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That is pretty much what happened at my current job. We had tall semi-private cubicles that provided a decent amount of sound dampening. Suddenly we were movi

by Washuu 12y ago

That is pretty much what happened at my current job. We had tall semi-private cubicles that provided a decent amount of sound dampening. Suddenly we were moving to new cubicles there were half the size and half the height in an open format. The only people who were allowed to vote on the office changes were all the managers who had their own private offices. Enough hell was raised over the decision that all the managers ended up moving out of the offices to sit with their teams. They get to be miserable with us in all the noise. However, the overall team relations have improved to some degree. Our new plan is to move to a new location and build team rooms for up to eight people instead of large floors with lots of people. Clarification Edit: We now also have a single shared private office that be requisitioned by any employee for up to a day regardless of their position as long as they have a good reason.

nickbauman 12y ago
> build team rooms for up to eight people instead of large floors with lots of people. This is the right way to do open office planning. Consider Conway's Law. Teams are organized horizontally by how the system is designed by logical or physical system boundary. And you let people move from team to team to get good cross-functional ability and understanding.
- Washuu 12y ago
  Yep! Definitely why it is "up to eight people". A team may only have four people, but if a designer needs to move in from another team then there is space to allow it happen. After eight people on the team there really needs to be a decision if the tasks being handled can be split into separate teams. Such as separating a desktop and mobile client team into two teams.
joshstrange 12y ago
> The only people who were allowed to vote on the office changes were all the managers who had their own private offices. After leaving my previous job they moved to a similar half-wall open workspace (that the employees nearly universally hate) and they 2 people that had the most say in the decision both have offices. Also before the move the 3 partners got close parking spaces (<1 block) while all the employees had to walk 3+ blocks from a dimly-lit, rundown parking "structure" (if it could be called that).

by Washuu 12y ago

nickbauman 12y ago

> build team rooms for up to eight people instead of large floors with lots of people. This is the right way to do open office planning. Consider Conway's Law. Teams are organized horizontally by how the system is designed by logical or physical system boundary. And you let people move from team to team to get good cross-functional ability and understanding.

Washuu 12y ago
Yep! Definitely why it is "up to eight people". A team may only have four people, but if a designer needs to move in from another team then there is space to allow it happen. After eight people on the team there really needs to be a decision if the tasks being handled can be split into separate teams. Such as separating a desktop and mobile client team into two teams.

joshstrange 12y ago

> The only people who were allowed to vote on the office changes were all the managers who had their own private offices. After leaving my previous job they moved to a similar half-wall open workspace (that the employees nearly universally hate) and they 2 people that had the most say in the decision both have offices. Also before the move the 3 partners got close parking spaces (<1 block) while all the employees had to walk 3+ blocks from a dimly-lit, rundown parking "structure" (if it could be called that).