6 ms·

How to Make an Open Plan Office Suck Less

78 points by strangetimes 11y ago

Joeri 11y ago
I have seen a ton of open plan offices, and the office where I work is in fact an open plan office showroom, but I've never seen the layouts advocated here. I suspect it's because the primary reason for open plan offices are related to cost reduction, and putting desks in long rows is the most compact way to arrange things (with clustered groups the closest proxy).
- iamdave 11y ago
  > but I've never seen the layouts advocated here I work in one right now as a sysadmin and I absolutely hate it. The very first image you see up there? The 8 desks just rammed against each other? I work in one of those. I absolutely despise it to the point where I'm most often sitting in the server room at a table against a wall more than I'm at my own desk.
- a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
  I think you can cover the deficiencies mentioned in the article with some tasteful screens or curtains in almost any space. I'd make some tasteful 2"x2" frame and canvas screens for less than $20 per station. Not even cubicles; just enough to provide some visual privacy.
  - tjradcliffe 11y ago
    Visual privacy is great, but noise and the other senses are an issue too. Employees with allergies, employees who use heavy scents (especially in combination with employees with allergies) and various food smells can all be problems even in cubicles. Employees who sing, hum, and make other (often unconscious) sounds are likewise problematic in full distraction office layouts. The claim that there is a cost savings is irrelevant, as "costs less" is never a justification for anything in business. What matters is productivity per dollar spent, so if you can hire four developers with private offices to do the work of five in an open plan, it's a wash. People who run businesses based on cost savings and not productivity per dollar aren't the kind of people you want to work for if you can help it.
    - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
      The noise thing can easily even be a problem in places with proper offices. I was at a site where taking conference calls on high volume speakerphone with the door wide open struck everybody as natural. Open plan or not, you have to make it OK to ask people to shut up.
megacode 11y ago
Privacy is one of the most important - and yet overlooked - design elements in the new SF coworking spaces. During my last trip to Westfield mall in San Francisco I noticed the new Bespoke coworking office space. https://www.bespokesf.co/ https://www.bespokesf.co/ My inner thoughts trended on the same observations as the OP has stated. The Bespoke designers created a coworking office space that shuffles 12 or more folks at a single table, allocates window views that are accessible by mall patrons, and limits soundproofing to user brought headphones. The only upside is for the commercial investors: be trendy to attract startups who are more than willing to spend big bucks on attractive, temporary office space. Productivity be damned.
- brandon272 11y ago
  But they have a Bocce ball court and rock climbing.
- fsk 11y ago
  Whenever I see a startup in a coworking space, that's an immediate red flag.
brandon272 11y ago
This delivers a key point that is often overlooked about open plan office space vs private offices: regardless of whether or not you're an open plan fan, the layout of an open plan office can make a huge difference in comfort and productivity. I work in a private office currently but am not opposed to working in an open plan office. However, if you violate simple rules like seating me so close to a co-worker that I can see every move, smell every smell and engage in afternoon game of footsies, or if you seat me with my back to a high traffic area, my productivity and satisfaction with my environment are going to suffer greatly.
LaurensBER 11y ago
Not working in an open office was an important factor in picking my current job. I really don't get why employers keep insisting on this terrible setup. It's impossible to work for 9-10 hours in such an environment. The EU actually has strict rules about office space but companies seem keen to ignore them. My last employer had an office where it was always to cold or to warm, it stunk and was always noisy. Terrible place to work and I feel that this was reflected in the output of work. All famous management books about managing programmers seem to agree with me on this yet it's still a trend. Terrible.
- themartorana 11y ago
  It is not impossible. Maybe we can stop talking in absolutes about this issue. We have an open office setup because a) we're small enough that it's not an issue (6 people) and b) we can't afford the alternative. Offices are expensive, compared to the alternative. I agree with the article about placement, but I strongly disagree with this constant sentiment that open offices suck. I agree that as we grow we'll need to be able to put space between people, and maybe the cost will become easier to tackle. But for a small company like ours, I find space division is just as often an annoyance as an issue.
  - frostmatthew 11y ago
    > I strongly disagree with this constant sentiment that open offices suck It's not simply sentiment - studies consistently show that they "suck" because they lower productivity, increase stress, cause more sick days, and create higher amounts of worker dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, as for your specific circumstance I fully agree an open office is the most appropriate solution - generally speaking when people discuss open office layouts they're not talking about five or six person startups.
  - marcosdumay 11y ago
