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Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

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Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#161

Post by manicdee »

notyourwork wrote: post #137
khazhoux wrote: post #129

(if I may repost a comment I wrote here before...) We have an open floor plan, and it works like this: * Desk area is for getting work done. Everyone agrees on this. * We have "phone rooms" for small discussions. But we limit those usually to 1:1s or discussing office politics. * Try to limit all discussions at the desk area to 5 people or less. * If someone sighs loudly as they put on their headphones when you're ha…

> Engineers tend to be extroverted and won't hesitate to let you know if you're bothering them. Might be the first person to claim engineers are extroverted.

Engineers are also well known for being unable to effectively communicate sarcasm in written prose.

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#162

Post by chmaynard »

I worked at Apple during the years when the company designed and built its first campus at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino. As I recall, Apple R&D employees were considered stakeholders and participated in the design of the interior spaces. Apple wisely decided to give each engineer a private office. There were open areas near the offices with comfortable furniture and whiteboards for engineers to meet and collaborate. I worked in one of these buildings from 2001-2007, and I can confirm that the work areas were beautifully designed and ideal for fostering productive work. It's sad to hear that Apple apparently abandoned this approach in its new campus.

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#163

Post by mapster »

inetknght wrote: post #85

My 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…

it sounds mgmt wants you guys to work from home.

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#164

Post by IanDrake »

PopsiclePete wrote: post #135
aphextron wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not forget the constant awkward fleeting moments of eye contact with someone you barely know and don't wish to talk to.

Why do you "barely know" the person across from you?? What, no team building budget?

Haha. In my particular case I was at the boundary of two departments. To make things worse, turnover was high.

Hmm, I wonder why?

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#165

Post by maxxxxx »

khazhoux wrote: post #129

(if I may repost a comment I wrote here before...) We have an open floor plan, and it works like this: * Desk area is for getting work done. Everyone agrees on this. * We have "phone rooms" for small discussions. But we limit those usually to 1:1s or discussing office politics. * Try to limit all discussions at the desk area to 5 people or less. * If someone sighs loudly as they put on their headphones when you're ha…

And I am sure you have handy flow charts printed out so people can figure out what to do when 6 people at a desk have a discussion while wearing headphones.

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#166

Post by tyingq »

oddity wrote: post #20
Animats wrote: post #9

Bench seating, work tables and open cubicles. Apple? Famous for not letting their developers talk to people outside the project?

Oh, upper management is even more paranoid than that. It's what made this such a strange move for the company.

Does it maybe work like the Pentagon, where you can't just randomly enter any area?

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#167

Post by joshavant »

chmaynard wrote: post #162

I worked at Apple during the years when the company designed and built its first campus at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino. As I recall, Apple R&D employees were considered stakeholders and participated in the design of the interior spaces. Apple wisely decided to give each engineer a private office. There were open areas near the offices with comfortable furniture and whiteboards for engineers to meet and collaborate.…

Ah! I noticed this interior layout in more than a few buildings but didn't realize the backstory. Thanks for posting!

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#168

Post by matthewmacleod »

seorphates wrote: post #47

Working 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…

No, it’s not simple.

I am awfully bored of these “everything is simple, open offices are uniformly awful, everybody should be remote” arguments. Yes - this works for some people, in some workplaces. In other cases, it doesn’t work. I’m fine with my open office space, and I prefer working from an office - which is a bike ride away and better equipped than I am.

How about instead we accept that there are almost certainly trade-offs involved in these areas, and that maybe building an office space that works for everyone is important? Provide open office space for those who thrive in that environment. Make sure there are private areas for those who don’t. Establish a culture that supports remote workers, and encourages good behaviour in shared areas. That, if anything, is simpler.

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#169

Post by bcoates »

andrewfong wrote: post #143
khazhoux wrote: post #129

(if I may repost a comment I wrote here before...) We have an open floor plan, and it works like this: * Desk area is for getting work done. Everyone agrees on this. * We have "phone rooms" for small discussions. But we limit those usually to 1:1s or discussing office politics. * Try to limit all discussions at the desk area to 5 people or less. * If someone sighs loudly as they put on their headphones when you're ha…

You can improve upon this by giving everyone VR headsets to shut out visual noise. You'll still need to come into the office though. Face time is important.

I can already imagine the future where someone slacks me "hey" in order to start a five-round conversation about if I'm busy and if it's OK for them to ask a question only to find out they were standing behind me the whole time.

Re: Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan

#170

Post by jamie_ca »

majormajor wrote: post #101
hota_mazi wrote: post #80

Earlier 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 expect this will depend a lot on your frames - if the arms on your glasses are thick it'll be more inclined to squish into your head.

That said I'm really happy with my Logitech G930s - I usually use them wired to keep the charge (the usb cord length is _very_ generous) but they're just fine wireless too, and do a good job staying put if I'm moving around a bit.

My only complaint is that they seem to be sensitive to 2.4ghz interference, which can kick them off the wireless connection. Since there's no wired override (plugging in is purely for battery) this means plugging in can't save you. Once I switched my devices at home to prefer 5ghz wifi, it went from 5-10 times an hour at its worst to once or twice a month (and I can maybe blame that on the neighbours).

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