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This topic is discussed at length in Peopleware: http://www.librarything.com/work/17188 http://www.librarything.com/work/17188 "If your organization is anythi

This topic is discussed at length in Peopleware: http://www.librarything.com/work/17188 http://www.librarything.com/work/17188 "If your organization is anything like those studied in our last three annual surveys, the environmental trend is toward less privacy, less dedicated space and more noise. Of course the obvious reason for this is cost. A penny saved on the workspace is a penny earned on the bottom line, or so the logic goes. Those who make such a judgement are guilty of performing a cost/benefit study without the benefit of studying the benefit." The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very influential.

Cushman 13y ago
> "Those who make such a judgement are guilty of performing a cost/benefit study without the benefit of studying the benefit." Sounds like the last forty years of mainstream corporate policy in a nutshell.
- lmg643 13y ago
  Joel Spolsky has written extensively about peopleware: "Ever wonder why everybody at Microsoft gets their own office, with walls and a door that shuts? It's in there. Why do managers give so much leeway to their teams to get things done? That's in there too. Why are there so many jelled SWAT teams at Microsoft that are remarkably productive? Mainly because Bill Gates has built a company full of managers who read Peopleware." http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navlinks/fog0000000262.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navlinks/fog0000000262.html It does make you wonder what the future of facebook, with the world's largest open plan office, versus microsoft, which is now viewed as everyone's version of techno-corpor-bureaucratic hell. Are office plans destiny? TBD.
  - monkeynotes 13y ago
    I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-workers and ask quick questions, I like the atmosphere, and if things are too noisy or distracting I just put headphones on and get in the zone.
    - absconditus 13y ago
      I wonder whether your coworkers enjoy being interrupted frequently.
      - kamaal 13y ago
        Having the luxury to be interrupted frequently and yet not get frustrated is likely a indication that you are doing a lot of small tasks that don't require long hour focus. If you are doing something important that needs you to be focused on on particular a thing for long hours,without any interruption, frequent interruptions are disastrous. There are also more ways to look at it. If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career.
        mh- 13y ago
        If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career. Great way of putting that. Can I borrow this? :)
        kamaal 13y ago
        Sure. :)
      - monkeynotes 13y ago
        When working on a project that needs to be extremely reactive and accomodate functionality at short notice often requires quick, on target communication. If my coworkers aren't able to communicate quickly, and efficiently with myself and the other team members then the project will lose agility. Often we will have tasks that require not being disturbed and in the stand up meetings we flag this.
        snuxoll 13y ago
        Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the POINT of "agile" (seeing as you just used the word) software development to both increase communication AND eliminate distractions by keeping a single line of communication open between the product owner and the development team so things can be filtered out and brought up at appropriate times? If you need immediate communication, there are other far less distracting methods, such as IM or email, that one can safely ignore until they have managed to lessen their memory load until they've reached a safe point to stop. If you're constantly interrupting your fellow developer while they're in the middle of a high-memory task you are deliberately DESTROYING any "agility" of your project by wasting their time rebuilding their mental state before you interrupted them.
  - rscale 13y ago
    Facebook's engineering director Jocelyn Goldfein spoke about open office plans during her recent talk at Stanford. She explicitly stated that it decreases her team's productivity, but that it was embraced because it promotes "openness" which is a core value at Facebook.
    - YZF 13y ago
      How about working naked? Would that also be in line with the core value of "openness"?
shaggyfrog 13y ago
> The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very influential. You think that's bad? Brooks first published The Mythical Man-Month in 1975 and I don't think those lessons have ever sunk in, either.
- kamaal 13y ago
  99% of the managers probably haven't even heard if somebody called Fred Brooks ever existed.
yajoe 13y ago
Peopleware is among the best books about teams that I encourage all aspiring managers to read. One point to emphasize is why the authors believe individual offices work: quiet. There is a story about about a programming competition, and in the narrative programmers in quiet spaces performed better than their peers, even controlling for experience and skill. Back then there weren't headphones or django (I kid, I kid!), but I don't think either work as well as my open-plan colleagues would like us to believe :) My open plan office at Amazon had a gorgeous view of lake union, but sat alongside the Mercer construction and ambulance route -- beyond annoying and distracting. Perhaps I just haven't had the right quiet open plan experience?
- phillmv 13y ago
  I went and visited a friend at the New York Times building last year. Between TV and my own experience working around writers, I expected it to be a busy and loud environment as I walked into the beautiful ENORMOUS OPEN FLOORS that building seems to consist of. They had a made the best hack of all time in my opinion: everyone worked in dead silence. I was around a hundred people but you could hear a pin drop and I quickly felt uncomfortable chatting with my friend using my normal speaking voice. THAT I think is how you do it. Just culturally enforce total and utter respect for the environment. Don't take phone calls. Don't chat loudly around people's desks. Focus on your own work.
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    And that still highlights the problem with open plan: acres and distraction, but no way to collaborrate without disturbing others. Might as well take phones away if you can't use them.
lawnchair_larry 13y ago
I've been meaning to read this for some time now, and just noticed that the third edition is being released in just over a month (July 1). Should be interesting to see the updates from the current edition, printed in 1999.

