11–20 of 61 posts
That really doesn't say anything about why they're terrible. They're just posting a bunch of random factoids without any kind of explanation for why those numbers might be. Seems like everything was cherry-picked pretty well.
yep seems like click bait to me.
There seems to be little discussion of the benefits to open offices. I would like to know how much money is saved to startups without significant funding. A big company like AT&T has no excuse but "shareholder value" for lowering the quality of work life - because let's be honest, private offices are obviously best - but a startup doesn't really have that choice. Personally, I'm fine with some kind of mix. Some peopl…
If you're so small this would make a difference, maybe you shouldn't have an office at all yet.
And yet, employment statistics show Americans are more productive than they've ever been. Something doesn't smell right with this data.
I found I was the most productive when I was in a small office with 2-3 other developers, with a door we could close. Everyone was setup this way, and people ended up decorating each of their rooms and every room had a "theme" (ours was called the lounge). This degree of personalization brought me closer to my co-workers whom I shared the office with, and as a result we worked better together. In the afternoons, we'd…
I found I was the most productive when I was in a small office with 2-3 other developers, with a door we could close. Everyone was setup this way, and people ended up decorating each of their rooms and every room had a "theme" (ours was called the lounge). This degree of personalization brought me closer to my co-workers whom I shared the office with, and as a result we worked better together. In the afternoons, we'd…
One time I took a drink of a glass of water on my desk and my coworker made a remark about how I made some strange movement when I took the drink. To me this is hell, to have every single moment potentially under observation. I mentioned how uncomfortable that dynamic makes me and he apologized for his remark, but the point remains.
It's not even about privacy, it's about please just fucking let me exist as an entity unto myself. People often think that when Sartre said "L'enfer c'est les autres", he was saying "other people suck and are annoying". But what he was saying is that hell is the constant presence of the Other.
There seems to be little discussion of the benefits to open offices. I would like to know how much money is saved to startups without significant funding. A big company like AT&T has no excuse but "shareholder value" for lowering the quality of work life - because let's be honest, private offices are obviously best - but a startup doesn't really have that choice. Personally, I'm fine with some kind of mix. Some peopl…
I’ve always thought that much of the bitching is about individual productivity without taking into the considerations of group productivity. Teams of 4-8 being in a single room probably gain more in collaboration in sum total by being together than the loss in personal productivity; however open spaces in the hundreds now introduct distractions for non-group associated work.
Depends heavily on the work you're doing in that team. Sometimes you're all working on the same problem; sometimes you need to divide and conquer, or otherwise work on mostly unrelated matters.
I've read about Valve's "moveable desks" and how they improve collaboration, but that's still a big open-plan office. I wonder if some sensible structure could make it easy to sometimes work in a shared office and sometimes work in groups?
There seems to be little discussion of the benefits to open offices. I would like to know how much money is saved to startups without significant funding. A big company like AT&T has no excuse but "shareholder value" for lowering the quality of work life - because let's be honest, private offices are obviously best - but a startup doesn't really have that choice. Personally, I'm fine with some kind of mix. Some peopl…
I wouldn't say, obviously best. I work in a cubical with a door and ceiling high walls. Not an "office", but it's pretty close. Everyone has them and it's set up kind of like a cubical farm.
It can be very secluding.
Sometimes I'll see people from other teams on the same floor I've never seen before and introduce myself, just to find out they've been working here for 6+ months.
I really like having my privacy when I'm working, but sometimes I can't help but feel the grass may be a little greener.
I love it. You get to know people from different places and it's like we're all a small community caring for one another. Also I think from a psychological point of view it helps having a large space and looking at different people all day.
As humans we're definitely not wired to look at a computer all day. We've evolved to be in open spaces and not closed in caves.
I found I was the most productive when I was in a small office with 2-3 other developers, with a door we could close. Everyone was setup this way, and people ended up decorating each of their rooms and every room had a "theme" (ours was called the lounge). This degree of personalization brought me closer to my co-workers whom I shared the office with, and as a result we worked better together. In the afternoons, we'd…
Everyone in the company was setup this way, even the CEO shared an office with 3 others (only one other exec). It was a great atmosphere.