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

thewalrus.ca

101–110 of 316 posts

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

#101
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,…

> No one talks to anyone from other companies, to the point of awkwardness Haha yeah. It helps to have a few women around, but especially when there are lots of male IT coworkers present this is definitely a thing.

Yes! Men and women actually work better together than groups composed of just men or just women [1] [2]

The thinking is, men prefer taking risks, while women prefer to limit risks. In cooperation, men can push women to see the benefit of a risk (and in turn she gains more experience of risk), and women can push men to hold off of risks that might be detrimental. Women are good at synchronizing group thought, in that they make a space for others to talk and they generate talking points by asking important questions, while men generally like taking the floor. So for the man who does not take the floor of his own accord, women are more likely to create a space where he can talk.

Personally, in an environment like WeWork, I can see men and women having more conversations and opening up the place a little.

1. https://www.td.org/insights/women-and-men-working-together-m...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/nov/01/gender.world

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

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If this is the future of tech work, then I guess I'd better find another career--perhaps gardening or wood-working? Exactly. I can't imagine working in an environment like that. You don't want to hear me playing Smooth by Neil Cicierega[1], and I don't want to hear you playing rap. A work environment is not the place to be playing music for everyone around you. Constant generic music is the worst part of retail, an…

Also alcohol flowing at work? I’m no teetotaler but isn’t that a recipe for trouble? Assuming we’re not just talking about sharing a few beers after hours. I’ve worked with people who drank on the job to the point where they were working totally shitfaced, and it’s not pretty. If they’re meeting with other teams or customers, they’re going to be an embarrassment, and if they’re checking in code... let’s not even go t…

You don't have to be a teetotaler to hate that. Just think how often they clean those taps. (One startup that I worked in Chicago would be closed down by the health department becuase they never did)

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

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google? Facebook?

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

It's funny you consider this running them over. I'm sure from their perspective you are hardly a blip on the radar.

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

#104
post #88

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 :-)

Agreed. I'm certainly not knocking extrovert-tailored work environments for their own sake. I am expressing frustration that the huge differences between extroverts and introverts are nearly universally ignored, especially, it seems, in tech workplaces. I hate to be reminded that such insensitive places still exist.

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

#105

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…

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.

I wasn't being sarcastic; I have seriously considered, especially recently after a couple of terrible work experiences, completely changing my life and getting away from tech forever. My young son loves working with his hands, so I've been considering picking up some power tools and such and learning something completely different. :)

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

#106
post #97
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Probably because research dating back to 1980s (see Peopleware) shows that shared offices are objectively less productive and result in less happy workforce?

Did that research make any attempt to distinguish between extroverts and introverts in the workforce? Because if it didn't, it is irrelevant to the post chain you're responding to.

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

#107
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,…

Your experience mirrors exactly the ones I've had at a WeWork on the East Coast of the US. Ours was cleaner but amenities we were paying for were randomly missing or not working.

I gave up talking to people after a while. Nobody seemed particularly interested in socializing in the common areas which in retrospect I understand and I got some abrasive reactions from just trying to start conversation. Perhaps they were forced to work there and would have preferred to WFH.

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

#108
post #97
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Probably because research dating back to 1980s (see Peopleware) shows that shared offices are objectively less productive and result in less happy workforce?

So the fact that I'd prefer an open plan office over private offices is? What? I'm lying?

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

#109
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,…

> People are noisy, people whistle, walk around talking loudly on their phones.

In my experience of coworking spaces, it is the same one/two people that ruin the space for everybody else. What is missing from co-working spaces is some kind of housekeeping rules and enforcement (in lieu of mutual respect).

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

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also alcohol flowing at work? I’m no teetotaler but isn’t that a recipe for trouble? Assuming we’re not just talking about sharing a few beers after hours. I’ve worked with people who drank on the job to the point where they were working totally shitfaced, and it’s not pretty. If they’re meeting with other teams or customers, they’re going to be an embarrassment, and if they’re checking in code... let’s not even go t…

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.

Every company offering "friday beer" I've worked at also offered the beer for free and up to an hour of extra paid break. Drinking the beer was never an obligation and there's always non-alcoholic alternatives.

This gave us an opportunity to meet with all the other teams / departments.

Sure, I would rather be at my local microbrewery drinking stout with my friends rather than drink cheap pilsner at work but it has its benefits. There is no way I would have been as close to those people if not for this paid social time.

It also helps the work. Very often people would vent about their projects and other coworkers would listen and come up with quick solutions to their issues. "Oh yeah, X software is a pain in the ass. Did you try doing Z? I had to work with that software at my previous job and doing Z always helped!".

Even in those cultures, I've never ever seen an employer allowing anyone to drink during the rest of the week. Now that would be obscene.

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