I love open floor plans. I've been working >10 years in cubicles, ~5 years in offices and >5 years in open floor plans. My favorite has been open floor plans. It's far more social and people are a lot more accessible. The other benefit of open floor plans is that people can go elsewhere if they feel like they don't want to be disturbed, so it's almost the best of both worlds.
Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#22It's a trade-off. Closed offices make deep thinking easier; open floor plans make communication easier. Ideally, you want both, but how do you get it?
True. Although I prefer cubicles any day but communication is hard - 've seen some have this way of treating as if u've invaded private space. I guess for open office - a good noise cancelling headphone which one of my colleague used to use is a need
Not even necessarily noise cancelling, if you're playing music, generally the background gets drowned enough.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#23I used to find open floor plans the most annoying thing in the world. People would pop up behind/around me unannounced. However, since we started using slack, such annoyance has declined dramatically. I wonder what will happen to office planning with better communication tools around.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#24Because some people (like me) don't want to be locked up in a boring cubicle like chickens in a battery cage.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#25Because they are cheap.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#26I used to find open floor plans the most annoying thing in the world. People would pop up behind/around me unannounced. However, since we started using slack, such annoyance has declined dramatically. I wonder what will happen to office planning with better communication tools around.
The tools exist, and have for a long time. But unless you're the boss, there's little you can do to get people to use them.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#27The use of open floor plans could also be a choice towards company culture.
I work in an office with an open floor plan, and, most of the time, no one is even talking.
The amount of work you could do in an open floor plan office might also depend on the company culture.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#28I love open floor plans. I've been working >10 years in cubicles, ~5 years in offices and >5 years in open floor plans. My favorite has been open floor plans. It's far more social and people are a lot more accessible. The other benefit of open floor plans is that people can go elsewhere if they feel like they don't want to be disturbed, so it's almost the best of both worlds.
In what companies can you go elsewhere if you don't feel like being disturbed? My experience is always that the entire office is a single noisy room and conference rooms are overbooked.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#29I work in an open plan office and sometimes I find it annoying. If I come in early, I get about an hour's peace. When people start coming in I hear conversations about kids then sport.. then when people who sit closer to me come in, I obviously have a quick morning chat with them. The whole thing can be very distracting. On the plus side, it's never lonely even when I am not talking to anyone. It's easy to see if peo…
"It's easier to go chat to people about work." That's a plus for the person who wants to chat. It's a massive negative (far outweighing the positive for the person who gets to chat right now instead of in an hour's time) for the person who was several stacks deep in mental context in chasing down some Heisenbug, or really involved in bashing out just the right code with a head full of flowing understanding. Especiall…
Sure...if you want to get things done. From what I can tell, most people prefer to goof off as much as possible.
Re: Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
#30Headphones were invented to rescue you in open floor office ...