Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's rather small, even for a single-person office.
Wow — I'd like your work environment. Mine is approximately 6m² and it's shared by 8 people!
How is it even possible? 2-tier working tables?
Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
181–190 of 356 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
SRE/DevOps should generally be like dev: if you're in an open office, headphones on. > Best case, someone talking to themself hour after hour, as if anyone wants to hear that. The person who is speaking usually needs to hear it. Sorry, I talk to myself every so often. :)
I once quit a job because there was a guy who constantly talked to himself. Your mumbling might cause severe mental anguish in those around you.
In most offices people will talk around you. Sometimes to others, sometimes to themselves. If that triggers your 'severe menal anguish', seek employment somewhere with a dedicated office or working from home.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
SRE/DevOps should generally be like dev: if you're in an open office, headphones on. > Best case, someone talking to themself hour after hour, as if anyone wants to hear that. The person who is speaking usually needs to hear it. Sorry, I talk to myself every so often. :)
The 'headphones on' as if this should be standard behavior does not make sense to me when a simple dividor or wall would do. Especially when unless you listen to loud music or have special noise canceling ones you can still hear people. If you work with a Jackhammer you cannot avoid having to cover your ears, it's very loud, but why does someone in an office have to do this, especially for the entire day, the Jackham…
> just replying because I see how you're offering a solution but I don't think it is good enough.
Oh I agree, dedicated offices are superior to headphones - hence writing 'in an open office'. I'm merely pointing out that privacy should be the same in SRE/DevOps vs devops.
I'm not particularly concerned with downvotes, I've been on HN a decade and am happy to lose karma while making an accurate point.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#184I 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…
This is very interesting, because your office sounds like hell to me. Any time I work from home I'm absolutely desperate for meaningless social interaction, a walk and a chat while out for coffee, a beer with my team at lunch or after work and face to face discussion. I guess it's hard to find something that works for everyone.
I think a hybrid approach works the best: purely remote company with small offices in some big cities, where people can go if they want to. What I've seen with that is some people go almost every day, while some only come in about once a week or so, but nobody has chosen not to come in at all. It's also common among purely remote companies to host an annual or even biannual meetup.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#185Every semiconductor co I've ever worked for, across 30 years, provided cubicles or offices for their employees. This includes both Fortune 500 firms and scrappy 8-person remote offices.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Have there been any studies on what kind of office floor plans are actually optimal for work? It's hard - every study of individuals shows they are significantly less productive in an open office environment. But what second order effects are there? You might be less productive individually but it might encourage team work and make the team as a whole more effective.
So where does all that supposed extra productivity come from? How does something get done, without any individual having done it?
Distraction workers like managers measure productivity in issues handled and amount of talking. By definition they don't do things, things don't get done. This is maximized in an open office.
Knowledge workers like devs (mostly) measure productivity by things getting done. Usually things getting done involves one individual passing unit tests and committing the corresponding working code, not turning every minor issue into a massive teambuilding exercise of endless talking and no doing. This kind of productivity is minimized in an open office.
Its a classic talk about it vs do something about it argument. Both extremes are pretty bad, unfortunately at this moment in the industry we're at one extreme swing of the pendulum.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#187Never understood the rationale behind open floor offices. I currently work in a cubicle set up, and people set up war rooms anytime they want close collaboration. Open offices seem to take this exceptional case and make it the norm. At the same time open floor offices cause a lot of trouble to people in non-exception situations.
It allows the company to cut costs on rent since it requires the least floor space per employee. For a room of a certain size, you can fit 20 people in a room with offices, 50 with cubicles, or 90 with an open floor plan.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#188I 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…
This is my #1 challenge at the moment... how to sustain a remote company culture and offer mentoring/onboarding to early career Developers.
I support the "craft" of Software; which requires an equal distribution of Apprentice, Journeyman (Journeyperson) and Master level people.
But it's difficult to "pass on" the craft to an Apprentice who is remote, so our team tends to be all mid-career folks.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#189One thing that also matters, that people tend to neglect, is ceiling height. In general when you need to do focused concentrated work, it’s best to work in a room with a low ceiling, the lower the better. Ideally it’s a ceiling you could almost touch. If you need to do more creative thinking, it is better to have a high ceiling, the higher the better (think cathedrals), though there must be a ceiling at some point.
Seems a bit of a stretch to state this as a global fact. May be true for you, but personally I hate when ceiling's are too low, it makes me feel claustrophobic.
One size fits all decrees like this are almost always baloney.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#190I 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…
This is very interesting, because your office sounds like hell to me. Any time I work from home I'm absolutely desperate for meaningless social interaction, a walk and a chat while out for coffee, a beer with my team at lunch or after work and face to face discussion. I guess it's hard to find something that works for everyone.
I've just shifted all my social interactions from the day to the night, which works very well for me. And I frequently grab coffee or run errands at lunch so that I'm not cooped up all day.
It's nice to have a private office with a couch and windows in it.