> Is it a coincidence that companies who pioneered the open office plan are also some of the most successful in the world? Many companies that have been among

> Is it a coincidence that companies who pioneered the open office plan are also some of the most successful in the world? Many companies that have been among "the most successful in the world" got there without open offices. Just because a company does something doesn't mean it was a major factor in its success. We have no way of knowing if Google (or whoever) would have been less successful had they not been such fans of open offices (conversely they may have been even more successful - we have no way of knowing). > Show me how you'd even begin to disprove that Aside from the studies mentioned in this article there have been many other articles[1][2][3][4][5] written citing numerous studies (some spanning decades!) that consistently show open offices are terrible. Just because some companies have been successful despite that doesn't mean the science is wrong (that would be like saying smoking isn't bad for you because you know healthy 90 year-olds that smoke a pack a day). > What is the true impact of an open office on a culture of collaborative interaction? As developers we spend the vast majority of our time not collaborating. For jobs where you're interacting with others for most of the time you can make a stronger argument for an open office - but when you only spend a small amount of time doing so it doesn't make sense to optimize for that (given the numerous downsides). [1] http://www.newyorker.com/currency-tag/the-open-office-trap http://www.newyorker.com/currency-tag/the-open-office-trap [2] 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... [3] http://theconversation.com/open-plan-offices-attract-highest-levels-of-worker-dissatisfaction-study-18246 http://theconversation.com/open-plan-offices-attract-highest... [4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/04/22/office-designers-find-open-plan-spaces-are-actually-lousy-for-workers/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/04... [5] http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/15/why-the-open-office-is-a-hotbed-of-stress/ http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/15/why-the-open-office-is-a-ho...