erase.
    - gruseom 15y ago
      [whiteboard] melamine bathroom panels that are impossible to erase I had this exact problem. Citrus cleanser in a spray bottle solved it perfectly.
      - joezydeco 15y ago
        Thanks for the tip!
- moocow01 15y ago
  You have my sympathy. Was in a similar situation and tried lots of things... hiding myself in a conference room, headphones, being artificially mean, blocking out parts of my calendar as alone time, telling people I preferred to be left alone for the next few hours - unfortunately none of it worked because when people want something from you their impulse is to turn around and ask you when the barrier is so low. I'll admit that it wasn't a one way street, I probably unknowingly did it to people when they were in the zone. The only thing that really solves it is if you can convince your employer to let you work remotely even a day or 2 - thats when I actually got to do real work. Just my 2 cents.
- fishtoaster 15y ago
  In my experience, the open office idea only works well if you've planned your company around it. I worked at one place where we were all open, but by convention, everything short of a true "the site is down" emergency started with asynchronous communication. IM and group chat, mostly. If it took more than a few messages, it might move to verbal, but it always started in a form I could ignore for a while if I felt like it. Unfortunately, that only works if it's part of the company culture and each new employee sees it pretty clearly.
gambler 15y ago
I don't understand the appeal of open layouts either. Wherever I've seen them, they have been pushed unto developers from top-down. The arguments I've heard in their favor boil down to "they force people to communicate". Well, obviously, if developers don't communicate than it's a problem, but forcing a layout (or pair programming) does not seem to solve the root cause of the issue. Ideally, I think developers should have a choice. There should be rooms for working in a group when necessary, and there should be cubicles or rooms for working in isolation. People would switch depending on the situation or personality.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  I agree, the ideal offIce has a mix of both. It's great to have an area where everyone can chat and come up with ideas, but after that I want a deep, dark cave with impenetrable force fields and intra-office IM and email forbidden by nazi firewalls. I've taken to coming in on Saturdays just so I can get a solid 5-hour chunk of work done without interruption.
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  Poor communication is a cultural problem. No magic tool or seating arrangement will fix a company with poor communication skills. The only thing I've seen help in that situation is daily standups led by somebody who knew how to draw out more than "I fixed two bugs yesterday."

deleted 15y ago

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joezydeco 15y ago

I'm sitting here in one of these "cool startup" offices right now. I absolutely hate it. No place to stack anything, no walls to hang whiteboards, calendars, pictures. No DOOR to close when I just want to get something done. I have noise everywhere that headphones can't drown out. I have people tapping me on the back constantly because, apparently, having headphones on isn't a big enough signal that I'm trying to shut out the world. Yeah yeah, I know, sit people down and tell them. People forget. Just give me a door I can LOCK and that will work just fine. I'm a few hours away from commandeering an unused storage room and making it the new Software Lab.

whamill 15y ago
No whiteboards? What kind of startup doesn't have loads of whiteboards? You should go buy a load of that paint you can use to turn walls into whiteboards and paint your desk and cupboards and floor - www.ideapaint.com
- joezydeco 15y ago
  No, we have whiteboards. They're just across the room on the outer walls where I can't reach them easily. We also went cheap and bought melamine bathroom panels that are impossible to erase.
  - gruseom 15y ago
    [whiteboard] melamine bathroom panels that are impossible to erase I had this exact problem. Citrus cleanser in a spray bottle solved it perfectly.
    - joezydeco 15y ago
      Thanks for the tip!
moocow01 15y ago
You have my sympathy. Was in a similar situation and tried lots of things... hiding myself in a conference room, headphones, being artificially mean, blocking out parts of my calendar as alone time, telling people I preferred to be left alone for the next few hours - unfortunately none of it worked because when people want something from you their impulse is to turn around and ask you when the barrier is so low. I'll admit that it wasn't a one way street, I probably unknowingly did it to people when they were in the zone. The only thing that really solves it is if you can convince your employer to let you work remotely even a day or 2 - thats when I actually got to do real work. Just my 2 cents.
fishtoaster 15y ago
In my experience, the open office idea only works well if you've planned your company around it. I worked at one place where we were all open, but by convention, everything short of a true "the site is down" emergency started with asynchronous communication. IM and group chat, mostly. If it took more than a few messages, it might move to verbal, but it always started in a form I could ignore for a while if I felt like it. Unfortunately, that only works if it's part of the company culture and each new employee sees it pretty clearly.

gambler 15y ago

I don't understand the appeal of open layouts either. Wherever I've seen them, they have been pushed unto developers from top-down. The arguments I've heard in their favor boil down to "they force people to communicate". Well, obviously, if developers don't communicate than it's a problem, but forcing a layout (or pair programming) does not seem to solve the root cause of the issue. Ideally, I think developers should have a choice. There should be rooms for working in a group when necessary, and there should be cubicles or rooms for working in isolation. People would switch depending on the situation or personality.

redthrowaway 15y ago
I agree, the ideal offIce has a mix of both. It's great to have an area where everyone can chat and come up with ideas, but after that I want a deep, dark cave with impenetrable force fields and intra-office IM and email forbidden by nazi firewalls. I've taken to coming in on Saturdays just so I can get a solid 5-hour chunk of work done without interruption.
SoftwareMaven 15y ago
Poor communication is a cultural problem. No magic tool or seating arrangement will fix a company with poor communication skills. The only thing I've seen help in that situation is daily standups led by somebody who knew how to draw out more than "I fixed two bugs yesterday."