At PARC everyone has their own office.
Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
261–270 of 356 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, that would be 36m^2. If it helps, think of a grid of 1m by 1m tiles laid out on the floor. How many tiles could you fit?
I always thought it was "4 metres squared" means 4x4 and "4 square metres" means 2x2. Unless 4m^2 doesn't mean "4 metres squared", which would really be confusing me ...
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Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, that would be 36m^2. If it helps, think of a grid of 1m by 1m tiles laid out on the floor. How many tiles could you fit?
I always thought it was "4 metres squared" means 4x4 and "4 square metres" means 2x2. Unless 4m^2 doesn't mean "4 metres squared", which would really be confusing me ...
m² is the symbol for "square metres", so 6 m² is e.g. a room 2m x 3m
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering just working from home every day, even though that's strictly not allowed. Open-plan offices are absolutely maddening, I get pulled out of my thoughts constantly, and there's no effective way to shut it out. Earplugs aren't enough, and with headphones I would have to play music so loudly it would be annoying my colleagues, just in order to cut out the constan…
Use noise cancelling headphones. They shut out the world with a bit of quiet music. I love my qc35. Doesn't fix the primary issue, but makes it more bearable.
One problem is they don't cancel out the terrible odors you have to breath when you're packed in next to people who don't bath and eat at their desks.
I think the awful smells I can't escape are worse than the noise at this point.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#265I've told people that I'll knock $20,000 off of my pay for an office with a door that closes. Everyone treats it like a joke.
Then when your productivity shoots through the roof, you can ask for a $20,000 raise. :P
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#266I 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.
One thing to focus on is teaching the skill to onboarding yourself into a new project. As an example, one part of that skill that I've learned from my current employer: It is actually socially acceptable to say "Hi, I've been working on $ticket recently and don't have a specific question but I feel rather lost. Could I grab 30 minutes on your calendar and you walk me through how SaltStack actually gets data values and turns them into resources and I take notes and ask questions?". For a long time, I would instead either:
A) Try to learn this by doing, which usually involved being very frustrated, taking 3x as long, and writing really quite poor-quality code. I only had the cognitive space to think about making the bare minimum change to accomplish the immediate goal, so I couldn't practice the habit of "do a small refactor to make the change easy, then make the easy change."
B) Ask for good tutorial documentation on the subject matter, which might not exist, especially if the code lives outside of a popular framework.
C) Ask differently-phrased questions that led me to get feedback from a previous employer that I was "trying to understand the universe", which led me to focus on strategy A.
Knowing that I can get walkthroughs, especially of business logic or code that lives outside a framework, is really hugely impactful. (side note: if you've wondered why people reach for frameworks while you think they are overcomplicated, this one reason why)
There's probably a whole blog post I would write with the goal of expanding a new-project-joiner's vocabulary of questions that is socially reasonable to ask.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#267Funny 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…
Thanks for sharing, I love stories like this.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#268Virtually everyone has an individual office where I work. Our CEO has the motto "give them a door, a window and the fastest computer money can buy".
This is very similar to where I work. We get people often need quiet, private spaces to do their best work, so we offer that to everyone. And a small office decorating budget to make it personalized.
I made my space a relaxing place for myself with a chaise and fake tree and wood grained wallpaper. Super peaceful.
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Interesting. I work from home most often, and I find that not having to tack on a 2 1/2 hr daily car commute leaves me time for actually socializing IRL as opposed to trying to cram that need into the office.
I think your schedule (“work from home most often”) is my ideal. Did you find it difficult to find a company that permits this? Did you have to negotiate for it, or is it pretty standard for everyone?
Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have considered this, but it's going to be very uncomfortable for a full workday. I've also tried earphones with music, but I can't work like that for long, I just start listening to the music instead. I need peace and quiet. And of course there's the issue of visual noise as well.
Silicon ear plugs are amazing, I sleep with them in (insomnia), they kill sound better than foam, mould to fit so stay in and warm up to body temperature so you don't know they are even there. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bio-Ears-Silicone-EarPlugs-Protecti... I split one in two and use them that way, I've gotten to work with them in before without noticing, maybe worth a shot.
Seems like these are only good for a few uses with each set before disposal?