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What I've read and understood is that the stress associated with low social status (i.e. open plan offices for a programmers, whose work requires more focus and

What I've read and understood is that the stress associated with low social status (i.e. open plan offices for a programmers, whose work requires more focus and privacy) is extremely toxic (depression, anxiety disorders, cardiovascular load) but that stress itself isn't inherently toxic. For example, if you work 70 hours per week but you enjoy the work, it doesn't hurt your health. Technically speaking, all exercise is stress but not unhealthy (in fact, the opposite). If anything, our bodies interpret our social status by stress, which means that good stresses (e.g. a workout, a hard problem) can have positive effects. I don't think it's even controversial that the negative stresses coming from, e.g., open offices and subordinate work contexts, are extremely toxic. It's just that physical stress isn't prima facie dangerous.

nostrademons 12y ago
I suspect that this varies a lot by person and their internal attitudes. I don't associate open plan offices with low social status, nor do I let other people define what my social status is. As a result, this is not a major source of stress for me. Now, I put all sorts of pressure on myself about living up to my own personal standards, but the particular concerns that you raise and assume are universal barely even register in my head.
- sheepmullet 12y ago
  I used to get stressed out in open plan offices in my 20s. I was only running at ~25% productivity compared to when I worked on my own projects at home or took the day off and worked from home. The reason I was stressed was because of my own expectations. My employers have never had an issue with my performance. It's just I knew I should be able to get 3-4x as much done each day and I was beating myself up over it. These days I don't mind that I am much less productive than I could be. I do a couple of hours of really focused work early in the morning before the rest of the office arrives and I use the rest of the day to socialise, network, go to meetings, help the junior devs, and research.

nostrademons 12y ago

I suspect that this varies a lot by person and their internal attitudes. I don't associate open plan offices with low social status, nor do I let other people define what my social status is. As a result, this is not a major source of stress for me. Now, I put all sorts of pressure on myself about living up to my own personal standards, but the particular concerns that you raise and assume are universal barely even register in my head.

sheepmullet 12y ago
I used to get stressed out in open plan offices in my 20s. I was only running at ~25% productivity compared to when I worked on my own projects at home or took the day off and worked from home. The reason I was stressed was because of my own expectations. My employers have never had an issue with my performance. It's just I knew I should be able to get 3-4x as much done each day and I was beating myself up over it. These days I don't mind that I am much less productive than I could be. I do a couple of hours of really focused work early in the morning before the rest of the office arrives and I use the rest of the day to socialise, network, go to meetings, help the junior devs, and research.