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Open offices are bad for us

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Re: Open offices are bad for us

#31

Post by tgb »

amyjess wrote: post #23
bobbark wrote: post #12

Unfortunately, a large (if not the largest) reason for open office plans that rarely comes up is space efficiency, ie packing more people into the same space. Sure, there are might be some folks who also think about creativity, but in my experience, a large portion of open space layouts have been driven by real estate cost considerations.

This is one reason I prefer to work in suburban office parks rather than urban mixed-use areas. Real estate is cheaper in the burbs, and I like my cube farms.

Sorry, I'm confused. If you like cube farms and cube farms are more likely in higher cost real estate and urban real estate is more expensive, wouldn't you prefer urban offices?

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#33

Post by Someone1234 »

bobbark wrote: post #12

Unfortunately, a large (if not the largest) reason for open office plans that rarely comes up is space efficiency, ie packing more people into the same space. Sure, there are might be some folks who also think about creativity, but in my experience, a large portion of open space layouts have been driven by real estate cost considerations.

Isn't that was cubicles are designed to solve? You take a large inexpensive space, pack in staff densely, than rely on cubicle walls to isolate everyone.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#34

Post by GotAnyMegadeth »

peatmoss wrote: post #24
kbart wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We stayed up very late, listened to loud music, and did some of the best work of our lives." No offense, but that sounds like some kind of boys club, not professional working environment. Staying up late = no respect for private life (unless you've signed for it), loud arbitrary music = forced culture implications (why do I have to listen to the music you like?). Yes, probably our work place expectations differs imm…

"Hey let's all take turns picking the music that gets blasted. I choose Arnold Schoenberg." 5 minutes later... "Everyone, we've decided that music is a personal taste, and that to maintain a professional working environment, we will not be playing music over the sound system."

I've made an app that fairly regulates this!

http://playlistful.com/about

Sorry, slightly unrelated to the discussion, but it could be used for open offices :-)

Part of the inspiration was when I was taking it in turns I'd have to sit through loads of abrasive pop music and then when a beautiful death metal song came on everyone would complain and skip it.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#35

Post by callinyouin »

white-flame wrote: post #8
grokas wrote: post #3

"Nearly 50% of people working in open offices are dissatisfied with their sound privacy" Should be: Nearly 50% of people working in open offices don't have good over-ear headphones.

The stability described in the article seems to be more visual, not aural. There's constant mental interruption when the mind has to process stuff going on all around you visually, determining if somebody's going to bump in you, vibrations through any shared desk structures, etc.

> determining if somebody's going to bump in you

I think the human aspect of that is a huge factor. I've always had a problem being around large crowds (anxiety, dizziness, mental strain). I think my nervous brain is constantly trying to determine how I might interact with the people around me, and when there are so many people I just get overwhelmed. Same thing happened in the (rather large) office I work at. For the first few days I was feeling mental strain only a few hours into the day, but after the office and the people in it became a known quantity I think my brain stopped trying to analyze everything.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#38

Post by amyjess »

tgb wrote: post #31
amyjess wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one reason I prefer to work in suburban office parks rather than urban mixed-use areas. Real estate is cheaper in the burbs, and I like my cube farms.

Sorry, I'm confused. If you like cube farms and cube farms are more likely in higher cost real estate and urban real estate is more expensive, wouldn't you prefer urban offices?

I want to avoid open offices where people sit on long benches shoulder to shoulder or just have a bunch of desks jammed together. A guy I know who works at Dell recently got moved from a cube to one of those, he's posted pictures of his workspace, and just looking at those pictures set off my claustrophobia badly.

The cubes at my company are huge. If company policy here didn't forbid photography, I'd show you. I'd guess they're about 6 feet by 6 feet. I have plenty of space to stretch out and more desk than I really need. The cubes are even designed to be able to support a visitor sitting on a bench without crowding out the occupant (it's nice for having design discussions with my coworkers... we can both have a conversation in one cube without being nose-to-nose).

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#39

Post by toast0 »

kdamken wrote: post #5
grokas wrote: post #3

"Nearly 50% of people working in open offices are dissatisfied with their sound privacy" Should be: Nearly 50% of people working in open offices don't have good over-ear headphones.

No. Fuck that. I don't normally curse on here, but I think it's warranted. I own a great pair of over ear, noise cancelling headphones. But I shouldn't have to risk damaging my hearing because management thinks having developers sit in the middle of a bunch of salespeople and project managers is a good idea.

Headphones don't damage your hearing, headphones at high volume damage hearing. If you're using noise cancelling (or just closed ear in most environments), you can listen to your audio at a reasonable volume, if you're listening at high volume to drown out other noise that could be dangerous.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#40

Post by kbart »

peatmoss wrote: post #24
kbart wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We stayed up very late, listened to loud music, and did some of the best work of our lives." No offense, but that sounds like some kind of boys club, not professional working environment. Staying up late = no respect for private life (unless you've signed for it), loud arbitrary music = forced culture implications (why do I have to listen to the music you like?). Yes, probably our work place expectations differs imm…

"Hey let's all take turns picking the music that gets blasted. I choose Arnold Schoenberg." 5 minutes later... "Everyone, we've decided that music is a personal taste, and that to maintain a professional working environment, we will not be playing music over the sound system."

I doubt that many of my co-workers would endure Dark Funeral or the like that gets blasted at my home. It's for their sake I insist on music on headphones only.
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