3 ms·

Damn idk which I'd rather have. Some cube farms are next-level depressing. When I was younger, I think part of what made the prospect of moving out of my hometo

Damn idk which I'd rather have. Some cube farms are next-level depressing. When I was younger, I think part of what made the prospect of moving out of my hometown more compelling was the fact that a giant mega-insurance company ended up being the main endpoint for CS grads. I got to visit once and it was _not_ pretty. Tightly enclosed cubes with tall aging white walls, one source of sunlight if that. They must of really liked Java. On the flipside, the last open office I worked did provide me my own desk, but I had to hear everything that was going on around me, and when my manager wanted to micromanage me, he'd just pull up a chair. I could hear people talking, crunching chips, and smell my colleagues disgusting boiled eggs that he ate at his desk multiple times a day.

hotpotamus 4y ago
Well if you get a cube by the window, there's always a chance of seeing some merry squirrels.
octacat 4y ago
There are so many other options besides a football size open space (hello, facebook) and corpo cubicles. For example, each agile team could perfectly fit in a small room + shared areas. And put a couple extra desks for monads like managers.
WWLink 4y ago
Open or not, the important factor is how much free space you have around you. I claim that a crowded cubicle setup will be worse than a spacious open office. Granted, SPACIOUS open offices are really rare - the largest motivator is to crowd as many people in as possible. You know what the icing on the cake is? Open office workspaces are almost always crowded into a building that was made for cubicles or a warehouse or whatever. There's never enough parking, never enough toilets. The asshole business owners always play the "well, we're a growing company so you'll have to live with this for now" card. When the company I work for was new, we had big desks in a huge office space, so we were spread out. It was awesome! Like you easily had 8ft of desk to yourself and a cabinet and lots of space to breathe.
- outworlder 4y ago
  > Open office workspaces are almost always crowded into a building that was made for cubicles or a warehouse or whatever. Yeah! See, at least with cubes you know exactly where your "space" ends. Not so with many open plan offices, they can always try to cram more.

hotpotamus 4y ago

Well if you get a cube by the window, there's always a chance of seeing some merry squirrels.

octacat 4y ago

There are so many other options besides a football size open space (hello, facebook) and corpo cubicles. For example, each agile team could perfectly fit in a small room + shared areas. And put a couple extra desks for monads like managers.

WWLink 4y ago

Open or not, the important factor is how much free space you have around you. I claim that a crowded cubicle setup will be worse than a spacious open office. Granted, SPACIOUS open offices are really rare - the largest motivator is to crowd as many people in as possible. You know what the icing on the cake is? Open office workspaces are almost always crowded into a building that was made for cubicles or a warehouse or whatever. There's never enough parking, never enough toilets. The asshole business owners always play the "well, we're a growing company so you'll have to live with this for now" card. When the company I work for was new, we had big desks in a huge office space, so we were spread out. It was awesome! Like you easily had 8ft of desk to yourself and a cabinet and lots of space to breathe.

outworlder 4y ago
> Open office workspaces are almost always crowded into a building that was made for cubicles or a warehouse or whatever. Yeah! See, at least with cubes you know exactly where your "space" ends. Not so with many open plan offices, they can always try to cram more.