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Meta’s Push to Solve the Noisy Office
- pinewurst 4y agohttps://archive.ph/6xbCY https://archive.ph/6xbCY
- TrispusAttucks 4y agoI wonder if they regret they're ridiculous push for the largest open office design ever that most employees were against.
- monero-xmr 4y agoI converted my company (hundreds of people) to fully remote and it’s been great. However if I was going to have an office again, it would be with individual offices or with sound-proof cubicle walls that have doors. I lived with open floor plans for so long I forgot how valuable being able to avoid coworkers was.
- cratermoon 4y agoIt's kind of sad that I (and probably others) look back fondly at the era of cubicles as preferable to the current trends. With the caveat that there are some cubical farms (I'm looking at you, Intel) that barely different from open-plan offices with individual desk, some jobs I worked back in the day gave each person a relatively roomy and well-appointed individual cubicle. One place I had plenty of surface space in an L shape, multiple lockable storage areas, and even a small coat closet.
- autoexec 4y ago> One place I had plenty of surface space in an L shape, multiple lockable storage areas, and even a small coat closet. Wall height really matters. At a certain point though it might as well just be an office. Even if you wanted constant collaboration with the people in cubes around you it'd probably be better to stick small groups of people in rooms together rather than a sprawling cube farm.
- kitsunesoba 4y agoI would probably want this too. Noise-cancelling headphones help a lot to solve the audible noise problems of an open office, but do nothing to fix the issue of visual noise with coworkers buzzing around and such which can be just as much of a productivity killer.
- tablespoon 4y ago> I would probably want this too. Noise-cancelling headphones help a lot to solve the audible noise problems of an open office... Really? I have noise-cancelling headphones (nice Bose ones), and I've never considered them much of a help with office noise. In my experience, they're great at cancelling white noise, but nothing else. IMHO headphones (including noise-cancelling) are a six-of-one, half-a-dozen of the other "solution" to office noise: they just trade once kid of audio distraction (office noise) for another (music or talk).
- _yb2s 4y agoNoise canceling headphones lower the noise floor, so the little bit of sound that still gets through is super noticeable. I’ve found playing a really quiet noise generator makes background voices totally disappear. The in ear versions of Bose headphones also work better than the over ear for voice frequencies.
- runevault 4y agoWere you just turning noise cancelling on or doing more? When I still had to go into an office I'd turn on no-vocals music to finish killing external sound.
- tablespoon 4y ago> Were you just turning noise cancelling on or doing more? When I still had to go into an office I'd turn on no-vocals music to finish killing external sound. Just noise cancelling. Playing music is more distracting than office noise for me.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoSmall cube farms with tall partitions don't get obnoxiously loud and you can still talk over the walls. Have the floor subdivided into reasonably sized cube rooms and you don't need to have offices with doors.
- anothernewdude 4y agoYou've hit the single office thing so hard, you've bounced and are now heading back towards the open office again.
- alkonaut 4y agoIf I worked hybrid I’d be fine (or even prefer) an open space, or at least some shared offices. The only point of coming to the office to begin with would be human contact. If I need to focus I have a door I can shut, at home. Going to the office and closing the door to a private office seems like a situation where I could just as well have stayed home that day!
- Ancalagon 4y agoWell that looks funny
- ed25519FUUU 4y agoI’ll take all sorts of funny over open-office.
- perryizgr8 4y agoLol this is literally just different-looking cubicles. This is what was the norm before the open office concept took over.
- fijiaarone 4y agoThey make a point of making them space wasting round, and then still call them “cubes”.
- petre 4y agoWhat did you expect? Fashion trends are circular. This one blocks natural light, turning the employees into vampires.
- rgovostes 4y agoThis feels close to satire. How did WSJ neglect to mention that Facebook deliberately designed their main office building as the world's largest open office, a "soaring fishbowl, a contiguous 434,000 square feet on one floor" per their own coverage: https://archive.ph/XKaWJ https://archive.ph/XKaWJ
- hn_throwaway_99 4y agoMy thoughts exactly. Facebook was the pioneer in the "Hey, everyone loves open office spaces! We can all collaborate!" bandwagon, to the point where other companies started going more towards that route years ago because "Big Silicon Valley companies are doing it!" Yes, I speak from bitter experience.
