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Open offices are bad for us

bbc.com

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Re: Open offices are bad for us

#351

Post by sien »

sergiosgc wrote: post #68
smelendez wrote: post #21

Open offices are awful, but they're here to stay for the same reason more adults are living with roommates and relatives: high real estate prices. Working remotely is one solution, but many companies don't think it would work for them. Personally, I'd make the shared area for solitary work only: no work discussions longer than a minute at work areas (use a conference room, take a walk or Slack), no eating at work are…

For my company, we went with a semi-open design, in the spirit of your quiet rooms: Desks with huge glasses in front, forming rows of floor to ceiling cubicles. Think small offices with no doors and with glass walls. It allows natural light to flow through the office, while reducing noise. Noise reduction ceiling and a policy of quiet zone in the development area complement the solution, for what I think is a great w…

That sounds great. I've wondered if people used high transparent walls or partitions for exactly this.

Can you put up pictures?

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#352

Post by zzzzz99997 »

user5994461 wrote: post #221
Raphmedia wrote: post #19

Diseases and sickness are the worst part of open offices. One day one person gets sick. The second day the person to his left also gets sick. The day after, half of the open office is sick. After a week, the entire office is sick. You can almost track the migration of the disease across the room.

As a matter of fact, that also works with private office. Back in France, with private offices, there is a social norm in most companies that in the morning you have to go around and shake hands with everyone. It's very efficient to propagate diseases. Private offices won't save you :(

I wish America had that. At my office, people never even say hi or bye, and I'd be out of place to be the one to do it (but sometimes do anyway).

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#353

Post by Atheros »

wolfgke wrote: post #329
amag wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yay! Let's make miserable workers even more miserable! We can also implement a policy that any software developer who writes a bug gets a $100 fine, that should teach them! I wonder why no one has thought of this before? Hey HN, I have solved the problem with bugs in software! If you implement my solution there will be no more bugs! Ever! Now give me my Nobel Prize!

> We can also implement a policy that any software developer who writes a bug gets a $100 fine, that should teach them! I seriously doubt that this would help to reduce the bug rate. But let us for now assume that it really did reduce the error rate. First: What does one consider as a bug? The interface of typical functions is not well-specified. So let's create a function that creates a C# IList from passed paramete…

You just typed an awfully large reply to someone being sardonic.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#354

Post by kbart »

PunchTornado wrote: post #322
garrettdimon wrote: post #149

A lot of the comments here seem to focus on socialization and feeling like you're in a community, but closed offices don't preclude this. I work at Wildbit (the company referenced in the article), and we have family-style lunches around a big table and plenty of common areas where socialization happens in the mornings, during lunch, when people make coffee, and plenty of other times. The key is that when folks are wo…

getting work done is NOT why I come to the office. I don't like to be one of those guys who sells half of his day to somebody. I come to work to have fun, meet people etc.I also have to work sometimes... but it is easier to mix the 2 of them in an open space. Sure, I'm not very productive, but that's not what I want.

I guess every open office has at least one you. Pray that one only..

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#355

Post by ojosilva »

amag wrote: post #278
schwap wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found IEM-style headphones are better. Since they already block out some of the ambient noise by plugging your ears, much lower volume levels are required to block out distractions.

I find any kind of headphones to be painful/disturbing after a while. On-ear are the worst (who the F * * * thought pressing your ears into your head was a good idea?), followed by in-ear. The only ones I can wear for any amount of time are over-ear but eventually (if nothing else) your ears will be all warm and that will be disturbing as well. Besides I really enjoy just silence sometimes, being forced to listen to…

I sometimes wear my headphones with no music, just in noise-canceling mode. Just like you, I think music can be distracting or tiring after a while. My Sony headphones have such powerful noise canceling that it silences even the slightest hum, sort of a anechoic chamber. It helps me concentrate and I like keeping my ears warm. If I'm in the mood, I also put some white noise sounds on (youtube has plenty of it) including rain, beach waves and train rides.

And I work in my own private corner office.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#356

Post by devilirium »

I think a lot of us needs to think about how fortunate we are working ona field that is our passion and not standing in a pile of shit and sweat all day long. Having open offices that makes communication easier means that you could communicate your need for no distruption or talk with your mates who are loafing around and brainstorm about future problems. If you have the brain capacity to focus on ambient noises, then I guess you are not focusing enough and just whining about your current situation instead of doing what matters. I've seen workers who couldn't hear anything since they were too immersed. I myself use earphones when I want to get into it and close out the entire world. If you think that it's a real issue and don't see the value of savings and closeness to each other, then maybe it's time to quit your current workplace.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#357

Post by Corrado »

OK, I think the perfect solution would be a huge open area plus some other specialty areas (conference rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, etc.) The difference is an unending supply of something like Everblocks[0]. That way, management could have all the space they wanted but you could still build your own personal domain. And with different types of blocks (switches, display, whiteboard, etc.) you could customize your area with exactly how you, or your team, wants it. Heck, you could even change it every week if you wanted to. :)

[0] http://www.everblocksystems.com/

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#358

Post by wolfgke »

Atheros wrote: post #353
wolfgke wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can also implement a policy that any software developer who writes a bug gets a $100 fine, that should teach them! I seriously doubt that this would help to reduce the bug rate. But let us for now assume that it really did reduce the error rate. First: What does one consider as a bug? The interface of typical functions is not well-specified. So let's create a function that creates a C# IList from passed paramete…

You just typed an awfully large reply to someone being sardonic.

> You just typed an awfully large reply to someone being sardonic.

I agree, but this way readers of HN get something that they can refer to if some manager gets an idea like:

- We can also implement a policy that any software developer who writes a bug gets a $100 fine, that should teach them!

- Let's measure how many bugs each programmer produces so that we can give bonuses for programmers that produce few bugs

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#359

Post by hvidgaard »

amag wrote: post #286
hvidgaard wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may work when people have enough work diciplin to not interrupt with irrelevant things. Which it looks like they can manage in the pictures. But when you have a constant stream of people interrupting with things that should just have been an email or slack message, it kills productivity.

Email and slack are interruptive.

I have no popup or sounds when I get an email, and when slack is in dnd, it might as well not be open. My point though, is that I control if I want to be interrupted.

Re: Open offices are bad for us

#360

Post by johnward »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #74
johnward wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is someone building 4x4' drywall "offices" somewhere?

Build bigger; double up. Its still better than sharing with 50 people.

If you just build a bigger office and fill it with cubes or desks is that really much better? The biggest issue for me in my open office was that devs feel the need to play instruments to start standups for some reason. Usually bongos but in the past it was a giant gong. Really made my client phone calls interesting. My biggest WFH issue is dogs.
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