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I have worked in both a private office and an open floor plan. I do really enjoy working around other people in an open office, and it makes impromptu planning

I have worked in both a private office and an open floor plan. I do really enjoy working around other people in an open office, and it makes impromptu planning more accessible, which I believe aids productivity for self organizing teams. The downside is, as you mentioned, that it can be really difficult to get focused work done. This is especially true if there are other teams sharing the same open space (project managers, designers, etc, etc). The thing that really made it better for me was to get a pair of noise canceling headphones and listen to the right music while I coded. That pretty effectively blocked out almost all of the external noise, or at least brought it down to a level where it wouldn't break into my head space and kill my concentration. There is still the problem of people feeling more free to interrupt you for every little thing if you are in an open office layout. The only way I've found to mitigate that has been to just try to inform people (in a nice way) how I work and what it does to my productivity when someone breaks in on me during the middle of something. I also try to have a couple of blocks of regular non-coding time during which I keep my headphones off, usually right after team meetings. That way everyone knows that when there is a good time to come talk to me. At the end of the day I do like the way collaboration works in an open office, but it does require some extra effort to stay productive when your job requires a lot of very directed concentration.

qq66 12y ago
I know of people who wear headphones at work not playing any music, just as a signal to other people not to disturb them.
- anon4 12y ago
  I actually got so used to the feeling of headphones on my head, that I wear them when I'm alone at home and not listening to anything.
- isaacdl 12y ago
  I've done this for years, even working on homework in my college cafeteria or other public space. It's actually an interesting social phenomenon: if I'm sitting at a table surrounded by textbooks, notes, and my laptop, people have absolutely no problem coming up and starting a conversation; if I'm sitting at an empty table with nothing but a plate of food in front of me, but with headphones in, not a soul will disturb me.
  - JohnBooty 12y ago
    I've done this for years and it's kind of shocking how many people feel free to ignore the "hey, trying to work here" signal sent by headphones. But I also have to admit that I've typically worked at companies where I was part of a smaller technology team in a larger company. As opposed to working at tech-oriented companies where the majority of my coworkers were fellow engineers who would (theoretically) be a little more understanding.

qq66 12y ago

I know of people who wear headphones at work not playing any music, just as a signal to other people not to disturb them.

anon4 12y ago
I actually got so used to the feeling of headphones on my head, that I wear them when I'm alone at home and not listening to anything.
isaacdl 12y ago
I've done this for years, even working on homework in my college cafeteria or other public space. It's actually an interesting social phenomenon: if I'm sitting at a table surrounded by textbooks, notes, and my laptop, people have absolutely no problem coming up and starting a conversation; if I'm sitting at an empty table with nothing but a plate of food in front of me, but with headphones in, not a soul will disturb me.
- JohnBooty 12y ago
  I've done this for years and it's kind of shocking how many people feel free to ignore the "hey, trying to work here" signal sent by headphones. But I also have to admit that I've typically worked at companies where I was part of a smaller technology team in a larger company. As opposed to working at tech-oriented companies where the majority of my coworkers were fellow engineers who would (theoretically) be a little more understanding.