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Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#51

Post by dx034 »

chx wrote: post #43
kayamon wrote: post #8

Lots of (in fact most?) companies don't have an open plan office. When I used to work at Activision, they didn't and still don't. > How is this acceptable? Because it's totally fine. If you can't work with another human nearby you might want to get over yourself and think about what you're doing with your life.

Erm, no. It's not just the auditory noise but also the visuals. We are wired to react to movement seen from the side of our eyes. What am I to do, wear sideblinds like a horse?

Three large screens that cover ~150 degrees will work as well and can increase productivity as well.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#52

Post by ericjang »

Pixar does not have an open floor plan. It's 2-3 folks to an office, and the animators are well known for decorating their offices in fairly quirky ways during the "off-season" when they have finished their portion of the work for a movie (https://www.google.com/search?q=pixar+animator+offices&sourc...)

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#53

Post by kabdib »

wskemper wrote: post #20

I work for Viasat; all of our new-build offices in the past few years have been designed around what we call the neighborhood concept. A neighborhood is a set of individual offices (maybe 60sqft-ish?) with three solid walls, and one glass/wood wall with a sliding door. All the offices open into a central room that can be outfitted in a bunch of different ways. There are neighborhoods of different sizes, and basically…

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", after spending time in a completely closed office at Microsoft. The message at Apple seemed to be "Okay, we know you need to concentrate on work, but remember that you're part of a community" while the office of the particular group I was in at Microsoft seemed to say "Please just sit there and write code and do email -- we will feed you under the door".

Architecture matters in the weirdest ways, and sometimes tiny tweaks make a big difference.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#54

Post by raducu »

davidmoffatt wrote: post #22

Yes I too would love to see this. Noise canceling headphone seem to cancel everything but voices and that is the opposite of what you need.

I use industrial ear muffs over my in-ear headphones. Not very comfortable but they work great.

Now I wish my work wouldn't suck so I could actually use all the focus I get this way :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#56

Post by brongondwana »

FastMail has 5 in a single office, because they chose to cluster there.

The standard room is 3 people in 6x6m space, which is actually way too much for just our desks, but we have collaboration tables in the middle of each room where we can put laptops or paperwork when discussing things - plus tons of whiteboard space.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#57

Post by fsloth »

gumby wrote: post #28
dx034 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more about the noise level. Open plan office means that there's constant noise from talking and phones. Some can ignore that noise but for others, noise cancelling headphones are the only solution. Easier communication is certainly a benefit but I'm not sure if it outweighs the loss in productivity, especially for people that don't constantly have to talk to others to do their job.

It's not just noise -- people moving in your visual field is very distracting.

This. It's not "only" noise, it's not "only" visual distraction. It's a combination of elements that create a very distracting place that by it's basic dynamics impedes deep work.

People who suggest noise cancelling headphones to fix this are childish and immature. The employee has no moral obligation whatsoever to adapt to a working space that is not suited to the work at hand.

Putting expensive software engineers into an open office is wasting a resource that has huge running costs to save on a resource with less running costs. Although, I understand some places the cost of office space actually is quite high, and I realize in these cases the tradeoff has merits.

The problem with this is that management in other locations start to ape this inane concept even though their office space costs are considerably lower.

So, sure, if it costs an arm and a leg to have office space then just maybe an open office has merit financially.

I have nothing against shared rooms that are actually separated with walls as long as they are not used for hotdesking. Those don't have the same disturbance dynamics as an actual open office and I enjoy them the most of all the combination of work spaces I've been in 12 years as a software engineer.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#58

Post by arun_dev »

I'm not totally against the open floor plan, it's all about the silence and flow, In libraries people are able to maintain focus, So solution for open floor plans is library rules in office, if you have budget you can always go for private offices.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#59

Post by pista »

sametmax wrote: post #32

Any companies whose business model is security may want to avoid open spaces. Among those I worked with, like some chip makers (gemalto, safran, etc), space agencies (the CNES comes to mind) or banks (labanquepostale/banque populaire have a few old school offices, bank of luxembourg has lots open plan though). I don't think founders think the geeks wellbeing is ever a criteria to choose a floor plan. Money, space and…

The worst place I've seen is the dev dept of a bank. It's not just that 200 persons were crammed in a single room, it was that the place was extremely noisy. I pity the guys that were sitting near the coffee machine.

The idiot that interviewed me was proud of the environment. Fortunately they didn't accept me so I didn't need to make excuses to the recruiter.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#60

Post by erik_seaberg »

tintor wrote: post #10
dx034 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more about the noise level. Open plan office means that there's constant noise from talking and phones. Some can ignore that noise but for others, noise cancelling headphones are the only solution. Easier communication is certainly a benefit but I'm not sure if it outweighs the loss in productivity, especially for people that don't constantly have to talk to others to do their job.

Noise cancelling headphones will cancel low frequency sounds like fans / AC, but not high frequency ones like talking and phones.

I think it's the unpredictability more than the frequency range. Passive noise isolation always works but takes a lot of mass on your head. I'm on my second pair of HD 280 in about ten years because they're comfortable.
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