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Let me take you through my dream office

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Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#81

Post by tckr »

xixixao wrote: post #78
tckr wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so I would ask an architect: build me an office that can scale. What would they answer? We have shitty offices because there is no solution, so allow me to at least say: if you want me to work in your office (which I think is not necessary at all) build me one, that suits my productivity and not the constraints of the real estate market. Realistically, as a company you would start with one floor, and once it fill…

An open plan office, starting with 50 desks, can grow to 75 or even 100, by gradually increasing desk density. You cannot evict ppl from floors you own on the spot. Growth is hard to predict. Hence the dream office will stay a dream unless you are working for a no-growth company doing the same things all the time.

Open-plan is not an option.

But focussing on how to grow might help. If I stick to the max 30 people rule, I will soon learn that I can do a lot with 30 people.

And if not, why do they have to be so closely integrated? Communication gets hard anyway in such a large group. Why not grow to 40 and then split into 20+20 and make the two teams two separate businesses, with their own office and at the same time reducing the width of the communication channel between the teams.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#82

Post by tckr »

cies wrote: post #76

I'm feverishly anticipating for e-ink displays (same stuff as your e-readers), to be plugged in as second monitors. These displays work "outside", and then _my_version_of_the_dream_office_ can become reality: working in NATURE. This of a beautiful garden when many spots: open sun or shady, in a glasshouse or in an airconned glass covered veranda. And "office workers" just find themselves a spot! Besides that I also t…

Yes, working outside would be a dream, especially in a location where you have great conditions outside throughout the year.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#83

Post by tckr »

carlob wrote: post #59
tckr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 30 people team If it's a product team, you can easily have a company with 4-5 teams (design, development, marketing/sales, support, content) so it's not to uncommon to have a team grow to that size. And this size is still manageable, if they are not all doing the same. For me 30 is the max, I prefer it smaller, too. > 3 person office For me that's the ideal tag team: a junior, a medior and a senior working hand in…

> a junior, a medior and a senior first time I hear the word medior. It's a fun neologism, but it's technically very wrong in Latin: senior and junior are comparatives (older and younger), so medior would be more medium?

We use it in Germany quite regulary.

It's the experience level in the middle between senior and junior.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#85

Post by tckr »

smikhanov wrote: post #70
tckr wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that is exactly my point. We have shitty offices, because they are build to suit the real estate market not productivity. But there are examples which are horrible by design, and not because the property value was important: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/11/30... (first pic)

The employer's financial cost of the lost productivity of an average developer in an open space office is much lower than developers like to think, and much, much lower than the cost of the office with private rooms. By placing people in the open space, companies pay almost three times less in office rental costs ( https://www.mikhanov.com/2015/06/08/open-plan-offices-creati... ). In other words, unless you're Sebast…

That article only states that having individual office use three times as much space as open plan offices.

It offers no insight in studies how much a single office improves productivity and how that affects overall revenue of the business. I'm convinced it's more then three times of the lease for office space.

And keep in mind that open-plan offices are turning away candidates (see comments in this thread). They are losing talent for optimizing for real estate usage. This needs to be factored in as well.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#86

Post by dagw »

Kiro wrote: post #61

Am I the only one who actually likes open offices? I like the vibrant feeling and never have any problems with distractions. I just put my headphones on and zone in.

I think it very much depends on the open office. At my current office we have open offices, but with good sized desks, only 8-16 people in each open area, and plenty of screens and book cases to act as barriers between groups and desks and block out much of the visual 'noise'. We also have plenty of small rooms where people can go to talk on the phone or have meetings. I think this is absolutely fine and honestly don't think I'd work better in a private office.

I've also been in offices where they had 40-60 people in each open area, desk space just barely wide enough for a keyboard and mouse and no dividers between desks and no closed off meeting spaces. Working is such an environment was, let's say, much more of challenge

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#87

Post by tckr »

stevesearer wrote: post #21

One modern office concept readers who like OP's concept might find interesting is at the company zeb in Munich, designed by Evolution Design: https://officesnapshots.com/2016/10/26/zeb-offices-munich/

Yes, looks like they put very much effort into having enough quiet, secluded desks and a lot of meeting room sizes but still maintaining a very flexible, open-floor plan.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#88

Post by ensiferum »

noir_lord wrote: post #49

Decided to change job recently, applied for two, went for an interview at the first and they offered me the job. I took it on the spot despite the other place paying more. One of the reasons I took it on the spot was when asked where I'd prefer to work and I said somewhere quiet he said there are offices upstairs, take whichever one you want. That was the major deciding factor (among others), I know the other place i…

"some" developers? I'd guess that's in fact "most".

In my experience the only people who like open office are those whose job is to talk all day long. Sales guys, visionaires, busy bodies etc. Everyone else just suffers.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#90

Post by tckr »

A lot of commenters wished for single person rooms. As a remote worker, I'd say: if I want to work solo (for some time), why go to the office in the first place? I'd stay at home or go to a coffee shop.

I could imagine having a second floor, that has more privacy features: single person offices, rooms for private conversations, power napping, nursing mums, yoga.

What do you think?

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