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I've been fortunate enough to work in both environments. I'll be the first to admit there are pros and cons to both. I've had an office and in my opinion, for

I've been fortunate enough to work in both environments. I'll be the first to admit there are pros and cons to both. I've had an office and in my opinion, for focused work there is just no comparison. Being able to close the door means no corner of the eye people walking by distractions. People can talk about headphones all they want but if you can't put 4 walls around you then there are just too many distractions for me to get "into the zone". On the other hand I currently work at a hedge fund with an open office and it probably needs to be open. Every one needs to know what the others are doing but design. The number of good ideas that come out of open discussion is just amazing. The other up side to an open office that some people may not be aware of is the inclusiveness of it. with doors its easy for 3 people to have an impromptu meeting and not realize there are excluding others. With an open office everyone hears the conversation and can know if they want to participate or not. or put another way, shy people are more likely to listen in and participate in meetings in open offices than they are to enter a closed door office to participate in the same meeting. Many companies try to combat this by using irc. google hangouts, style chats which I feel really helps.

ktsmith 13y ago
> With an open office everyone hears the conversation and can know if they want to participate or not. That's only true if no one is wearing headphones. Both the OP and many of the commenters here state headphones are necessary for these environments. My own experience in an open office was the same way, headphones all day every day. The people with headphones are excluded in exactly the same way as if the conversation had happened behind closed doors.
- chollida1 13y ago
  True, but the key point is that alteast here if they are excluded its because they want to be. The key take away point is: An open office lets the introverts have more say than when everyone is in offices.

ktsmith 13y ago

> With an open office everyone hears the conversation and can know if they want to participate or not. That's only true if no one is wearing headphones. Both the OP and many of the commenters here state headphones are necessary for these environments. My own experience in an open office was the same way, headphones all day every day. The people with headphones are excluded in exactly the same way as if the conversation had happened behind closed doors.

chollida1 13y ago
True, but the key point is that alteast here if they are excluded its because they want to be. The key take away point is: An open office lets the introverts have more say than when everyone is in offices.