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 probl

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.