4 ms·

"Is it time to go back to the cubicles?" Personally, I think cubicles are just about as bad as open-plan offices. I want an office and a door I can close to k

"Is it time to go back to the cubicles?" Personally, I think cubicles are just about as bad as open-plan offices. I want an office and a door I can close to keep people out when I need quiet.

spamizbad 15y ago
For me, it depends on the cubicle and the layout. I didn't mind working in a cube environment where our team was "clustered" together. We all had our private work areas, our personal space, but the entire team was a stones-throw away if we needed to collaborate or hold an impromptu meeting. Prior to this reorganizations however, it was miserable. My cube was between a sales guy and a customer support manager who would take support calls on speaker phone, in his cube, with members of his team all crammed in.
zanny 15y ago
Offices linked with a common meeting area for group work. Per team. I'd love that.
ux_designer 15y ago
Where are you going to find a office that has 50-something private offices? I've worked in places with 30+ programmers - what building exists that a company could afford to have 30 private offices??
- nknight 15y ago
  The Symantec (formerly Central Point) offices in Beaverton, Oregon, for one. It's been years since I've seen the inside of it, but at least into the early 00s, even low-seniority QA guys had private offices. Things are relatively cheap when you don't try to locate them right in the middle of an overcrowded city.
- amcintyre 15y ago
  Every building I've seen at Microsoft is big enough, although some are (or are being switched to) open-plan. Now that I think about it, everywhere I've worked there was enough space so that everybody working there at the time could have had an office. As to where I'm going to find them: I'm probably going to filter out employers that can't make enough money with programmers to afford an office for each of them. I know this removes a non-trivial number of employers from my potential field of employment options.
- gte910h 15y ago
  They make floor to ceiling cube walls/doors as well. http://www.executiveinteriors.com/fit.php http://www.executiveinteriors.com/fit.php is just one company.
- krallja 15y ago
  Fog Creek Software, for one (that's me in the second picture) http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html

"Is it time to go back to the cubicles?" Personally, I think cubicles are just about as bad as open-plan offices. I want an office and a door I can close to keep people out when I need quiet.

spamizbad 15y ago

For me, it depends on the cubicle and the layout. I didn't mind working in a cube environment where our team was "clustered" together. We all had our private work areas, our personal space, but the entire team was a stones-throw away if we needed to collaborate or hold an impromptu meeting. Prior to this reorganizations however, it was miserable. My cube was between a sales guy and a customer support manager who would take support calls on speaker phone, in his cube, with members of his team all crammed in.

zanny 15y ago

Offices linked with a common meeting area for group work. Per team. I'd love that.

ux_designer 15y ago

Where are you going to find a office that has 50-something private offices? I've worked in places with 30+ programmers - what building exists that a company could afford to have 30 private offices??

nknight 15y ago
The Symantec (formerly Central Point) offices in Beaverton, Oregon, for one. It's been years since I've seen the inside of it, but at least into the early 00s, even low-seniority QA guys had private offices. Things are relatively cheap when you don't try to locate them right in the middle of an overcrowded city.
amcintyre 15y ago
Every building I've seen at Microsoft is big enough, although some are (or are being switched to) open-plan. Now that I think about it, everywhere I've worked there was enough space so that everybody working there at the time could have had an office. As to where I'm going to find them: I'm probably going to filter out employers that can't make enough money with programmers to afford an office for each of them. I know this removes a non-trivial number of employers from my potential field of employment options.
gte910h 15y ago
They make floor to ceiling cube walls/doors as well. http://www.executiveinteriors.com/fit.php http://www.executiveinteriors.com/fit.php is just one company.
krallja 15y ago
Fog Creek Software, for one (that's me in the second picture) http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html