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Some of these open offices are like factory chicken farms. You can just imagine those chickens going: cluck, this is better than cubicles, cluck, cluck, cluck.

by YZF 13y ago

Some of these open offices are like factory chicken farms. You can just imagine those chickens going: cluck, this is better than cubicles, cluck, cluck, cluck... To the people who prefer open offices I have two words. Cognitive. Dissonance. :-) More seriously: It is somewhat a matter of personal preferrence but I think all/most people need some space and are not comfortable by others being constantly inside their personal space. You can do this experiment. Go to an empty meeting room and work there. Then ask your coworker to sit exactly behind you while you work. How does that feel? I've had some of my best team and communication in an environment with offices. Need to talk, get into someone's office. On most days we had the entire team in someone's office talking for hours about architecture, code reviews, etc. We weren't disturbing anyone else and it was just the right space for our small team. Most of the time though we were able to focus on what we were trying to do without distractions. I contrast this with open offices where people never talk to each other and seem unable to do work that requires any concentration. Not everyone can wear headphones all day. Those that do I recommend that you get your hearing checked. Visual distractions are also a prolem. To conclude again on a slightly humorous note, is Oculus VR the next step in open space? Get an office while we cram you one on top of another? Your very own virtual personal space? I just need my man-cave, sorry. Edit: It's also very much a question of how much space per person is available in whatever scheme is used and how many people per open area. It's not a problem for me to share one large office. I once visited one large known tech company where they built a new space and offered people the option of going two per office or one in the open. All the offices were full.

devandstuff 13y ago
No cognitive dissonance here. I've tried both. I like open offices. Some people aren't exactly like you. :-)
mattgreenrocks 13y ago
Business, as a whole, seems fixated on eliminating every facet of introversion: "Individual analysis is bad! Collaboration is good!" "Thinking hard takes too much time! Instead, keep shipping!" It seems to reflect a culture that prefers ambient noise to quiet reflection, focus, and productivity. It's almost as if people would prefer to see me typing over having the results of what I make. It is this notion that makes open offices a bit worrisome. I've been productive in both private and open office environments, but I'm very much an introvert. I need a certain amount of physical space that feels private; this manifests itself mentally as breathing space to explore whatever problem domain I'm working in. Aside: it's amusing that SV prides itself on being progressive while not trusting their workers with a modicum of privacy. Guess it fits the whole 'privacy is not for plebes' notion that powers it, eh?
wylee 13y ago
At a previous job in an open office plan, I had set myself up in a corner, trying to create a sense of space and maybe get marginally more privacy than the spots in the middle of the room. One day I came in and a new person (non developer) had set up shop directly behind me in the same corner (about 4 feet away). It was so jarring and distracting--I couldn't get anything done all day. I eventually had to move to a different corner. I also hate being seated in a restaurant with my back to the room. It makes me so uncomfortable. So maybe I'm just more sensitive to this sort of thing in general.
wylee 13y ago
Also, wrt. headphones, in addition to potential hearing loss, it's painful to wear them all day long, they don't block out all sound, and a lot of people don't respect the headphone rule. That said, when I'm in the type of environment where I need to wear headphones, I think brown noise (e.g., from sox) is a nice alternative to music, and white or pink noise behind music helps create a consistent sound screen. Here's my brown noise script for sox (it's supposed to sound a little like waves): #!/bin/bash play -q -c 2 -n synth brownnoise band -n 1600 1500 tremolo .1 30

by YZF 13y ago

devandstuff 13y ago

No cognitive dissonance here. I've tried both. I like open offices. Some people aren't exactly like you. :-)

mattgreenrocks 13y ago

Business, as a whole, seems fixated on eliminating every facet of introversion: "Individual analysis is bad! Collaboration is good!" "Thinking hard takes too much time! Instead, keep shipping!" It seems to reflect a culture that prefers ambient noise to quiet reflection, focus, and productivity. It's almost as if people would prefer to see me typing over having the results of what I make. It is this notion that makes open offices a bit worrisome. I've been productive in both private and open office environments, but I'm very much an introvert. I need a certain amount of physical space that feels private; this manifests itself mentally as breathing space to explore whatever problem domain I'm working in. Aside: it's amusing that SV prides itself on being progressive while not trusting their workers with a modicum of privacy. Guess it fits the whole 'privacy is not for plebes' notion that powers it, eh?

wylee 13y ago

At a previous job in an open office plan, I had set myself up in a corner, trying to create a sense of space and maybe get marginally more privacy than the spots in the middle of the room. One day I came in and a new person (non developer) had set up shop directly behind me in the same corner (about 4 feet away). It was so jarring and distracting--I couldn't get anything done all day. I eventually had to move to a different corner. I also hate being seated in a restaurant with my back to the room. It makes me so uncomfortable. So maybe I'm just more sensitive to this sort of thing in general.

wylee 13y ago

Also, wrt. headphones, in addition to potential hearing loss, it's painful to wear them all day long, they don't block out all sound, and a lot of people don't respect the headphone rule. That said, when I'm in the type of environment where I need to wear headphones, I think brown noise (e.g., from sox) is a nice alternative to music, and white or pink noise behind music helps create a consistent sound screen. Here's my brown noise script for sox (it's supposed to sound a little like waves): #!/bin/bash play -q -c 2 -n synth brownnoise band -n 1600 1500 tremolo .1 30