While I don't prefer open office plans, I think it needs to be emphasized that not all open office plans are equal. There are compartmentalized open plans, whe

While I don't prefer open office plans, I think it needs to be emphasized that not all open office plans are equal. There are compartmentalized open plans, where a specific team or division is grouped together in close proximity, and then you have some form of the "kitchen sink", where any number of teams (if not the whole company) is just thrown into a room. The latter is extremely unpleasant, IMHO. Being constantly disrupted by the loud side chatter that inevitably comes out of another group (e.g. marketing, finance, sales, etc.) is infinitely more distracting than ancillary chatter that is relevant to a specific team / department. In addition, obviously, the more open a plan is the more physical distractions are present which doesn't help matters either.