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I suspect many people on HN have never had a proper office with a door. While I do agree with your overall premise, having had offices at multiple roles over m

I suspect many people on HN have never had a proper office with a door. While I do agree with your overall premise, having had offices at multiple roles over my career, it is a major improvement over cubicles and open office. Having a space to work in complete, uninterrupted quiet is wonderful. The simple social signal of the door being opened or close implying availability to chat works great to balancing heads down time and chat with colleagues time. Have a white board of your own that you can stare at throughout the course of a project, that evolves with discussions has not be replicated yet either remote or in a shared space. You can also get pretty wild with customizing an office for comfort. I used to know many people that brought their own lighting in, completely solving the problem of constant overhead fluorescence. And brewing your coffee the way you like it in your own space in the afternoon is very refreshing. Even given all that I'm sure many people would still prefer remote work (I would at this point), but I can image a fairly large number of people that would be very interested in a set up like this. It also mean your home is completely work free again.

the_gipsy 3y ago
Exactly! I used to work at a place where we had a proper office for each team, about 2-4 people in each room per day because WFH was a (real) option. I actually enjoyed going to that office because it was very quiet and I didn't have a proper workspace at home. My commute was ~30mins with a motorcycle. Yes, sometimes the A/C or the lighting must be compromised with other coworkers, but that's still okay if you get to socialize in exchange. The major aspect was obviously noise. But I also felt dignified in that office. It was not status like C-Suite offices, just feeling a nice environment instead of being crammed in a chicken coop.
giantrobot 3y ago
> I suspect many people on HN have never had a proper office with a door. In my time at Apple I had a real office with a real door for about half of my time. Of that only about half was an office I didn't have to share with someone else. The lone offices were the most productive I ever was while working there. I could close the door and go unbothered for hours. I turned off the lights and had my own lamp that was much more comfortable. Sharing an office with coworkers wasn't bad on its face but it's difficult to focus if the other person is talking with someone else. It's all manageable but objectively worse than a single office. The open floor plan at Apple Park was just fucking horrible. Constant distractions all day. Sure you could collaborate but when trying to actually get work done it was in spite of a hundred visual and audible distractions. I'm sure I distracted others inadvertently as well. A giant spaceship of a campus and they couldn't manage to give everyone a private space. Just the stupidest design for a building.
- hnfong 3y ago
  Your experience resonates with me, but just to play devil's advocate, wouldn't a good noise cancelling headphone fix most of the problems?

the_gipsy 3y ago

Exactly! I used to work at a place where we had a proper office for each team, about 2-4 people in each room per day because WFH was a (real) option. I actually enjoyed going to that office because it was very quiet and I didn't have a proper workspace at home. My commute was ~30mins with a motorcycle. Yes, sometimes the A/C or the lighting must be compromised with other coworkers, but that's still okay if you get to socialize in exchange. The major aspect was obviously noise. But I also felt dignified in that office. It was not status like C-Suite offices, just feeling a nice environment instead of being crammed in a chicken coop.

giantrobot 3y ago

> I suspect many people on HN have never had a proper office with a door. In my time at Apple I had a real office with a real door for about half of my time. Of that only about half was an office I didn't have to share with someone else. The lone offices were the most productive I ever was while working there. I could close the door and go unbothered for hours. I turned off the lights and had my own lamp that was much more comfortable. Sharing an office with coworkers wasn't bad on its face but it's difficult to focus if the other person is talking with someone else. It's all manageable but objectively worse than a single office. The open floor plan at Apple Park was just fucking horrible. Constant distractions all day. Sure you could collaborate but when trying to actually get work done it was in spite of a hundred visual and audible distractions. I'm sure I distracted others inadvertently as well. A giant spaceship of a campus and they couldn't manage to give everyone a private space. Just the stupidest design for a building.

hnfong 3y ago
Your experience resonates with me, but just to play devil's advocate, wouldn't a good noise cancelling headphone fix most of the problems?