- ojbyrne 4y agoMy understanding is that the campus they took over from Sun was all offices until Facebook ripped them out.
- binarycrusader 4y agoIt was almost. I used to work in MPK17 for Sun. There were some cubicles here and there but it was mostly offices from what I recall. It was a far cry from the open air cafeteria style seating when I interviewed there later in 2017 for Facebook. It was the same at the Santa Clara Sun campus even after the Oracle acquisition (referred to by some as “Snoracle”). Mostly offices and some cubicles here and there.
- bitL 4y agoSanta Clara had 1-person offices IIRC. Small, transparent, but 1-person.
- binarycrusader 4y agoIt wasn’t all 1-person offices. At least after the Oracle acquisition there were cubicles in some of the hallway areas. You’re right there were many smallish one person offices but some of those were doubled up. I was lucky enough to have had a one person office with a window even.
- zol 4y agoCo-working spaces should take note
- wenc 4y agoAt work, the closest thing to approaching a working Cone of Silence ("Get Smart" reference) for me are a pair of AirPods Pro 2. I'm literally in my own world when I'm working in an open-plan office. My level of annoyance went down significantly since I got them. Bose QCs work too but they're not the most portable things in the world.
- mettamage 4y agoI actually have them both for if I really need some heavy duty anc (for sleep, have tinnitus, can't use earplugs and earmuffs, tried them, uncomfortable).
- xedrac 4y agoThat only (partially) solves the sound problem. The visual distractions are equally as bad.
- bb88 4y agoOr physical ones. Like someone walking over asking for an email or for help or something.
- notimetorelax 4y agoThis is literally the whole point of the open office. If people distract you all the time find a way to set boundaries. E.g. tell them you’re busy and will send that email in a few hours.
- bb88 4y agoOr you know, work from home.
- klyrs 4y agoCan't read the article. Did they reinvent offices with walls and doors that close? Because that's what a push to solve the noise looks like. The picture at the top shows a study nook. That's not going to do anything.
- andirk 4y agoDidn't bother reading the article. Why does anyone care what Facebook says about the workplace? They have a lot of cool tech for sure, but this whole reinventing how people collaborate on basic shit (not lab science, open heart surgery, physical mechanics) seems like a waste of time. A whiteboard and some beer works just fine.
- chaostheory 4y agoIt looks like they came up with a cheaper cubicle configuration, but I’m guessing that they will push their VR headsets as a more cost effective option
- windthrown 4y agoThe picture is all you need. They added some small felt walls to their desks which still do not provide as much privacy as real cubicles and dubbed them "cocoons" to seem innovative.
- ladon86 4y agoMeta understands, better than anyone, the need to see your coworkers’ legs.
- jacknews 4y agoLOL, the irony. Only real legs need to be visible.
- fijiaarone 4y agoFirst react, now cubicles.
- stan_kirdey 4y agorevolutionary, just like metaverse
- more_corn 4y agoGuys the solution is walls.
- imgabe 4y agoWalls. They’re called walls. And a door.
- andirk 4y agoWalls?
- drewcoo 4y agoWORKERS: We want to work from home. The office is obnoxious and noisy. It feels like a livestock pen. META: You must work in this box. We'll spend a lot of money to build an ingenious noise solution. They will never hear that they're in a pen. Engineering.
- simultsop 4y agoMETA (thinkin): and we make it to the news, and people actually talk about us again, and maybe they join back at fb. And we talk about them..
- bitL 4y agoI thought Google Zurich was cramped until I first time went to Meta... Not sure how could anyone be really productive in such distracting environments.
- whatever1 4y agoI don't care about the office setup. I do care about meetings overload, and unsolicited slack IM's when I have to do focused work.
- lost_tourist 4y agoI had to turn off slack and just open it up and check it every couple hours. If people really need me they can knock on my door in an emergency, the building isn't that big.
