I wouldn't work in that godforsaken thing but that's just me.
Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
251–260 of 483 posts
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#252I worked for a year at IBM's RTP campus. Everyone had their own dimly lit cube with 5-foot walls, no natural daylight, and white noise playing over speakers to drown out conversation. The depressing undertone of the office was part of what pushed me to quit. My team at my present job works in an open setting with 8 people in the room and windows with natural daylight. It's quiet enough to focus but gives us the oppor…
Natural light is one of the most important aspects of an office to me. A few years ago I actually turned down an offer because I realized I'd be sitting in an interior team-sized room with no windows and just a door to a hallway, again with no windows. I would have been giving up a seat next to huge windows with light flooding into the room. I just knew that I'd end up depressed in those working conditions and decide…
I sit right next to a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. The new designer who just started sits across from me and can't stand the sunlight, so he pulls the blinds down every day, all day. Drives me nuts, especially in the winter when I'm at work for all of the daylight hours I'm awake for.
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#253I'm just a single data point, but... it absolutely did for me. Granted I wasn't (and still am not) looking for a new job, but I used to have the impression that Facebook was a really developer-friendly place, and had it on my mental list of places I might want to look at if I jumped ship - and then I saw the pictures of that new airplane hangar workspace. Nope nope nope. Never ever.
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#254I worked for a year at IBM's RTP campus. Everyone had their own dimly lit cube with 5-foot walls, no natural daylight, and white noise playing over speakers to drown out conversation. The depressing undertone of the office was part of what pushed me to quit. My team at my present job works in an open setting with 8 people in the room and windows with natural daylight. It's quiet enough to focus but gives us the oppor…
I don't know why this is not discussed more. People either talk about either open floor plans or complete private solo offices. Or cubicles, although no one seems to like that. A private office with your team of 4-5 people seems ideal. You don't get the interruptions and noise of open floor plans, or even cubicles. You're also not alone and isolated all day. Your team is right around you to discuss any issues. It als…
Cubicles are a compromise - no one likes them because they're either still to open or not open enough depending on who you talk to. I'd still take a cubicle any day over an open plan though.
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#255I worked for a year at IBM's RTP campus. Everyone had their own dimly lit cube with 5-foot walls, no natural daylight, and white noise playing over speakers to drown out conversation. The depressing undertone of the office was part of what pushed me to quit. My team at my present job works in an open setting with 8 people in the room and windows with natural daylight. It's quiet enough to focus but gives us the oppor…
Team sized rooms are definitely the way to go. You can avoid conversation from other teams that you don't care about. When there is a conversation in the room, it's probably related to what you're doing so it's not necessarily distracting you. I worked in a room with just my team and it worked out great. We were able to have discussions and draw stuff on white boards on the wall without distracting anyone else. It al…
I would love to have a private office. Currently I spend most of my day blasting my ears because I simply can not concentrate with the constant Skype calling, people singing to themselves or random drive by meetings. And we are only 4-5 in the office.
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#256[deleted]
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#257Open offices were developed by people who don't have to really concentrate for their job. They're awful for developers.
It also saves a lot of money, and you as the "cool boss and everybody loves me" are seen when you walk in every day.
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Team sized rooms are definitely the way to go. You can avoid conversation from other teams that you don't care about. When there is a conversation in the room, it's probably related to what you're doing so it's not necessarily distracting you. I worked in a room with just my team and it worked out great. We were able to have discussions and draw stuff on white boards on the wall without distracting anyone else. It al…
Short of a private office, this would be my top choice. But the big thing, I think -- Put a wall between the hallway and the work area. Too many irrelevant people have irrelevant conversations when they're walking by and it's distracting.
On a related note, people who have a job requiring them to be constantly on the phone should not be placed within earshot of people who need to focus. Sales and support need to have walls between them and developers. Trying to code while someone is on the phone 4-8 hours a day is debilitating.
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems your wrath is better aimed at those who implemented an open floor plan, not the lady doing her job.
Well, I'd never be able to find the people who implemented the open floor plan. That's one of the problems with huge companies - the guilty are to often anonymous ;-) The problem with the sales person is that there are room set aside for making phone calls (whether personal or business) and there are always some available, but apparently that is entirely too unreasonable to expect someone with a laptop to go find a r…
Have you asked her?
Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?
#260In the big universities in Berlin you have class rooms where everybody focusses (or is supposed to) on one topic, small side rooms for team meetings and project work, libraries for silent study (even sneezing is looked bad upon). That in my eyes is the best way for a big organization to provide rooms. People can choose one according to their current needs.
If everybody is doing project work in a big hall that's aweful and pretty much nothing gets done.
The best I found is working from home with people who are annoying chatters via skype/slack/IRC/jabber. Overspamming is a little necessary since you don't see each other face to face all the time. But if you have such people you can pretty much whenever you feel like it, sleep when you feel like, you don't need to wear trousers, and achieve a lot more than in a big office.