Ugh, open offices are toxic for development. Low cubicles are almost as bad, tall cubicles are almost tolerable. Barring private offices for everyone, my best e

Ugh, open offices are toxic for development. Low cubicles are almost as bad, tall cubicles are almost tolerable. Barring private offices for everyone, my best experience was with a very large office occupied by my team (myself and two others). The shared space is much more tolerable when everyone is part of the same role (developer in this case), meaning approximately the same sensitivity to interruptions, the same frequency of phone conversations, etc. Contrast that with the open office I worked in, with Customer Service and Sales folks mixed in with sysadmins and developers. That environment isn't good for anyone: the devs are irritated by all the chatter from the CSR and Sales folks, who in turn feel guilty even though it's their job to be jabbering on the phone all day. Ironically, the office space was occupied largely by people who were rarely IN those offices because they were all in meetings constantly.