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Open floor plans have been a common thread in my first- and second-hand startup experiences. However, I think this is more due to startups not spending money on
by LiveTheDream 14y ago
Open floor plans have been a common thread in my first- and second-hand startup experiences. However, I think this is more due to startups not spending money on office space than anything else. As a startup grows beyond a core group of hackers, the open floor plan stops being a nice thing and starts becoming a hindrance to productivity.
I like the idea of private offices that are shared among 2-3 people, as long as there is also ample lounging/social space. If the latter is not available, then open floor plan with headphones is preferable.
- Zak 14y agoIt seems to me that open floor plans aren't a bad thing when everyone at the company is a hacker; the cultural expectation is that it's very costly to bother someone who's hacking.
- michaelochurch 14y agoSmall startups live or die as a group, and there's a certain trust that this creates, so the typical office paranoia (i.e. always-on image management that leads to more health problems than most illegal drugs) hasn't set in yet. That changes around 10 employees. Once it becomes obvious that not everyone is going to be a real member of the team, people start spending more attention on their relative status within the company than the absolute success of it, and the hypervigilant bullshit that people typically associate with "work" begins.