How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle • Hacker News Board

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#11

Post by skywhopper » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:05 PM UTC

I personally am most productive when I'm head-down plowing into some big problem. And from that POV, I do my best work before sunrise in a private office, and I've thrived in environments where I have my own office with a door, and where I've worked remotely.

My current employer is all open-office, but also very remote friendly. I live hundreds of miles away so I work remote from my home office, but I've spent a few odd weeks in the office and the environment is actually pretty good for getting stuff done.

That said, remote-friendliness is something that's hard to adjust a company's culture to. I've found that heavy use of Slack and the right personalities can lead to a very productive and the sort of spontaneous sync-ups that are somewhat easier to happen in a physical office.

Ultimately the real test is whether your company's culture fits with your company's offices, and whether you fit into that culture.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#12

Post by pc86 » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:17 PM UTC

shmerl wrote: post #3

It's better than open office. Adapting to noisy environment can be challenging. I have circumaural headphones for cases when I need more concentration.

For anyone unfamiliar, circumaural headphones are "full size" in that they encompass the ear and are the easiest to block out noise by the physicality alone.

Next down in supra-aural that presses into the ear (rather than around it), and then you get to earbuds and in-ear headphones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headphones#Types

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#13

Post by timrichard » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:18 PM UTC

eckza wrote: post #8

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #5

I also think the type of cube makes a difference. I currently work in a cube with high walls (at least 12 inches higher than my head when seated) and somehow the psychological effect of that is much better than a low cube where you're staring in someone else's face all the time.

Absolutely, I'd lose my entire mind if I could see over my cube walls.

My last office stint was open-plan with lockers and hotdesking.

Absolutely despised by the developers; we would have been ecstatic with cubes.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#14

Post by mpdehaan2 » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:20 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #2

Cubes get a lot of hate, but I honestly prefer them over an open office. Maybe even better than a solitary office: in my experience, having my own office just felt isolating. I've worked in a cube. I've had my own office. I've shared an office with one other person in a variety of desk arrangements. I currently share a large office with three other people (might as well be an open plan). I'd probably rank the cube se…

I was involved in some new-office cost discussions at one point, and while I feel management likes to say open offices are about collaboration, it was really really really about furniture and space costs and employee density.

So one answer is given "up the chain" (cost/density) and another is given "down the chain" (collaboration), and that's not cool IMHO.

My feeling with open offices is that sales/marketing people like it and most developers can't concentrate. It's not an extrovert issue -- I'm pretty extroverted at times, but coding is one of those things you need to minimize distractions while doing.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#15

Post by ArkyBeagle » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

The emphasis on "face time" is just laziness. Laziness is, however, inevitable. I say that; I've done more good with a five minute hallway discussion ( in terms of heading off an "oh heck no" idea ) than any other technique.

but the entire "we need to socialize in order to be successful" thing is sorta mind-numbing. The word that comes after "social" is "engineering."

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#16

Post by jtymes » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

eckza wrote: post #8

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #5

I also think the type of cube makes a difference. I currently work in a cube with high walls (at least 12 inches higher than my head when seated) and somehow the psychological effect of that is much better than a low cube where you're staring in someone else's face all the time.

Absolutely, I'd lose my entire mind if I could see over my cube walls.

Yeah, we have "high" cubicle walls, but the last 12" is glass which defeats the purpose. I face a walkway and people's heads are in my view as they pass, which can be incredibly distracting.

We get a lot of natural light this way which can be great, except when the sun rises right into your eyes with no way to block it.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#17

Post by yarou » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #2

Cubes get a lot of hate, but I honestly prefer them over an open office. Maybe even better than a solitary office: in my experience, having my own office just felt isolating. I've worked in a cube. I've had my own office. I've shared an office with one other person in a variety of desk arrangements. I currently share a large office with three other people (might as well be an open plan). I'd probably rank the cube se…

I agree that open offices are, in practice, horrific endeavors.

But I think the concept behind them is valid: to foster collaboration and eschew meetings.

Given the choice between being stuck in meetings all day and an open office plan, I'd take the open office any day.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#18

Post by awinder » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 7:01 PM UTC

  2. Career advancement
  The gripe: Working in a cubicle enslaves you to micromanaging bosses.
  My view: Working with other people keeps you engaged and visible.

Is it anyone's experience that micromanagement is different depending on remote vs. on-site? Maybe micromanagers are less inclined to take remote positions because it could theoretically make it harder to micromanage, but at least in my experience, you can find that attitude wherever you go.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#19

Post by city41 » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 7:07 PM UTC

I've worked at companies that had completely open spaces, individual offices for everyone, and cubicles. By far my favorite is cubicles.

I hate open offices and will actively avoid them. They are noisy, distracting, stressful, and not conducive to productivity. They are conducive to collaboration though.

Offices are stifling. They put too many barriers between talking to people, and I found everyone tended to rely on chat and email a lot more. Offices are fantastic when you really want to put your head down and focus.

Cubicles are a nice balance between the two extremes. Collaboration is possible and still happens, but privacy and space is still available too.

Susan Cain in her book "Quiet" advocates for a space that is basically an open office in the center, with private nooks around the edge, so people can consciously decide when they want to collaborate versus concentrate. I've never been in an environment like that, but it sounds nice.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#20

Post by bobby_9x » Tue, Jan 05, 2016, 7:08 PM UTC

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #15

The emphasis on "face time" is just laziness. Laziness is, however, inevitable. I say that; I've done more good with a five minute hallway discussion ( in terms of heading off an "oh heck no" idea ) than any other technique. but the entire "we need to socialize in order to be successful" thing is sorta mind-numbing. The word that comes after "social" is "engineering."

Communication without face-to-face time is still difficult in many ways. A couple of years ago I worked remotely as a software developer.

The boss would only give me tasks through email/JIRA and we would have standup meetings daily.

Almost every time I was assigned a task, I would be given an extremely vague description. Now normally, this is what we need to deal with as developers, but I could barely get an idea of what we were trying to accomplish with the task. I usually just finished the task with what little information I had and it would have to be re-rewritten almost every time because the boss wanted something different.

This was all through email. Some people just don't know how to effectively communicate in writing.

They let me go after about a year because they could hire '4 people in India for the cost of my salary'. I had to chuckle.