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Open offices are a dead end

nytimes.com

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Re: Open offices are a dead end

#211

Post by joezydeco »

SteveMoody73 wrote: post #199
dtech wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call that an open office though, just a team room. A shared space is fine with <5 people, can become problematic at 5-10 people and the frequently 20+ large floor spaces are just unworkable without noise cancelling headphones.

I work in an open office with about 30 people in it and find it unbarable on times. I have some good noise cancelling headphones that help sometimes but I can't wear them for too long a period before they start getting uncomfortable.

Noise cancelling headphones do absolutely nothing when you put a loud talker next to one. They can't absorb speech.

The other problem is people trying to do Skype or other conferencing calls while wearing closed-can headphones. Their own speech level rises two notches when they can't hear their own voice. Try it for yourself and see.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#212

Post by regularfry »

kerkeslager wrote: post #165
ivl wrote: post #57

I think I'd have a less negative reaction to open offices if it weren't for the attempt to sell it as a productivity booster . The article even mentions how they're "sold to workers as a boon to collaboration — liberated from barriers, stuffed in like sardines, people would chat more and, supposedly, come up with lots of brilliant new ideas". Thankfully the author also quickly refuted that. Yet the insanity remains,…

Open offices are a productivity booster for some people (myself being one). Of course, WeWork being a company with one product, they try to sell it to everyone, even the people who it doesn't work for. That's a valid criticism of WeWork, but not really a valid criticism of open offices.

So on a team with roughly half introverts and half extroverts, you'd expect it to be a wash - only it's not, because there's a low ceiling to how much productivity you can add, and the noise from the productive extroverts drives introverts' productivity into the floor. It's net negative.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#213

Post by scarface74 »

dawg- wrote: post #140
scarface74 wrote: post #16

If I could craft the perfect job for me, the one I work at would be it - an intelligent straightforward manager who will speak his mind bluntly and can take it just as well as he can dish it out. He’s mostly concerned with results not whether you kiss his ring. - small company without a lot of bureaucracy -- I have full access to our entire AWS infrastructure - relatively generous PTO - a decent free family health pl…

Hey! I actually have all of the things on your list. But with one catch: I work for a community nonprofit in a small town of 15,000 people in the deep south, and make probably a very small fraction of what you do. I guess life is all about compromise :)

"small town Deep South" would be a deal breaker. That's a "ha ha only serious" comment. I grew up in a small town in south GA and still live in Atlanta.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#214

Post by WorldMaker »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #172
chomp wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the problem is that (in my experience) open offices actually do boost productivity somewhat, but only when the office is a small 2-5 person pod. I lose productivity when I get dropped in a huge floor of people chatting and talking about things not related to what I'm working on.

Also depends on the team.

And the type of job. Some jobs require a lot of immediate/high-bandwidth cross-communication between team members. Not all do.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#215

Post by badestrand »

mukti wrote: post #196
nilkn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'd have a less negative reaction if people actually had a decent amount of personal space in these floorplans. In the photo at the top of the article, two people could scarcely yawn and stretch at the same time without making physical contact. If you're towards the end and you want to just take a bathroom break, you'd have to physically weave around people and chairs to get out. My home office that I use for…

That's the kicker for me - when I talk to people who are complaining about open floor plans, they typically work in a place similar to the one pictured in the article. Now, that's not to say that more space necessarily makes it better for productivity, but it will certainly make some difference (at least, to me). Where I work, we have an open floor plan, and we have a good amount of space around our desks. I personal…

Same for me, I currently sit in an open floor with a lot of space and people are considerate of others (i.e. not chatting much/loud).

And I actually like it a lot. I don't want to sit in a separate room all day, I enjoy being around people and to interact from time to time.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#217

Post by BoorishBears »

loktarogar wrote: post #209
BoorishBears wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and yes is what I got out of your answer. >When we hire people as we've been doing, we can either fit them into the existing space somehow, or... move the entire office? Yes. Exactly. My office did it with 0 days down time combining 3 separate locations spread out around a city downtown. We labeled our stuff on Friday, a company was contracted to make sure on Monday our stuff would be in a new office, and it was.…

yes it's easy to move when everything is sorted, but it's not quick to get to that point - it's potentially months going from "we need more space" to moving day. finding the space, contracts, fit outs - it's not a one-day task

The original question was is it space vs money. It's always money.

Unless there is literally no real estate within your location, it's always money.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#218

Post by msbarnett »

kerkeslager wrote: post #176
nemetroid wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you can argue against the fact that a significant portion of the population works well in open offices Can you cite a study which asserts this fact ?

You've got numerous people on this page saying they work better in open offices. Do you have some reason for disbelieving them?

There's a pretty wide gap between "numerous people on this page" and "a significant portion of the population".

Given actual productivity studies tend to show a big, big decrease in productivity among workers who have individual or small group offices replaced with open office plans, the "significant portion of the population" claim seems unlikely, since they're apparently not significant enough to move the needle in productivity studies.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#219

Post by jtcruthers »

mukti wrote: post #196
nilkn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'd have a less negative reaction if people actually had a decent amount of personal space in these floorplans. In the photo at the top of the article, two people could scarcely yawn and stretch at the same time without making physical contact. If you're towards the end and you want to just take a bathroom break, you'd have to physically weave around people and chairs to get out. My home office that I use for…

That's the kicker for me - when I talk to people who are complaining about open floor plans, they typically work in a place similar to the one pictured in the article. Now, that's not to say that more space necessarily makes it better for productivity, but it will certainly make some difference (at least, to me). Where I work, we have an open floor plan, and we have a good amount of space around our desks. I personal…

Agreed, same with my current workplace. Big open office with enough space and its amazing. I wouldn't trade this to go sit in a grey cubicle for anything. But that picture from the article looks like a nightmare, so I get why people complain about that situation.

Open offices have a ton of variation and they can be nice, but can also suck. It's all about the implementation.

Re: Open offices are a dead end

#220

Post by teddyh »

asdf21 wrote: post #167
save_ferris wrote: post #122

I used to think that noise was the worst distraction to deal with in an open office until I took a job where a coworker in our open office decided not to practice basic hygiene. The smell is just horrible. It’s far and away the most distracting thing I’ve ever experienced in my career. They dress up and put in effort to look nice in the office, but everyone instantly knows when they walk into a room. Honestly, I’m he…

>Honestly, I’m hesitant to go to HR about it in case it’s a religious/cultural thing Oy vey.. do you know how absurd that sounds?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchouli#Perfume
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