Cushman 13y ago

> "Those who make such a judgement are guilty of performing a cost/benefit study without the benefit of studying the benefit." Sounds like the last forty years of mainstream corporate policy in a nutshell.

lmg643 13y ago
Joel Spolsky has written extensively about peopleware: "Ever wonder why everybody at Microsoft gets their own office, with walls and a door that shuts? It's in there. Why do managers give so much leeway to their teams to get things done? That's in there too. Why are there so many jelled SWAT teams at Microsoft that are remarkably productive? Mainly because Bill Gates has built a company full of managers who read Peopleware." http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navlinks/fog0000000262.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navlinks/fog0000000262.html It does make you wonder what the future of facebook, with the world's largest open plan office, versus microsoft, which is now viewed as everyone's version of techno-corpor-bureaucratic hell. Are office plans destiny? TBD.
- monkeynotes 13y ago
  I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-workers and ask quick questions, I like the atmosphere, and if things are too noisy or distracting I just put headphones on and get in the zone.
  - absconditus 13y ago
    I wonder whether your coworkers enjoy being interrupted frequently.
    - kamaal 13y ago
      Having the luxury to be interrupted frequently and yet not get frustrated is likely a indication that you are doing a lot of small tasks that don't require long hour focus. If you are doing something important that needs you to be focused on on particular a thing for long hours,without any interruption, frequent interruptions are disastrous. There are also more ways to look at it. If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career.
      - mh- 13y ago
        If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career. Great way of putting that. Can I borrow this? :)
        kamaal 13y ago
        Sure. :)
    - monkeynotes 13y ago
      When working on a project that needs to be extremely reactive and accomodate functionality at short notice often requires quick, on target communication. If my coworkers aren't able to communicate quickly, and efficiently with myself and the other team members then the project will lose agility. Often we will have tasks that require not being disturbed and in the stand up meetings we flag this.
      - snuxoll 13y ago
        Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the POINT of "agile" (seeing as you just used the word) software development to both increase communication AND eliminate distractions by keeping a single line of communication open between the product owner and the development team so things can be filtered out and brought up at appropriate times? If you need immediate communication, there are other far less distracting methods, such as IM or email, that one can safely ignore until they have managed to lessen their memory load until they've reached a safe point to stop. If you're constantly interrupting your fellow developer while they're in the middle of a high-memory task you are deliberately DESTROYING any "agility" of your project by wasting their time rebuilding their mental state before you interrupted them.
- rscale 13y ago
  Facebook's engineering director Jocelyn Goldfein spoke about open office plans during her recent talk at Stanford. She explicitly stated that it decreases her team's productivity, but that it was embraced because it promotes "openness" which is a core value at Facebook.
  - YZF 13y ago
    How about working naked? Would that also be in line with the core value of "openness"?

shaggyfrog 13y ago

> The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very influential. You think that's bad? Brooks first published The Mythical Man-Month in 1975 and I don't think those lessons have ever sunk in, either.

kamaal 13y ago
99% of the managers probably haven't even heard if somebody called Fred Brooks ever existed.

yajoe 13y ago

Peopleware is among the best books about teams that I encourage all aspiring managers to read. One point to emphasize is why the authors believe individual offices work: quiet. There is a story about about a programming competition, and in the narrative programmers in quiet spaces performed better than their peers, even controlling for experience and skill. Back then there weren't headphones or django (I kid, I kid!), but I don't think either work as well as my open-plan colleagues would like us to believe :) My open plan office at Amazon had a gorgeous view of lake union, but sat alongside the Mercer construction and ambulance route -- beyond annoying and distracting. Perhaps I just haven't had the right quiet open plan experience?

phillmv 13y ago
I went and visited a friend at the New York Times building last year. Between TV and my own experience working around writers, I expected it to be a busy and loud environment as I walked into the beautiful ENORMOUS OPEN FLOORS that building seems to consist of. They had a made the best hack of all time in my opinion: everyone worked in dead silence. I was around a hundred people but you could hear a pin drop and I quickly felt uncomfortable chatting with my friend using my normal speaking voice. THAT I think is how you do it. Just culturally enforce total and utter respect for the environment. Don't take phone calls. Don't chat loudly around people's desks. Focus on your own work.
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  And that still highlights the problem with open plan: acres and distraction, but no way to collaborrate without disturbing others. Might as well take phones away if you can't use them.

lawnchair_larry 13y ago

I've been meaning to read this for some time now, and just noticed that the third edition is being released in just over a month (July 1). Should be interesting to see the updates from the current edition, printed in 1999.