4 ms·

Am I the only person who doesn't mind working in a cube? The small space doesn't really bother me and I have walls for blocking out visual distractions. Beats o

Am I the only person who doesn't mind working in a cube? The small space doesn't really bother me and I have walls for blocking out visual distractions. Beats open plan offices, for me at least.

relaytheurgency 12y ago
My office is kind of a mix of both. A group of semi-open cubes for each team with a lot of common spaces where people go when they feel cooped up. I like it. I get a private space where I can have plants but I can also go grab a seat on a couch or near the break room TV if I am feeling restless.
ghaff 12y ago
Define "mind." I've had offices. I've had traditional high-wall cubes. I've had open-ish plans. I work at home a fair bit. I'm OK with working just about anywhere. If I had my druthers, I'd take an office given the choice--though I've had a dark interior office and cubes with a decent view and that's a factor too. I suppose my revealed preference is that I prefer quiet given that I don't usually put music on when I'm working at home. But I don't really have a lot of trouble with distraction and will just put on headphones if I really need to focus.
drcube 12y ago
I long for a high walled cube. It's like an office without a door! I have the 4-foot high cube variety and people are always sneaking up on me from behind and my coat drags the ground when I hang it up.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
mytochar 12y ago
I've worked in short cubes, tall group-cubes (3-4 people were cube room) and offices (both shared and solitary). In my current cube layout, we have a general practice where if a conversation is going to be large and boisterous enough, generally it's held in a private room off to the side. We have several of those. I'm comfortable in all of them. I do find myself needing headphones more often in the short cube environment; but, that's not really a big issue to me. I don't think I would like the open layout. Something about people walking by always being able to see what's on my monitor bothers me; and I'm currently in a situation where my boss could see my monitor if he chose to look up. Still not as bothering as a completely open layout. So, I don't see anything wrong with cubes. edit: I should have also mentioned that I wore headphones when I had my own office, too, because walls aren't soundproof, generally.
edderly 12y ago
I loathe cubes, the article resonates with me as this configuration combines the worst of most worlds. The pseudo-privacy of cubes does little to block noise and promotes anti-social actions. “Cubicles even make people behave badly. Researchers at Cornell studied 229 employees at eight firms and found that those in cubicles were more prone than those in open-plan offices to have long, loud conversations—sometimes unrelated to work—with colleagues or on the phone.” The key to making open offices work in a software development environment is fundamentally about having sufficiently low density, and having management giving a shit about basic conflicts.

Am I the only person who doesn't mind working in a cube? The small space doesn't really bother me and I have walls for blocking out visual distractions. Beats open plan offices, for me at least.

relaytheurgency 12y ago

My office is kind of a mix of both. A group of semi-open cubes for each team with a lot of common spaces where people go when they feel cooped up. I like it. I get a private space where I can have plants but I can also go grab a seat on a couch or near the break room TV if I am feeling restless.

ghaff 12y ago

Define "mind." I've had offices. I've had traditional high-wall cubes. I've had open-ish plans. I work at home a fair bit. I'm OK with working just about anywhere. If I had my druthers, I'd take an office given the choice--though I've had a dark interior office and cubes with a decent view and that's a factor too. I suppose my revealed preference is that I prefer quiet given that I don't usually put music on when I'm working at home. But I don't really have a lot of trouble with distraction and will just put on headphones if I really need to focus.

drcube 12y ago

I long for a high walled cube. It's like an office without a door! I have the 4-foot high cube variety and people are always sneaking up on me from behind and my coat drags the ground when I hang it up.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

mytochar 12y ago

I've worked in short cubes, tall group-cubes (3-4 people were cube room) and offices (both shared and solitary). In my current cube layout, we have a general practice where if a conversation is going to be large and boisterous enough, generally it's held in a private room off to the side. We have several of those. I'm comfortable in all of them. I do find myself needing headphones more often in the short cube environment; but, that's not really a big issue to me. I don't think I would like the open layout. Something about people walking by always being able to see what's on my monitor bothers me; and I'm currently in a situation where my boss could see my monitor if he chose to look up. Still not as bothering as a completely open layout. So, I don't see anything wrong with cubes. edit: I should have also mentioned that I wore headphones when I had my own office, too, because walls aren't soundproof, generally.

edderly 12y ago

I loathe cubes, the article resonates with me as this configuration combines the worst of most worlds. The pseudo-privacy of cubes does little to block noise and promotes anti-social actions. “Cubicles even make people behave badly. Researchers at Cornell studied 229 employees at eight firms and found that those in cubicles were more prone than those in open-plan offices to have long, loud conversations—sometimes unrelated to work—with colleagues or on the phone.” The key to making open offices work in a software development environment is fundamentally about having sufficiently low density, and having management giving a shit about basic conflicts.