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I was an intern in the Palo Alto office which was pretty similar to that, and I never felt distracted by it. With my headphones in, it doesn't really matter whe

by phleet 14y ago

I was an intern in the Palo Alto office which was pretty similar to that, and I never felt distracted by it. With my headphones in, it doesn't really matter whether I'm in an office or loud open field.

FrojoS 14y ago
I listen to a lot of music during my work, many many hours per day. But its usually optional. Its horrible when you have to wear head phones permanently. The pressure on the ear alone is something I need a brake from. Also, when solving a hard problem I need silence and I'm not an exception for sure. I only once worked in an open office space, at BMW and absolutely hated it. They actually realized it was a mistake and introduced closed rooms with hot-desks which they called "thinking cells" (Denkzelle). I believe the decision for open office space is often an example where the stated and actual goal are far apart. The managers want to save cost and scram more people into a cheap to build room. But they sell it as "creative" or "productive" workplace.
- phleet 14y ago
  Even though it was a completely open space, I never really had problems with noise being distracting, even without my headphones on. If I _did_ ever have problems with it, there were always small meeting rooms with doors that were empty 90% of the time. In my 4 months there, I never heard a single complaint about the open space being distracting from any engineer, manager or designer. I'm not disputing that many people may require absolute silence for productivity or that it may be distracting to work in an open space, but I suspect that it's less common than you might think, or at least less common among the variety of people that Facebook attracts as employees. Also, I think your suspicions that it was motivated by an effort to save money are rather unfounded. Facebook is not a company to skimp on employee benefits, and I can't imagine they would ever sacrifice per-employee productivity for a cheaper workplace on purpose.

by phleet 14y ago

FrojoS 14y ago

I listen to a lot of music during my work, many many hours per day. But its usually optional. Its horrible when you have to wear head phones permanently. The pressure on the ear alone is something I need a brake from. Also, when solving a hard problem I need silence and I'm not an exception for sure. I only once worked in an open office space, at BMW and absolutely hated it. They actually realized it was a mistake and introduced closed rooms with hot-desks which they called "thinking cells" (Denkzelle). I believe the decision for open office space is often an example where the stated and actual goal are far apart. The managers want to save cost and scram more people into a cheap to build room. But they sell it as "creative" or "productive" workplace.

phleet 14y ago
Even though it was a completely open space, I never really had problems with noise being distracting, even without my headphones on. If I _did_ ever have problems with it, there were always small meeting rooms with doors that were empty 90% of the time. In my 4 months there, I never heard a single complaint about the open space being distracting from any engineer, manager or designer. I'm not disputing that many people may require absolute silence for productivity or that it may be distracting to work in an open space, but I suspect that it's less common than you might think, or at least less common among the variety of people that Facebook attracts as employees. Also, I think your suspicions that it was motivated by an effort to save money are rather unfounded. Facebook is not a company to skimp on employee benefits, and I can't imagine they would ever sacrifice per-employee productivity for a cheaper workplace on purpose.