4 ms·
I've been against open plan office environments since long before it became cool. There are some things that I just don't need to see and hear. It could be anyt
by wyclif 14y ago
I've been against open plan office environments since long before it became cool. There are some things that I just don't need to see and hear. It could be anything from a coworker blowing their nose, a conversation, or body language. It's distracting. If a company won't give a programmer a proper office with a door, it tells you a lot about the company, and what it tells me isn't good for productivity.
- meric 14y agoHmm I work in an open plan office - What if the reason we're doing so is because rent is expensive and we're a startup?
- mryan 14y agoIn that case it would appear to be unavoidable. However, when comparing the costs between offices I think it is important to take lost productivity in to account. When looking at $cost_of_office_with_private_space versus $cost_of_open_plan_office it might make sense to go for the open plan office. But $cost_of_office_with_private_space versus ($cost_of_open_plan_office + $productivity_cost) might lead to a different conclusion.
- maigret 14y agoSo how do you measure $productivity_cost accurately? Do you account for cases like where employee A, B and C come in the shared office with a new kind of idea going to rocket your business revenues to sky level?
- wyclif 14y agoI've got no problem with "ramen profitable" startups doing it out of necessity— after all, there's a lot of non-optimal things new companies do. What I object to are companies that are flush with cash, profitable— maybe they've even IPO'd— and can afford to foster a productive work environment, but believe open floor plans are the way to go because Facebook does it.