- kweingar 4y agoI had an individual office at my old workplace, and now I work in an open floor plan. I am 10x more connected with my new team because of this. It is so much nicer to talk things out than to have hours or days of back-and-forth over chat or email. And we don’t even need to schedule a meeting to talk to each other! I work hybrid so if I need peace and quiet to focus, I stay home. It’s a great arrangement.
- andirk 4y agoIf there was a correct answer to this whole discussion, this down-v'd comment is it. Instagram is being flooded with 20- to 30- something people bragging about how they hate work, hate their coworkers, hate going out with their friends. Why is everyone so bitter?
- lost_tourist 4y agoAn opinion can't be "correct". Some of us prefer working at home and aren't that outgoing "need people" type. I need a desk, some quiet, a coding task, and a paycheck for hopefully great work. My actual family and friends provide all the good work environment that I need.
- yCombLinks 4y agoBecause his comment is basically "Open offices are great! Not for work I mean."
- throwaway290 4y agoPerhaps a full open office can actually be good for connectedness and transparency, but the catch is it requires every team member to be very socially attuned. Not to distract someone who is clearly not going to be happy distracted from work unless it's really important, but also be receptive and not angry when someone wants to ask you questions and they couldn't catch you when you were idle. Since this is unrealistic, hybrid wfh or individual offices with enough common shared spaces probably next best.
- achow 4y agoFrom previous discussion.. Looks quite similar to Ikea's desk partition - Eilif Screen. Ikea's one also uses fleece kind of material for sound absorption. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/eilif-screen-freestanding-gray-40466935/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/eilif-screen-freestanding-gray-... https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/eilif-screen-for-desk-gray-00466937/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/eilif-screen-for-desk-gray-0046...
- ulfw 4y agoSeems Facebook is pushing more and more people out the door. That should take care of the 'noise' problem. "Meta’s leadership expects the ratings to lead more employees to leave in the coming weeks, the people said. The company will consider another round of layoffs if not enough depart" https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/og-mark-returns-at-meta-as-facebook-parent-gives-thousands-of-staff-subpar-reviews-56e648b4?mod=hp_lead_pos1 https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/og-mark-returns-at-meta-as-...
- carabiner 4y agoI bet most workers would give up their fancy perks like gourmet coffee, massages, in exchange for their own noise insulated cubicle.
- akomtu 4y agoYou mean the modern meta-cubicle that just wraps your head?
- paxys 4y agoI would have agreed with this a few years ago, but now the preferred "noise insulated cubicle" is my own house. If I'm going in to the office, I want to do it specifically to collaborate with others in an open space, not sit alone in a box.
- simultsop 4y agoGo to the garage, you may also start a business, who knows..
- notimetorelax 4y agoWe kinda do as we prefer to work from home!
- haimez 4y agoThey already did, it’s called working from home
- andirk 4y agoAm I the only one who almost never gives a F what office set up there is? Loud, quiet, people around, no people, open floor plan, cubicle, office, I just don't care. I'm doing my work and others are doing wtf they want. However, I do demand a desk next to a window. The only thing that I find annoying is really long loud personal calls that aren't funny. If you're talking to your friends on the phone, you should be telling jokes.
- kelsolaar 4y agoNoice cancelling cans are a must-have in open plan offices.
- lost_tourist 4y agoI've got a solution... don't force people to work in an office. I just started a new job and am lucky enough to get an office with a window and a door I can shut. Not working from home sucks but I could never deal with cubes again. I just simply wouldn't take the job.
- jacknews 4y agoThis looks like a cheap sop thrown to workers to get them back in the office or ostensibly soothe the pain of mandatory RTO. Work from home/<your-choice> is just another world compared to this gimmick as far as dedicated focus is concerned. The times when an office is valuable, it should provide one-on-one meeting rooms and team-meeting/war-rooms. ie spaces to meet privately and spaces where a small team can hang out and coordinate, crunch through difficult problems/decisions etc, then everyone goes back home or wherever to do the IC work.