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I'm massively in favor of WFH—but I think this is a bit of an absolutist take. I can see plenty of people who are enjoying WFH, but would be willing to return

I'm massively in favor of WFH—but I think this is a bit of an absolutist take. I can see plenty of people who are enjoying WFH, but would be willing to return to the office if they no longer had to work in a cube farm, but could have their own private office, that they could decorate to their taste, and where they could play their own music. And, perhaps most importantly, have a door that they could keep closed so that if anyone wants to interrupt them, they actually have to knock first. As someone who has done a 30-minute commute to a cube farm, a 45-minute and a 5-minute commute to a private office, and WFH, there's basically no reasonable amount of money you could pay me to go back to a cube farm, but if I didn't have specific personal reasons for wanting to remain fully remote, I would be very willing to consider another job in a private office.

zer8k 3y ago
> if they no longer had to work in a cube farm, A cube farm is massively preferable to open offices. I never want to go back to working in an office but I especially never want to go back to an open office. The mixture of seeming too available, loud people all over the place, zero privacy, etc were revolting to me.
- syndicatedjelly 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - zer8k 3y ago
    I was responding to the comparison being offered. The reality is there are few companies that offer individual offices and a lot of real estate that exists for open offices. It's not a false dichotomy because by-and-large it is the dichotomy. The cube farms from 1990 were just converted to open offices by removing the barriers. To be honest, in my career in tech, I've never even seen a closed-office setup.
- danaris 3y ago
  Oh, for sure—I've just only experienced the cube farm and the private office, so that's all I can personally speak to.
ghaff 3y ago
>And, perhaps most importantly, have a door that they could keep closed so that if anyone wants to interrupt them, they actually have to knock first. In my experience with offices at a couple of different companies (of much different sizes), the social convention was door open unless you were on a private call/meeting or really needed to go heads down on something. It would actually have been considered rude to knock on the door because they door would obviously not have been closed unless there was a good reason. A lot of people seem to imagine that offices mean you shut the door and don't interact with anyone and that's never been my experience.
- danaris 3y ago
  My office was in an academic building, right on a hallway. Keeping the door open would have meant letting all the bustle and noise of students changing classes in to interrupt me frequently, not to mention significantly increasing the number of confused students who would try to walk in thinking my office was a classroom. Frankly, I consider the expectation of constant availability to be another abusive part of work culture, very closely related to the "everyone must return to the office so I can see for myself that they are in their seats (which means they must be working)" mindset. Let people keep their doors closed to promote focus.

zer8k 3y ago

> if they no longer had to work in a cube farm, A cube farm is massively preferable to open offices. I never want to go back to working in an office but I especially never want to go back to an open office. The mixture of seeming too available, loud people all over the place, zero privacy, etc were revolting to me.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago
[flagged]
- zer8k 3y ago
  I was responding to the comparison being offered. The reality is there are few companies that offer individual offices and a lot of real estate that exists for open offices. It's not a false dichotomy because by-and-large it is the dichotomy. The cube farms from 1990 were just converted to open offices by removing the barriers. To be honest, in my career in tech, I've never even seen a closed-office setup.
danaris 3y ago
Oh, for sure—I've just only experienced the cube farm and the private office, so that's all I can personally speak to.

ghaff 3y ago

>And, perhaps most importantly, have a door that they could keep closed so that if anyone wants to interrupt them, they actually have to knock first. In my experience with offices at a couple of different companies (of much different sizes), the social convention was door open unless you were on a private call/meeting or really needed to go heads down on something. It would actually have been considered rude to knock on the door because they door would obviously not have been closed unless there was a good reason. A lot of people seem to imagine that offices mean you shut the door and don't interact with anyone and that's never been my experience.

danaris 3y ago
My office was in an academic building, right on a hallway. Keeping the door open would have meant letting all the bustle and noise of students changing classes in to interrupt me frequently, not to mention significantly increasing the number of confused students who would try to walk in thinking my office was a classroom. Frankly, I consider the expectation of constant availability to be another abusive part of work culture, very closely related to the "everyone must return to the office so I can see for myself that they are in their seats (which means they must be working)" mindset. Let people keep their doors closed to promote focus.