The cubicle was invented as a way to liberate workers forum open plan offices. Then it became perceived as soul crushing.
The work was the problem.
Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
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Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#132If workers rights or material concerns won’t inspire software engineers to consider organizing, perhaps day to day work “lifestyle” hassles like open offices will. It’s been often repeated that developers eschew organizing because one can always go and find a better paying job if they don’t like the work environment they’re in- but good luck trying to find a workplace that gives the average developer their own office…
Man "The Jungle" ... that's a far far cry from open offices.
Open offices is a crazy reason to organize / take the union route.
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#133There are definitely problems with the open office but one thing I can say is that there is truly a different energy to the office when it's open and people can chat spontaneously. Some of my best projects have started this way, as have all my office friendships. I'd definitely get more heads-down work done in a private office setting. However in that setting I'd mostly be annoyed I couldn't just work from my home of…
Can you describe this different energy and some of these best projects?
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#13435+ years in the IT workforce here. Yep, dumbest idea ever. The vast majority of my office time was in cubicles, which are pretty good. Usually enough privacy to get things done. I did have a glassed-in private office for about a year at one company. That was productivity heaven. In retrospect I was dumb to leave that company when I did, but they started demolishing offices for cubicles about 2 years later. It is all…
> The vast majority of my office time was in cubicles, which are pretty good. I remember watching "Office Space" circa 2000 and it looked pretty soul crushing, and working in pre-FAANG big tech around 2006, it felt very mechanical and depressing. I get your gripes, but I think some is also rosy retrospection.
I've got a similar experience to the OP (35+ years in tech). Cubicles as "soul crushing" as they look are much better than the open floor plan offices. Best of all was when I had an office with a door for a few years.
open floorplan < cubicles < office with a door
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coincidentally I am sure that the decision makers would love to hear about your concerns, in their closed offices.
Another trend I've seen is "our CEO/VP sits in the same open floor plan" ...except they are actually in meetings 90% of the time, and may even have a dedicated meeting room (which is just an office by another name). Actually hours at their open floor plan desk are easily in the single digits per week, of not per month.
CEO at my company did that and seemed to actually enjoy it, but other executives basically forced him to get an office because he was too often discussing confidential information out in the open.
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#136I am not sure why employees would message and email more if they can just turn their chair around to chat about something they are working on. Does anyone have experience of this? I have worked in open plan offices since 1999 and I've never experienced productivity problems. If anything I'd expect working in a cube would lead to more time wasted cruising websites since your screen is more obscured. I dunno, I've only…
You would message and email more because you can't just turn your chair around to chat about something you are working on. If you do that, you kill the productivity of a dozen other people while you have that chat, and get them mad at you as a bonus. I remember one office design where they had these tables placed between desks faced back to back, on the theory that people would use those tables for collaborative work…
Wearable chairs and chat bots can increase open office productivity.
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#137The other side of this is that a very large percentage of folks in our industry seem to have social anxiety-spectrum issues.
Folks without those don't seem to understand how much energy is being burned through just being out in the open and on display for all of your coworkers. It's not something I, personally, have control over.
The time I've spent in "open concept" work places, I finish every day frustrated with my ability to accomplish tasks and physically and emotionally drained.
That takes a very serious toll over time.
I've moved on from jobs due to this type of work environment.
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#138this story has been posted multiple times but it should be reposted in new form over and over until all the pointy haired bosses have read it and repented
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#139If workers rights or material concerns won’t inspire software engineers to consider organizing, perhaps day to day work “lifestyle” hassles like open offices will. It’s been often repeated that developers eschew organizing because one can always go and find a better paying job if they don’t like the work environment they’re in- but good luck trying to find a workplace that gives the average developer their own office…
Man "The Jungle" ... that's a far far cry from open offices. Open offices is a crazy reason to organize / take the union route.
It is, but engineers are compensated at (relatively) crazy levels , so different incentives will need to be given for them to organize. Sometimes social change occurs over the most trivial of issues- certainly wars have been fought over less.
And again, what’s the solution to a problem that management almost universally ignores, while workers mostly detest, if applying organized labor pressure isn’t feasible? To wait for management to change their minds? To invent cheap real estate where each engineer can be granted their own office? To fight for remote work- so another industry standard that would also involve either mgmt. fads to change or workers to collectively protest?
Re: Open-plan offices decrease face-to-face collaboration: study
#140I am not sure why employees would message and email more if they can just turn their chair around to chat about something they are working on. Does anyone have experience of this? I have worked in open plan offices since 1999 and I've never experienced productivity problems. If anything I'd expect working in a cube would lead to more time wasted cruising websites since your screen is more obscured. I dunno, I've only…
>I am not sure why employees would message and email more if they can just turn their chair around to chat about something they are working on.
Well first of, if I just turn my chair around, I'm talking to the wall.
Secondly, I could yell at another develop from one table and they might not even realise because they're wearing noise-cancelling headphones. I mean, of course they are, they are in a room with 30+ other people.
If I want to collaborate in an open office, I need to get up from my desk, walk to someone else's desk, tap them on the shoulder to get them to remove their headphones and then stand there and talk to the other person + 10 people around them.