I work for Masergy. We're a cube farm. I love it.
Give me a conservative cube farm over a hipster open office any day.
Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
171–180 of 356 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#172If avoiding open-plan is a priority, I recommend you focus on negotiating for a remote work arrangement, rather than excluding good companies. My last two long-term engagements have been at Fortune 100 companies and I've worked remotely for both. In the first case, I was the only remote employee in my business unit. I was hired because I had a high level of competency with a technology they were investing heavily in.…
Working alone at home would be a worse option for me than working in an unfavorable office environment. More like a non-starter than worse. I get that there are people who love the idea of being isolated. But I think there are more who want to be around people instead of alone. And there should be a reasonable option for them, not open plan.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
afaik qc35 does both
Assuming "qc35" == "Bose QuietComfort 35", it also eavesdrops on the metadata of everything you listen to and sends it to Bose (and segment.io). https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bose-headphones-have-bee...
After the scandal, they added an opt-out setting (but on the privacy policy page, where the nominal user will not think to look for it).
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#174I get I'm part of the privileged few, but: I've been working for a small software company for almost 11 years, and EVERYONE at my company is remote. We don't lease any real estate anywhere, unless a mailbox and a colo rack count. It's AWESOME, but there are caveats. The biggest one is that we can't really hire newbies; everyone we've brought in has to be mid-career at a minimum because the absence of the "water coole…
Are you hiring?
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#175I get I'm part of the privileged few, but: I've been working for a small software company for almost 11 years, and EVERYONE at my company is remote. We don't lease any real estate anywhere, unless a mailbox and a colo rack count. It's AWESOME, but there are caveats. The biggest one is that we can't really hire newbies; everyone we've brought in has to be mid-career at a minimum because the absence of the "water coole…
I'm with you, I love working from home. I find I'm much more productive and am interrupted less even if that means the occasional cat on keyboard. I sometimes find myself missing being in an office for the camaraderie but I think it's mostly FOMO. It's the same thing as -- excuse the metaphor -- wanting to be in a high-end raiding guild in wow. Once you're in it you kinda wish you werent in a high-end raiding guild in wow.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#176Funny behaviors from an open office plan I experienced:
- tribes claiming spaces: there was a couch area where a natural affinity group formed based on common personality types typical of urban/suburban tribal divide. developed an in-group/out-group mentality. a counter group formed in a lunch area.
- posturing: top tech individual contributor used main boardroom for "really important video conference meetings," and it became his de facto office unless you had it booked.
- tragedy of the commons: with no private space other than common spaces, meeting rooms were booked up with standing meetings so that it became impossible to get one when you needed it.
- Callout/performative drama: challenging people would use the availability of earshot to try to draw others into their conflicts. Callout culture, where instead of addressing issues, people would call out others to demand explanations in front of teams, managers, or in main slack channels.
- lack of personal boundaries: technical managers with low charisma routinely embarrassed in open meetings where everyone felt they could table complaints and make others accountable in front of a group, further wrecking morale as result of perceived weak leadership.
Interior design wouldn't solve all these problems, but the aesthetic of a kindergarten or hipster daycare certainly exacerbated them. I may long form this post into something, as the anti-patterns in that org were an effect of its culture, which was expressed by aesthetics rooted in beliefs that would have benefited from more insight.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
coffee shops exist for this. rent a 5x5 desk in a coworking space. there are alternatives to home office for remote work.
Personally either of those options would be better for me than working out of my home. But it's a curious alternative to working in an office. You're still surrounded by people and get the downsides of you're sensitive to them (I'm not) but you don't get the social benefits.
In a dev shop social benefits are synonymous to distractions. I don't care to talk to bizops people every time they walk by me. I don't want to hear females stomping on the floor with their heels like fucking mech warriors. I also tend to work in sprints that do not conform to 9-5 work days because DevOps/SRE people are typically coding/R&D during the day, and releasing/unfucking defects at night depending on intrusive maintenance windows. I can do it all from the comfort of wherever I choose and have working internet.
Some days I work from the park, or work from a bar until I'm buzzed and need to go home.
Also the monetary value of not having to spend money on daily transportation, don't need a huge clothing allowance so you have something decent to wear every day so you don't look like a slob, don't have to waste money on food if your employer doesn't feed you and don't have to waste time preparing meals if you don't want to eat out.
If you need that much socializing time you probably don't have enough work to do, or need a hug.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#178When I worked in academia (working for a high throughout computing research group at a large state university) we all had our own offices. I don't know if individual offices are all that common any more due to space issues at universities, but I think they're almost all shared offices or cubes at worst. I've never seen an open office plan at a University.
I work in healthcare now and share a "large" office with 3 other developers. It feels tight at times, but I still prefer it to the hot-seat style open office that was our other choice.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
"even directors sit amongst the staff" At least they are eating their own dogfood. I have had several occasions where I was belittled when I complained about noise and lack of daylight by our managers who have private offices with windows.
They have no idea (or have forgotten) what doing Dev work is like. Their jobs are basically distraction, so to them there's no problem.
Its a social hierarchy thing; its baked into the cake of the architecture of the office.
Something like: We don't care about the message it sends that "concentration workers" are prevented from working by the very architecture of the office yet we support "distraction workers". I guess "concentration workers" are a lower caste at that company and they find it amusing to enforce that value judgement.
It is exactly like making certain races sit in the back of the bus. No matter how many times you claim it doesn't matter or everyone does it and its really trendy, the people subjected to it none the less understand exactly what message it is sending and are insulted. The point of open offices is literally insulting knowledge workers and not caring that they know their noses are being rubbed in it. Sort of an adult version of revenge of the nerds pranks and bullying.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I worked in a similar environment at Apple, when Infinite Loop first opened: Pods with offices that surrounded a central courtyard, which was furnished with sofas, chairs and whiteboards. Each office had a simple (and heavy) door alongside a tall and narrow window. The door provided effective sound isolation, and years later I realized the window was a psychological link to what was going on in the inner "courtyard",…
+1 for the Microserfs reference!
I believe the gap at the bottom of the door was indeed wider at Microsoft . . .