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The partitions are covered with fabric in considerable part to muffle noise, and the presence of the partitions themselves also helps with that. Too, cubicles h
by throwanem 4y ago
The partitions are covered with fabric in considerable part to muffle noise, and the presence of the partitions themselves also helps with that. Too, cubicles have a larger footprint than open-plan desks do, so fewer people fit in a given space.
I have worked in both, and an open plan is vastly noisier and more distracting than a cubicle.
- ghaff 4y agoPrivate offices are of course better, and anywhere I've worked the norm has been to be open door unless there's some specific reason to close it. But, yeah, cubicles > open office though I've been pretty much remote for years now even if I theoretically had a desk in an office.
- Spooky23 4y agoAnother model that I personally found ideal was the small open office. One place I worked had 4-8 people in an open setup in rooms that were conference room type sizes. It was a great setup as you’d build nice team dynamics and easily talk, but didn’t need assistive technology like headphones and white noise machines to function. 15 years later, I’m probably skill in regular contact with about 50% of the people I worked with in that environment.
- ericmay 4y agoThe thing I don’t get is why go to work for privacy when I can get that at home in my own office? I am interested to see how work habits change and evolve. For me personally mostly working from home and then heading in to something of an open office with conference rooms is ideal because on the in-office day the only reason for me to be there is peer collaboration anyway so I wouldn’t need an office.
- ghaff 4y agoMy impression is that a lot of companies are reconfiguring (and possibly shrinking) space with the aim to make offices more meeting and collaboration spaces rather than individual work spaces. For a lot of companies at this point, having dedicated individual work spaces for most employees doesn't make a lot of sense unless they have specific equipment needs and are going to come in most days.
- d_sem 4y agoBecause one wants to have private in person communication. In my experience cubical and closed door office environments maximize communication and collaboration while open concept reduce it. Closed doors are like therapist room - you get to the meaning of topics fast. They allow conflict resolution and discussion. Open concept are like libraries, everyone is silently trying to to disturb each other working. Full of visual and audible distractions. WFH remote meeting have the lowest form of communication bandwidth. It's hard to arbitrage interactions with no visual cues, invites multi-tasking during meetings, and encourages disengagement.
- coldtea 4y ago>Because one wants to have private in person communication So, like, if you Zoom'ed?
- numpad0 4y agoI think open concepts are more akin to cafeteria than libraries. Some people had done great gigs that always came from a table in their University cafeteria, and trying to industrialize that experience.
- coldtea 4y ago>The thing I don’t get is why go to work for privacy when I can get that at home in my own office? Can your manager just disrupt you and micromanage you in person at all times at home? Does it even justify their role in the company when noone can see his subordinates all together in the same space?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]