Apple is famous for pixel perfect prototyping, of numerous possible solutions, before choosing.
Did they prototype and test various office layouts? If not, why not?
Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
111–120 of 409 posts
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#112One solution to this problem would be for Apple employees to form a union and collectively bargain for better working conditions. Probably just threatening to do this would lead to significant concessions.
Any Apple employees interested in this should contact Maciej Ceglowski on Signal at +1415-610-0231.
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#113Hopefully, more and more companies experience backlash from this. It is a horrific mistake to add distracting elements to most programmers environments. Even worse, in my open office plan, they put our very loud finance group right next to us. Absolutely no thought of noise management was considered, except for putting in horrible "white noise" generators that set off my tinnitus Thankfully, my direct manager is unde…
I worked for a company that did the noise generator thing. For a long time I couldn't figure out where my headaches were coming from and chalked it up to job-related stress.
Then, I got to travel to a QUIET remote office with only 10 workers and no noise generators for a high-stress, deadline-critical project. The headaches disappeared immediately. When I got back to my normal, headache-inducing office, I clocked the baseline noise level at 50-60 dB.
Any company that thinks those things are a valid solution to noise issues is very, very wrong.
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#114They should do more huts instead. https://officesnapshots.com/2012/07/16/pixar-headquarters-an...
Office Snapshots here.
Direct links to those "hut" images for those interested (many of you). The above link goes to to the entire gallery of images:
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah, it's fine. If it gets noisy, put on headphones or go sit in a different place for a few hours. Individual offices can be awful and isolating. Cubes can be an acceptable compromise but it still kills a lot of spontaneous conversations. You gain a lot with open space plans: more interaction with coworkers, cultural gel and socializing. And of course, the company can cram more people in the same place.
Sadly, I'm still looking for headphones that can be comfortably worn over my ears + glasses for more than an hour at a time. In-ear ones have other comfort issues.
I have a set of Razer Krakens that are pretty comfortable even if I wear them all day, and I wear glasses.
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#116My company only has offices for upper management. Everyone else is at a table . Tables are arranged in groups of four. Now, I get it, some people like open office environments. Good for them. Me? Well, I've told many coworkers that I can't work from home because I wouldn't work from home. There are too many distractions at home, so I need to be at the office to be productive. But this open office? There are days wher…
Visual distraction is very real when trying to focus.
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#117Working in open office plans is simply awful. Personally I believe remote work, for any tech-enabled employer, makes the most sense. The impact on infrastructure by removing commuting alone could maybe help save the planet. And our collective sanity. Wouldn't it be nice to have ISPs that can provide an infrastructure that could actually support that? I think so. The hideous effects of cluster-fucking hundreds of thou…
I'm a Solutions Engineer and whenever I have to get on a sales call or demo at my desk it's a disaster - it's simply far too loud and too much background noise is heard on the call.
This is just one more complaint in a long-list that I have with this arrangement. Makes me miss my cube!
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#118Working in open office plans is simply awful. Personally I believe remote work, for any tech-enabled employer, makes the most sense. The impact on infrastructure by removing commuting alone could maybe help save the planet. And our collective sanity. Wouldn't it be nice to have ISPs that can provide an infrastructure that could actually support that? I think so. The hideous effects of cluster-fucking hundreds of thou…
I work remotely too and I often think about how much this has reduced my environmental footprint. It would be interesting to see some figures on how much of a positive impact it has.
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get the complaints, that looks very cozy even if you have to share with what looks like a total of 4 engineers per room which is a reasonable number for collaboration. The second picture makes it look greater than 4, however. Assuming the cubicles are walled off, it'll just feel like a college library meeting room.
Ok, just at a glance: 1. No separators -- you see everyone, everyone sees you. All the time. 2. No separators between neighboring desks, thus every flinch your colleague next to you makes distracts you. 3. No shelves and drawers. Where do you put all your papers, books? 4. At least based on the pictures, reflections of light, coming from every single angle. 5. The tables are way too small. There is just no space for…
Surely they will put monitors or machines in there, so there will be separators.
I have worked in a similar situation, you DID get used to it quite quickly.
Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan
#120I'm ok with an open office, but my job is to be interupted. It's less good for deep thinking jobs, or heavy phone call jobs. Our engineers don't seem to mind though, maybe they just plug in their headsets? Joel Spolsky wrote about this [1] though his main citation is experience at Microsoft. I do have to admit Open Floors are a shift for a company focused on secrecy. [1] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/12/29/the-…
> Our engineers don't seem to mind though
Eventually you just seem to attract the people who can tolerate such conditions, or who are happy to keep up the pretense.