    At 6 people you probably have a team office[1]. That's a good thing to have. Put 100 other people there, and you'll get an open plan office. [1] Unless you have talkative positions (like sales), and highly intellectual positions sharing that room - if that's the case, you'd better separate them
scurvy 11y ago
I would give up all the free lunches and massages in the world to not work in an open office.
88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
It's nice that the article provides solutions other than "just get private offices for everyone". I work in a small research lab and there are only two tiny rooms for about 12 people, so strategies like these are about all we have.
the_bear 11y ago
I read a lot of hate for open offices on Hacker News, but I don't think it's as simple as "open offices are bad." Last year my startup moved into our first office and I did an informal survey of the team (who had previously been working from their respective homes) about whether they'd prefer their main desks to be in private offices or an open room, and the winner was the open office. My point isn't that open offices are better. But some people clearly prefer them, and I think this community would benefit from a more nuanced discussion about when an open office is better vs. when private rooms are better. This article takes a step in that direction by pointing out that some open layouts are better than others, but the author also makes it pretty clear that he never thinks an open office is a good thing. The world is rarely so black and white.
- smileysteve 11y ago
  Different people may prefer different setups (the grey), but science is pretty black and white on the issue, open offices increase sick days http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/02/25/study-open-offices-are-making-us-all-sick/ http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/02/25/study-open-offices-ar...
  - the_bear 11y ago
    I don't think that most companies are designing their offices entirely around sick days. It seems likely that you could find a number of areas where open offices look statistically better, and a number of areas where they look worse. It also seems likely to me that open offices are more likely to be poorly executed than private rooms (there's a lot more rope to hang yourself with). That's all the more reason for us to have more nuanced discussions about it. As an example, most people on HN are singularly focused on what makes for a good office for programmers. My startup is made up mostly of non-programmers, and all programmers are allowed to work remotely. So basically, my goals might not be the same as yours, and one-size-fits-all advice is too simplistic. Another example: In our office everyone's primary desk is in the open workspace, but we also have enough private rooms that 100% of our team can work from those at the same time if they want. So no one has to work from the open office, and yet most people choose to. I'd guess that open offices are viewed much more favorably when they're not the only option.
imgabe 11y ago
These are all great points, but unfortunately they detract from the main reason employers choose open offices: cost. You can fit more employees in less space. Office leases are written in terms of dollars per square foot. Fewer square feet = Fewer dollars. Yes there's all this nonsense about "increasing communication" and so on. Bullshit. It's cheaper, end of story.
- fsk 11y ago
  That's why it's so hypocritical and annoying. They really are just being cheap on office space, but they justify it with some nonsense excuse about how they are more productive environments. If proper offices make workers 10%-20% more productive, it would obviously be worth it, because the office space expense is still small compared to salary and other overhead.
- contingencies 11y ago
  That's exactly right - but what's the one option that's guaranteed cheaper than renting an office? Not renting an office, or renting a smaller office. Hence, remote work. Your employees also save all that commute time, consequently get better (and cheaper) fed and rested.
- frostmatthew 11y ago
  > the main reason employers choose open offices: cost True, but I don't think the ~$10K a year[1] they're saving (per dev) outweighs the productivity loss. [1] http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-floor-plans-in-tech-companies.html http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-flo...
  - derefr 11y ago
    If companies actually thought in terms of optimizing for ROI per invested employee-salary-dollar, there's so many things they could do. As it is, most companies (big or small) work to a model that feels more like they want to have valuable highly-skilled employees (and so they go to a lot of trouble to acquire them), but they don't actually need anything accomplished that requires 100% output (even for a short period) from said highly-skilled employees. Instead, everyone gets stuck doing lowest-common-denominator tasks. Really, I'm beginning to hold the belief that, for most companies, their highest possible ROI savings would be to just replace their entire programmer workforce with recent college grads, interns, low-bid contracts, or outsourced labor. They don't need anyone with higher skills than that for their junky glue-FOSS-to-do-CRUD problems; they just think they do.
davidjnelson 11y ago
I had an idea about this some might enjoy. My boss was open to it. Setup a conference room which cannot be used for meetings, which has several dual monitor / keyboard / mouse / mousepads set up. This way, you can choose to be in the open office when needed, but when it's a detriment and you need quiet you can unplug your laptop and go in the "quiet room" to be productive. A companies openness to this would signal they care about employee health and productivity.

