Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#21

Post by jason_slack » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 10:23 PM UTC

colanderman wrote: post #18

If I manage to find somewhere in our open office to get work done in solitude, every individual who walks by feels the need to comment "oh, colanderman, you must be trying to get work done! Well I guess I'll leave you alone". It is so. Goddamn. Annoying. Like seriously, the fuck people, you don't need to vocalize every thought that pops into your head. The only two solutions I've found are to (a) legitimately book a…

or those that don't check that a conf room is already booked and just show up expecting it to be empty. You still have that interruption "oh, I didn't know someone was using this room, sorry".

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#22

Post by dasmoth » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 10:26 PM UTC

mrlyc wrote: post #10

I live on my own so I prefer being with people at work.

I can absolutely see how this is true for some people.

Conversely: I have a family, and find that a day of open-plan leaves me consistently too frazzled to hand much in the way of meaningful interaction with my partner and child.

I don’t really know how to square these too, other than to suggest that different environments make sense for different people, and wonder how we can implement this without it getting caught up in status-game space (“why should X have the office...”)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#23

Post by HatchedLake721 » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 10:29 PM UTC

some_account wrote: post #16

I'm moving from programmer to more of an devops / architect role because I can't focus on building high quality code in noisy open offices. Devops and architect stuff is a whole lot easier to do with open office since you don't have a million things in your head at once.

Unless it’s a million microservives.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#24

Post by qubax » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 10:43 PM UTC

Even better than being alone, not having foot traffic anywhere near my desk would be nice. I don't know how the guy sitting right by the door does it. People coming in and out all day and walking right by him.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#25

Post by usermac » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 11:10 PM UTC

They're good. They only come to me when they're having a problem and it's only a few times a day so I can get a lot of work done. If I must, I close my door and put a sign "Coding but welcome" and I'm sure some just wait until it opens but I'll never know.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#26

Post by wgj » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 11:14 PM UTC

usermac wrote: post #25

They're good. They only come to me when they're having a problem and it's only a few times a day so I can get a lot of work done. If I must, I close my door and put a sign "Coding but welcome" and I'm sure some just wait until it opens but I'll never know.

Another great example of why real offices are better than open floor plan.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#27

Post by pmiller2 » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 11:15 PM UTC

usermac wrote: post #25

They're good. They only come to me when they're having a problem and it's only a few times a day so I can get a lot of work done. If I must, I close my door and put a sign "Coding but welcome" and I'm sure some just wait until it opens but I'll never know.

I’m envious of your door.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#28

Post by raztogt21 » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 12:07 AM UTC

At my old company, under extreme cases, I put up a physical whiteboard on top of my desk with "Focus mode: on" and "Focus mode: off" depending on my mood.

Worked great, and nobody seemed offended. I may think that even the directors love it when they saw it.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#29

Post by heatmiser » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 12:23 AM UTC

mcv wrote: post #14

I prefer working with my team. Years ago, when telecommuting was the bright future, I thought working from home would be great. I don't anymore. I'm more productive when I'm with the people I work with. We can discuss stuff, help each other, etc. More team cohesion, more cooperation, more knowledge sharing, more working in the same direction.

I enjoy working with my team as well but I think there’s a happy medium to be struck. It’s not a binary of :: have your attention constantly pulled or being hidden away and unavailable for collaboration.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

#30

Post by thermodynthrway » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 12:41 AM UTC

We have an open office and the chatter ebbs and flows on mutual terms mostly. Doubt it would work with over 30 people. We're a fairly tight-kmit group and that becomes impossible after a certain size.

Our office has many places you can be alone, and we take advantage whenever needed. The open office warehouse echo still blows, but we manage