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Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

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Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#81

Post by kerkeslager »

specialist wrote: post #66
jefurii wrote: post #21

Maybe that's just WeWork, maybe it's a culture that develops in certain places. I've worked at CrossCampus in Pasadena for awhile and there are a bunch of programmers, writers, and other types who need to be able to concentrate who have made the shared-table space work for us. Together we've made it more of a "study hall" atmosphere. We asked management to turn the music down to an acceptable volume in our part of th…

I covet a law library style heads down quiet work zone. I’m not crazy about shared office, cafe tables. They have to be library style heavy, solid to dampen heavy typing, pencl tapping, regular jostling.

Have you tried working in an actual library? Most public libraries have WiFi these days.

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#82

Post by miketuritzin »

LandR wrote: post #27

I work in a shared office / coworking space. We have 3 desks in a large open plan office with a kitchen area. It's about 10 feet from my desk. Most of the time it's just me from our company as the other devs work from home or work out the main office. My experience of working in this shared space: * It's noisy. I mean really noisy, noise cancelling headphones are a must. Like I said the kitchen area is near my desk,…

I have worked in several co-working spaces, and this is remarkably similar to my experience. The last one I was in was very loud with people making sales calls. I am currently renting a desk in a friend's small startup office, and it is so much better.

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#83

Post by dalyons »

kerkeslager wrote: post #48

There's a bias toward the negative in writing, which I think comes from the fact that people write as an attempt to solve problems. So you're always going to see more negative reporting on shared offices than positive. But I'm old enough to remember when private offices were still common, and there was a lot of negative writing about those too. As someone about to enter the software industry, I was very concerned tha…

This is 100% the truth. I don’t know why it’s so hard to recognize different people have different working preferences, there’s no absolute correct arrangement. HN (rightfully) shoots down “anecdata”, but on this issue everyone’s fine with a sample size of 1?

don’t just shout your preferences at everyone else, it turns these threads into useless repetitive noise.

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#84

Post by nappy-doo »

silverbax88 wrote: post #59
ramphastidae wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking at work is one of the absolutely worst traits of tech. Not only is it totally unprofessional, but things like ‘Friday beers’ are actually presented by companies as a benefit, and you face major social and professional consequences for not participating. It’s obscene.

You show me any company with beer on tap, and I'll show you a company that I will run over if we are competing against each other.

Google? Facebook?

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#85

Post by matte_black »

conesus wrote: post #51
matte_black wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you may have meant it sarcastically, but woodworking has a lot of traits that appeal to a software developer. I do it as a hobby and if I wasn’t a software engineer I would probably have a woodworking business of some sort. Better to be a programmer in a woodworking shop than woodworker in a WeWork.

Woodworking on a CNC is very much a software job. I built a wooden remote and for the most part it’s software with a woodshop component. I explored how I made it in detail in a series of blog posts if you’re interested. https://medium.com/@samuelclay/everything-you-need-to-build-...

Wow!

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#86

Post by zackkitzmiller »

LandR wrote: post #13
gnclmorais wrote: post #3

> WeWork offers freelancers a chic workspace and beer on tap—but are people productive? Not really. That was my experience at a WeWork space in London. It was not quiet (glass walls), it was hard to focus, social events starting at 4pm (who finishes work at that time?), and if you end up being close to the common spaces, near the kitchen… well, I suggest you get a good pair of sound cancelling headphones.

I finish at 4... But everything else you say is correct. Headphones are a must in a shared office.

I'd say headphones are a must in any office.

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#87

Post by uhtred »

nitrogen wrote: post #71
uhtred wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer to wait until the work day has finished and then go to the pub and have a beer or two. I don't really understand the appeal of drinking at work (which seems more prevalent in US), surrounded by office equipment and computers, it's not really relaxing. Plus there might be people still in the office at 5pm who actually have something important to do and it's not really fair that they then have to try to work w…

If everyone is complaining about their office being too noisy, how can an even noisier pub be more relaxing than that?

Aren't people complaining that their office is too noisy to work in? I wouldn't be going to the pub to work, rather to relax and have a beer and a chat. For the record I'm talking about a traditional, "old man" pub where I can get a nice pint of ale and a table, not some trendy place full of office workers.

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#88

Post by iamben »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #2

They want an office that matches their personality. And apparently, that means beer on tap and lots of it. The office looked like the lobby of a hipster hotel. Over the next few weeks, we showed up each day and tapped away on MacBook Airs to the sounds of Portuguese house music and old-school hip hop piped in through speakers. (“Rap is urban, and so is WeWork,” the company explains online. “But more profoundly, the c…

Different strokes for different folks, right?

I'm at a WeWork now and I'm far more productive than the time I spent working in a quiet home. I speak to people here who love it, I speak to people here who hate it. One of the best things about being in 'tech' is unless you're terrible, you can probably find somewhere to work that better fits how you like to work :-)

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#89

Post by silverbax88 »

nappy-doo wrote: post #84
silverbax88 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You show me any company with beer on tap, and I'll show you a company that I will run over if we are competing against each other.

Google? Facebook?

I've already beaten them out in some niche markets where we went head to head, so, yes.

Re: Why It’s So Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices

#90

Post by evanmoran »

I've worked at several different co-working spaces and it seems that the culture either becomes really loud (phone calls and open conversations) or library silent. Nothing in between seems to last long. I'd love to see this improve. It's like being in an elevator; it has a social weirdness that's hard to overcome — if that's even what people want. Finding a way to encourage conversation in some areas and silence in others would go a long way to making these places more enjoyable. How to do that? No idea. That's an open question and my guess is the alcohol centered parties are one attempt at trying to solve this.
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