78 points by strangetimes 11y ago

Joeri 11y ago

I have seen a ton of open plan offices, and the office where I work is in fact an open plan office showroom, but I've never seen the layouts advocated here. I suspect it's because the primary reason for open plan offices are related to cost reduction, and putting desks in long rows is the most compact way to arrange things (with clustered groups the closest proxy).

iamdave 11y ago
> but I've never seen the layouts advocated here I work in one right now as a sysadmin and I absolutely hate it. The very first image you see up there? The 8 desks just rammed against each other? I work in one of those. I absolutely despise it to the point where I'm most often sitting in the server room at a table against a wall more than I'm at my own desk.
a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
I think you can cover the deficiencies mentioned in the article with some tasteful screens or curtains in almost any space. I'd make some tasteful 2"x2" frame and canvas screens for less than $20 per station. Not even cubicles; just enough to provide some visual privacy.
- tjradcliffe 11y ago
  Visual privacy is great, but noise and the other senses are an issue too. Employees with allergies, employees who use heavy scents (especially in combination with employees with allergies) and various food smells can all be problems even in cubicles. Employees who sing, hum, and make other (often unconscious) sounds are likewise problematic in full distraction office layouts. The claim that there is a cost savings is irrelevant, as "costs less" is never a justification for anything in business. What matters is productivity per dollar spent, so if you can hire four developers with private offices to do the work of five in an open plan, it's a wash. People who run businesses based on cost savings and not productivity per dollar aren't the kind of people you want to work for if you can help it.
  - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
    The noise thing can easily even be a problem in places with proper offices. I was at a site where taking conference calls on high volume speakerphone with the door wide open struck everybody as natural. Open plan or not, you have to make it OK to ask people to shut up.

megacode 11y ago

Privacy is one of the most important - and yet overlooked - design elements in the new SF coworking spaces. During my last trip to Westfield mall in San Francisco I noticed the new Bespoke coworking office space. https://www.bespokesf.co/ https://www.bespokesf.co/ My inner thoughts trended on the same observations as the OP has stated. The Bespoke designers created a coworking office space that shuffles 12 or more folks at a single table, allocates window views that are accessible by mall patrons, and limits soundproofing to user brought headphones. The only upside is for the commercial investors: be trendy to attract startups who are more than willing to spend big bucks on attractive, temporary office space. Productivity be damned.

brandon272 11y ago
But they have a Bocce ball court and rock climbing.
fsk 11y ago
Whenever I see a startup in a coworking space, that's an immediate red flag.

brandon272 11y ago

This delivers a key point that is often overlooked about open plan office space vs private offices: regardless of whether or not you're an open plan fan, the layout of an open plan office can make a huge difference in comfort and productivity. I work in a private office currently but am not opposed to working in an open plan office. However, if you violate simple rules like seating me so close to a co-worker that I can see every move, smell every smell and engage in afternoon game of footsies, or if you seat me with my back to a high traffic area, my productivity and satisfaction with my environment are going to suffer greatly.

LaurensBER 11y ago

Not working in an open office was an important factor in picking my current job. I really don't get why employers keep insisting on this terrible setup. It's impossible to work for 9-10 hours in such an environment. The EU actually has strict rules about office space but companies seem keen to ignore them. My last employer had an office where it was always to cold or to warm, it stunk and was always noisy. Terrible place to work and I feel that this was reflected in the output of work. All famous management books about managing programmers seem to agree with me on this yet it's still a trend. Terrible.

themartorana 11y ago
It is not impossible. Maybe we can stop talking in absolutes about this issue. We have an open office setup because a) we're small enough that it's not an issue (6 people) and b) we can't afford the alternative. Offices are expensive, compared to the alternative. I agree with the article about placement, but I strongly disagree with this constant sentiment that open offices suck. I agree that as we grow we'll need to be able to put space between people, and maybe the cost will become easier to tackle. But for a small company like ours, I find space division is just as often an annoyance as an issue.
- frostmatthew 11y ago
  > I strongly disagree with this constant sentiment that open offices suck It's not simply sentiment - studies consistently show that they "suck" because they lower productivity, increase stress, cause more sick days, and create higher amounts of worker dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, as for your specific circumstance I fully agree an open office is the most appropriate solution - generally speaking when people discuss open office layouts they're not talking about five or six person startups.
- marcosdumay 11y ago
  At 6 people you probably have a team office[1]. That's a good thing to have. Put 100 other people there, and you'll get an open plan office. [1] Unless you have talkative positions (like sales), and highly intellectual positions sharing that room - if that's the case, you'd better separate them

scurvy 11y ago

I would give up all the free lunches and massages in the world to not work in an open office.

