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I've worked in cube farms and in open offices. Cube farms FTW. You can get over-the-wall collaboration on occasion without the visual distraction and the cubi

I've worked in cube farms and in open offices. Cube farms FTW. You can get over-the-wall collaboration on occasion without the visual distraction and the cubicle walls help dampen noise/conversation from further away. It's not as good as a closed office for heads down work, but it's a 100x improvement over open offices where you see every movement, hear every sound, and perpetually feel like you're on display. Open offices are there to save money because you can pack more people into them than cubicles. Cubicles are there to save money because you can pack more people into them than offices. If you like open offices, you'll love when they switch you to hoteling so you have no permanent desk, but still need to come into the office!

carlmr 4y ago
>If you like open offices, you'll love when they switch you to hoteling so you have no permanent desk, but still need to come into the office! One does not imply the other. I also prefer open office over cubicle. But not having a permanent desk could be done in a cubicle farm as well. It's an orthogonal dimension of corporate hell. I need my mise en place.
- dbalatero 4y ago
  > I need my mise en place. Ah thank you for the concise distillation of my feeling.
  - carlmr 4y ago
    I read kitchen confidential by Anthony Bourdain and picked up this concept there, and I thought it was fitting for what I need to be productive.
- Espressosaurus 4y ago
  They're all cost-cutting measures. It's a tradeoff between what the owners are willing to pay for the physical plant vs. what they think they can force down our throats without people walking out the door. It's the same axis when you look at it as "how do I fit X developers a space that costs Y dollars, and I'm trying to minimize Y."
rjh29 4y ago
IMO the best would be cubicles with a roof and door behind you, i.e. fully sealable for sound proofing and isolation when you need to concentrate, but you can open the door when you need to collaborate. No idea why nobody does this. Japan has been offering these kind of sealed workspaces in manga cafes and "private video watching booths" for decades.
ghaff 4y ago
One thing to keep in mind with offices vs. cubes it that, any place I've ever worked, the very strong norm was to have an open door policy. Of course, office door could be shut if you were having a sensitive discussion and maybe now and then if you were really heads-down on deadline. But it would have been seen as basically weird and antisocial to routinely come in and shut your door every day. I don't think I ever knew a single person who did that.
- freetime2 4y ago
  I don’t think office vs. cube is really a debate - most people that like cubes would prefer an office if they had a choice. It’s just that offices for everyone would be prohibitively expensive (for most companies), and probably not even possible in the floorplans of most commercial office spaces.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Offices tend to be bigger if nothing else and you don't need to find somewhere to have a sensitive conversation. I just think you have people here imagining that if they had an office they'd come in and just shut their door all day--which hasn't been the reality anywhere I've ever worked.

carlmr 4y ago

>If you like open offices, you'll love when they switch you to hoteling so you have no permanent desk, but still need to come into the office! One does not imply the other. I also prefer open office over cubicle. But not having a permanent desk could be done in a cubicle farm as well. It's an orthogonal dimension of corporate hell. I need my mise en place.

dbalatero 4y ago
> I need my mise en place. Ah thank you for the concise distillation of my feeling.
- carlmr 4y ago
  I read kitchen confidential by Anthony Bourdain and picked up this concept there, and I thought it was fitting for what I need to be productive.
Espressosaurus 4y ago
They're all cost-cutting measures. It's a tradeoff between what the owners are willing to pay for the physical plant vs. what they think they can force down our throats without people walking out the door. It's the same axis when you look at it as "how do I fit X developers a space that costs Y dollars, and I'm trying to minimize Y."

rjh29 4y ago

IMO the best would be cubicles with a roof and door behind you, i.e. fully sealable for sound proofing and isolation when you need to concentrate, but you can open the door when you need to collaborate. No idea why nobody does this. Japan has been offering these kind of sealed workspaces in manga cafes and "private video watching booths" for decades.

ghaff 4y ago

One thing to keep in mind with offices vs. cubes it that, any place I've ever worked, the very strong norm was to have an open door policy. Of course, office door could be shut if you were having a sensitive discussion and maybe now and then if you were really heads-down on deadline. But it would have been seen as basically weird and antisocial to routinely come in and shut your door every day. I don't think I ever knew a single person who did that.

freetime2 4y ago
I don’t think office vs. cube is really a debate - most people that like cubes would prefer an office if they had a choice. It’s just that offices for everyone would be prohibitively expensive (for most companies), and probably not even possible in the floorplans of most commercial office spaces.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Offices tend to be bigger if nothing else and you don't need to find somewhere to have a sensitive conversation. I just think you have people here imagining that if they had an office they'd come in and just shut their door all day--which hasn't been the reality anywhere I've ever worked.