61–70 of 83 posts
Why is wearing headphones not an option? Just curious.
A better question would be - why aren't "library rules" an option? The default should be quiet, headphones cannot recreate that, only different noise. If people wish to introduce noise, they may of course do this with headphones!
Why is wearing headphones not an option? Just curious.
Why is wearing headphones not an option? Just curious.
I'm not 30 yet and my headphone use in open plan offices has contributed to tinnitus. To be effective, the music has to completely drown out conversations. It's unhealthy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a private office (I work from home), but there's a difference between open offices where EVERYONE in the company is out in one big area and a separate space for each team. That's how a team I used to be on was arranged. There was the outside office, then what was termed the "developer cave", which was a large section of the office (closed off, with a door!) that housed 5 developers and 3 QA people all working…
My last job had a similar setup, with a developer cave (complete with dim lighting to disorient visitors) with 5 devs working on the same system. There were long stretches of quiet time to focus, and a little bit of idle bullshitting with the opportunity to shoot questions across the room when it would be faster than looking things up yourself or going through email. Now I'm sitting in a cube farm, sharing a cube, an…
Faster for you, not for the poor slob who has to answer your questions.
Yes I think Oracle Labs in the bay area has private offices for all developers. I even had one as an intern - with a view of Mount Diablo.
Mentor Graphics has private offices. When our company was acquired by them, I thought I would really love them. But to my surprise I didn't like how it changed the culture at all. Private offices really do make developers more insular. It discourages communication to a degree I wouldn't have thought it would. Another aspect which might not be obvious at first is that offices come in difference sizes, so when somebody…
Offices-with-doors power dynamics may be unwelcome in some company cultures. But power dynamics are unavoidable. If a company has an open plan work space or bullpen, the dynamic will be expressed in some other way that might be even more unwelcome.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Offices-with-doors power dynamics may be unwelcome in some company cultures. But power dynamics are unavoidable. If a company has an open plan work space or bullpen, the dynamic will be expressed in some other way that might be even more unwelcome.
In open plan offices, it would be the person with the nicest window, or furthest from the door.
Maybe I am just imaging it, but for me, background music interferes with deep sustained thinking. I don't understand how people think playing music in the background at home or at work does anything positive for intellectual activity. Open offices have a similar effect on me, and not infrequently I've been exposed to both at the same time.
Von Neumann did some of his best work in noisy, chaotic environments, and once admonished his wife for preparing a quiet study for him to work in. He never used it, preferring the couple's living room with its television playing loudly.
Ah, the ultimate luxury... There is a long discussion on the benefits of private offices in Peopleware, which says that Microsoft has them (although this was 1999): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware Recently, I heard of the "cave and commons" approach, which sounds more like it could be adopted by hip startups: https://hbr.org/2013/03/give-workers-the-power-to-choose-cav...
i think i've heard of the ideal of commons + private/quiet space too, if i recall that option is mentioned in peopleware too. (anecdote: i am currently sitting in low cubicles in the middle of a huge open plan space, with a couple of neighbouring developers, we're surrounded by about two rings of people whose jobs involve talking all day. this is okay for days that descend into endless meetings / firefighting, but pr…
The doors unfortunately aren't the best at blocking loud conversations, but it's still better than trying to concentrate in a loud cubicle farm.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My last job had a similar setup, with a developer cave (complete with dim lighting to disorient visitors) with 5 devs working on the same system. There were long stretches of quiet time to focus, and a little bit of idle bullshitting with the opportunity to shoot questions across the room when it would be faster than looking things up yourself or going through email. Now I'm sitting in a cube farm, sharing a cube, an…
>>with the opportunity to shoot questions across the room when it would be faster than looking things up yourself or going through email Faster for you, not for the poor slob who has to answer your questions.