Open office + headphones negates some of the "pluses" touted by open office advocates. When I worked at Skype, the office in Palo Alto got some kudos for the "

Open office + headphones negates some of the "pluses" touted by open office advocates. When I worked at Skype, the office in Palo Alto got some kudos for the "design" -- http://www.designblitzsf.com/projects/skype-hq/ http://www.designblitzsf.com/projects/skype-hq/ being one such URL. As far as noise goes, even with audio engineers on staff, the level of disruptive noise was horrible. People having calls at their desks, testing mobile notifications, etc. Thankfully, I worked at home 50+% of the time as getting productive work done in the office was incredibly difficult. Large open space + open office = bad idea. Our office in Stockholm, while an open office, had many smaller sections offset by walls, break rooms, etc. It was a much better experience overall, but still not optimal.