88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago

It's nice that the article provides solutions other than "just get private offices for everyone". I work in a small research lab and there are only two tiny rooms for about 12 people, so strategies like these are about all we have.

the_bear 11y ago

I read a lot of hate for open offices on Hacker News, but I don't think it's as simple as "open offices are bad." Last year my startup moved into our first office and I did an informal survey of the team (who had previously been working from their respective homes) about whether they'd prefer their main desks to be in private offices or an open room, and the winner was the open office. My point isn't that open offices are better. But some people clearly prefer them, and I think this community would benefit from a more nuanced discussion about when an open office is better vs. when private rooms are better. This article takes a step in that direction by pointing out that some open layouts are better than others, but the author also makes it pretty clear that he never thinks an open office is a good thing. The world is rarely so black and white.

smileysteve 11y ago
Different people may prefer different setups (the grey), but science is pretty black and white on the issue, open offices increase sick days http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/02/25/study-open-offices-are-making-us-all-sick/ http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/02/25/study-open-offices-ar...
- the_bear 11y ago
  I don't think that most companies are designing their offices entirely around sick days. It seems likely that you could find a number of areas where open offices look statistically better, and a number of areas where they look worse. It also seems likely to me that open offices are more likely to be poorly executed than private rooms (there's a lot more rope to hang yourself with). That's all the more reason for us to have more nuanced discussions about it. As an example, most people on HN are singularly focused on what makes for a good office for programmers. My startup is made up mostly of non-programmers, and all programmers are allowed to work remotely. So basically, my goals might not be the same as yours, and one-size-fits-all advice is too simplistic. Another example: In our office everyone's primary desk is in the open workspace, but we also have enough private rooms that 100% of our team can work from those at the same time if they want. So no one has to work from the open office, and yet most people choose to. I'd guess that open offices are viewed much more favorably when they're not the only option.

imgabe 11y ago

These are all great points, but unfortunately they detract from the main reason employers choose open offices: cost. You can fit more employees in less space. Office leases are written in terms of dollars per square foot. Fewer square feet = Fewer dollars. Yes there's all this nonsense about "increasing communication" and so on. Bullshit. It's cheaper, end of story.

fsk 11y ago
That's why it's so hypocritical and annoying. They really are just being cheap on office space, but they justify it with some nonsense excuse about how they are more productive environments. If proper offices make workers 10%-20% more productive, it would obviously be worth it, because the office space expense is still small compared to salary and other overhead.
contingencies 11y ago
That's exactly right - but what's the one option that's guaranteed cheaper than renting an office? Not renting an office, or renting a smaller office. Hence, remote work. Your employees also save all that commute time, consequently get better (and cheaper) fed and rested.
frostmatthew 11y ago
> the main reason employers choose open offices: cost True, but I don't think the ~$10K a year[1] they're saving (per dev) outweighs the productivity loss. [1] http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-floor-plans-in-tech-companies.html http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-flo...
- derefr 11y ago
  If companies actually thought in terms of optimizing for ROI per invested employee-salary-dollar, there's so many things they could do. As it is, most companies (big or small) work to a model that feels more like they want to have valuable highly-skilled employees (and so they go to a lot of trouble to acquire them), but they don't actually need anything accomplished that requires 100% output (even for a short period) from said highly-skilled employees. Instead, everyone gets stuck doing lowest-common-denominator tasks. Really, I'm beginning to hold the belief that, for most companies, their highest possible ROI savings would be to just replace their entire programmer workforce with recent college grads, interns, low-bid contracts, or outsourced labor. They don't need anyone with higher skills than that for their junky glue-FOSS-to-do-CRUD problems; they just think they do.

davidjnelson 11y ago

I had an idea about this some might enjoy. My boss was open to it. Setup a conference room which cannot be used for meetings, which has several dual monitor / keyboard / mouse / mousepads set up. This way, you can choose to be in the open office when needed, but when it's a detriment and you need quiet you can unplug your laptop and go in the "quiet room" to be productive. A companies openness to this would signal they care about employee health and productivity.