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Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

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Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#361

Post by nocarrier »

webvictim wrote: post #304

I used to work at FB and the huge, open offices were one of my least favourite parts about the job. I worked in the London office for a year and that was actually a little better because it's smaller and generally quieter there, but the three years that I did in the Menlo Park offices were not particularly fun for all the reasons described. It's very difficult to concentrate when there's constant background noise. Me…

I joined FB in 2006 and had never been in an open office environment before. It was quite an adjustment. I didn't like working in the office until I had been there for about six months. The office on University Ave was packed tight and didn't have a lot of creature comforts--it was cheap desks arranged in groups of four, some conference rooms, a break room with snacks, and that's it. And I had come from a cubicle farm at Apple.

There were definitely large benefits to the open floor plan back then since we were working on so many things and each person was wearing so many hats. It made staying in touch with people's progress really easy. We were also working 80-100 hours a week back then, so it was good to constantly stay in touch since there was so little structure and process back then.

I have mixed feelings about FB being held up as one of the models for open floor plans today though. While I think it was definitely useful at the time, I think the open floor plan has become less important as tools have gotten better. We didn't have tools like FB Groups, Phabricator, etc, so you had to be within earshot of your collaborators in order to make sure everyone was in sync.

My sweet spot would be team sized rooms if I was starting a company today. I used to be so jealous of teams that had to grab war rooms and ensconce themselves in there with a bunch of laptops and displays. Even though they were working super hard to meet deadlines, they looked happy as can be.

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#362

Post by mathattack »

erobbins wrote: post #220

I worked at a company where there was a combination of team rooms and offices... but all the walls were glass. You had the benefit of being able to see if Julie was at her desk so you could go ask her a question, but not hear Bob next door arguing with his wife again. It was fantastic. Now, I'm at FB... and I wouldn't work on a team in the new "warehouse" building. It's terrible over there, frankly.

I've worked in open areas. You hit on the biggest issue - sitting next to people with spousal issues. Just too much detail!

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#364

Post by largote »

webvictim wrote: post #314
boardwaalk wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the employer provides super comfortable noise-cancelling headphones I would agree. Personally, listening to music all day gives me a headache and podcasts are too distracting. And I don't need these headphones for anything else (otherwise, I'd already have a pair!) I wonder what would come of it if I requested some.

It's a total first world problem, but none of the headphones that FB provides in the vending machines are actually noise cancelling. There are Sennheiser HD 280s (huge over-ear headphones, quite comfortable, good sound quality and do deaden surrounding noise a little), Apple Earbuds (meh) and a seemingly easily-breakable Klipsch in-ear set that I can't remember the model number of. The headphones are very reasonable…

Active noise cancelling is far better at drowning out constant background noise than changing sounds like conversations.

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#365

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

Melchizedek wrote: post #173
jondubois wrote: post #54

I don't like open offices. Sometimes they can be downright harmful though I can deal with them if I'm sitting with my back to the wall. Many years ago, when I was fresh out of uni, I lost my job because of an open office; I was sitting relatively close to a bathroom and people kept walking past behind me - After 1 week this made me feel stressed and paranoid and I couldn't concentrate. One month in, the boss asked me…

Oh but your psychological wellbeing means nothing to the dimwit who loves open offices and thinks he can still do "deep work" (most likely trivial crap like stitching together some libraries to make the front end of a CRUD application) while spending half the day disturbing others with endless non productive talk ("team work"). Or even worse, someone whose job is to talk on the phone and use the stupid CRUD app, and…

What's the point of this needlessly incendiary tone?

People can have opinions differing from yours while still doing 'deep work' of a nature that you'd find respectable.

Jeez.

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#366

Post by pushtheenvelope »

rwmj wrote: post #263

I noticed from that VR video that Zuckerberg gives himself a large, glass-enclosed office, while everyone outside appeared to be working at rows of desks.

that's his meeting room. its enclosed (like all meeting rooms are) so that discussions there don't disturb other employees whose desks are nearby.

He has a dedicated desk nearby like everyone else.

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#368

Post by borplk »

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #154

I work in an open office, and have been to Facebook's open office campus many times. I love working in an open office, and think Facebook's campus looks excellent. I think the disadvantages of open offices are radically exaggerated by people who have difficulty imagining how easy it is to book a small conference room for yourself for a few hours, to walk away to a hotel desk in a more quiet part of the office, or (mo…

The amount of state that I need to keep in front of me requires 4 monitors. Working on a laptop is not an option for me.

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#369

Post by TylerE »

jedberg wrote: post #355
deckard1 wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> headphones and ear plugs are always offered This isn't a solution. Wearing headphones all day will lead to hearing loss. Especially if you have them turned up to any sort of level needed to block out even light conversation.

It depends on the headphones. A good set of active or passive noise cancelling headphones will block all the sound even with no music. I wear my headphones as earplugs on an airplane when I want to sleep, and I can usually keep my volume at 10% of max or less and hear everything crystal clear. The biggest downside is that my headphones cost $350 and are only available in Europe or Montreal, CA.

Noise canceling headphones are much more effective on constant noise like an airplane engine than transient noises like speech or phones ringing.

Re: Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?

#370

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #355
deckard1 wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> headphones and ear plugs are always offered This isn't a solution. Wearing headphones all day will lead to hearing loss. Especially if you have them turned up to any sort of level needed to block out even light conversation.

It depends on the headphones. A good set of active or passive noise cancelling headphones will block all the sound even with no music. I wear my headphones as earplugs on an airplane when I want to sleep, and I can usually keep my volume at 10% of max or less and hear everything crystal clear. The biggest downside is that my headphones cost $350 and are only available in Europe or Montreal, CA.

[deleted]
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