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It will only take one sales person to shatter that. If everyone is being quiet creative it's fine. Introduce a person constantly on the phone and it's not. T

It will only take one sales person to shatter that. If everyone is being quiet creative it's fine. Introduce a person constantly on the phone and it's not. The other ones, and god I hate them, are the pacing round the office while on a mobile. Only topped by pacing round the office on a mobile who's route goes behind your chair. The most distracting thing in the world to me.

jader201 13y ago
Sorry, but I can top that. And this has happened to me. Multiple times (by the same offender). A manager that uses her speakerphone to call someone else. Two cubes over. Needless to say, I don't work there anymore.
- xsmasher 13y ago
  I think cubes are actually worse than open plan; in a cube you can't see that someone is working intently three feet away, and you don't see their death glare.
zimpenfish 13y ago
I once worked in a small dev room, no door, on a mezannine above a recruitment agency. 16 people whose job it was to be on the phone all day. And they had the radio on. My three month review ended when I walked out after being criticised for wearing headphones all day.
slowmover 13y ago
This is exactly the issue I have in my current open floor plan. Developers are intermixed with project managers and business analysts and anyone else who happens to occupy the empty desk at the end of the row. However, the worst distraction I have is actually another developer whose voice carries like buckshot out at 12 gauge. He's been asked to keep it down but it seems like he is physically incapable of understanding how loud he talks.
agumonkey 13y ago
Or just team issues. I recall one friend telling me how open spaces became strategic games. - You don't wanna be next to this employee (too lazy, friction) - Being too close to a [bad] manager - Being moved was a very cheap lever toward fear of inflicted unspoken sanctions
gyepi 13y ago
I once spent a summer writing software in a room full of telephone order takers. My requests for a quieter office were rebuffed and only granted when I offered to quit. I took the office, finished the software, and quit.

jader201 13y ago

Sorry, but I can top that. And this has happened to me. Multiple times (by the same offender). A manager that uses her speakerphone to call someone else. Two cubes over. Needless to say, I don't work there anymore.

xsmasher 13y ago
I think cubes are actually worse than open plan; in a cube you can't see that someone is working intently three feet away, and you don't see their death glare.

zimpenfish 13y ago

I once worked in a small dev room, no door, on a mezannine above a recruitment agency. 16 people whose job it was to be on the phone all day. And they had the radio on. My three month review ended when I walked out after being criticised for wearing headphones all day.

slowmover 13y ago

This is exactly the issue I have in my current open floor plan. Developers are intermixed with project managers and business analysts and anyone else who happens to occupy the empty desk at the end of the row. However, the worst distraction I have is actually another developer whose voice carries like buckshot out at 12 gauge. He's been asked to keep it down but it seems like he is physically incapable of understanding how loud he talks.

agumonkey 13y ago

Or just team issues. I recall one friend telling me how open spaces became strategic games. - You don't wanna be next to this employee (too lazy, friction) - Being too close to a [bad] manager - Being moved was a very cheap lever toward fear of inflicted unspoken sanctions

gyepi 13y ago

I once spent a summer writing software in a room full of telephone order takers. My requests for a quieter office were rebuffed and only granted when I offered to quit. I took the office, finished the software, and quit.