4 ms·

Agreed. Although it does not have to be that way. We could have a physical, post-pandemic office that addresses your concerns (e.g. quiet zones, pods for calls,

Agreed. Although it does not have to be that way. We could have a physical, post-pandemic office that addresses your concerns (e.g. quiet zones, pods for calls, etc)

wkat4242 3y ago
Oh we have quiet desks with huge cubicle walls and pods for calls. But what's the point in coming to the office to sit in a pod or isolation cubicle all day? What I liked was that our floor had its own atmosphere. Where people understood the needs of IT work and respected our conversations (eg headset on = leave me alone). That's all gone now with these hippie flex offices. I don't see how the office could be made productive again with flex desking. It wasn't like the old office was perfect, there was already a huge reduced productivity from the late 90s when people had actual offices where you could close the door. It was already pretty poor with the large open spaces but it's now been ruined completely.
- pineaux 3y ago
  I am offended. How is this hippie? Hippie would be respecting solitude and trying to give everyone what they want. This is just some kind of neoliberal bullshit that fits the narrative of "leaders".
  - frumper 3y ago
    A bunch of hippies opened my public high school in the 70s. There were no interior walls, just classroom areas. It was reportedly a giant mess. Thankfully walls were installed by the time I went, but many classrooms didn’t have doors, and some classrooms needed to use other classrooms to get to them. It was quite distracting at times.
wil421 3y ago
They have focus rooms at my work and they are almost always taken by someone for a whole day. There are other non-reservable office type rooms but crappy people sit in them all day too…despite signs saying not to.
probably_wrong 3y ago
I won't say that it's impossible, but I will say that I'm skeptical. Let's say I'm in the quiet zone and someone wants to have an online meeting with me. What do I do now? Run to the nearest pod? What if they are all taken, do I take the call in the hallway? Do I go to the not-quiet zone and have my meeting surrounded by people participating in other meetings, or even worse, participating in the same meeting introducing a sub-second delay? And how comfortable are these pods anyway, are they good enough for meeting back-to-back? Because if I'll stay in the pod all day I might as well stay home. I believe you can have comfortable working places (essentially offices with doors that close) that will be expensive OR cheap shared desks that optimize space but accentuate distractions. I don't think you can have a cheap, distraction-free environment, but I'm open to be proven wrong.

Agreed. Although it does not have to be that way. We could have a physical, post-pandemic office that addresses your concerns (e.g. quiet zones, pods for calls, etc)

wkat4242 3y ago

Oh we have quiet desks with huge cubicle walls and pods for calls. But what's the point in coming to the office to sit in a pod or isolation cubicle all day? What I liked was that our floor had its own atmosphere. Where people understood the needs of IT work and respected our conversations (eg headset on = leave me alone). That's all gone now with these hippie flex offices. I don't see how the office could be made productive again with flex desking. It wasn't like the old office was perfect, there was already a huge reduced productivity from the late 90s when people had actual offices where you could close the door. It was already pretty poor with the large open spaces but it's now been ruined completely.

pineaux 3y ago
I am offended. How is this hippie? Hippie would be respecting solitude and trying to give everyone what they want. This is just some kind of neoliberal bullshit that fits the narrative of "leaders".
- frumper 3y ago
  A bunch of hippies opened my public high school in the 70s. There were no interior walls, just classroom areas. It was reportedly a giant mess. Thankfully walls were installed by the time I went, but many classrooms didn’t have doors, and some classrooms needed to use other classrooms to get to them. It was quite distracting at times.

wil421 3y ago

They have focus rooms at my work and they are almost always taken by someone for a whole day. There are other non-reservable office type rooms but crappy people sit in them all day too…despite signs saying not to.

probably_wrong 3y ago

I won't say that it's impossible, but I will say that I'm skeptical. Let's say I'm in the quiet zone and someone wants to have an online meeting with me. What do I do now? Run to the nearest pod? What if they are all taken, do I take the call in the hallway? Do I go to the not-quiet zone and have my meeting surrounded by people participating in other meetings, or even worse, participating in the same meeting introducing a sub-second delay? And how comfortable are these pods anyway, are they good enough for meeting back-to-back? Because if I'll stay in the pod all day I might as well stay home. I believe you can have comfortable working places (essentially offices with doors that close) that will be expensive OR cheap shared desks that optimize space but accentuate distractions. I don't think you can have a cheap, distraction-free environment, but I'm open to be proven wrong.