51–60 of 67 posts
Perhaps this all depends on what you're working on.
I half agree. I have found offices, real offices, to be much more productive than both cubicles and open layouts. For me personally, cubicles and open layouts are both equally distracting, but I prefer open layouts simply because I hate sitting in a box. I'd much rater have a real office, but for me cubicles are in now way quieter or less distracting then an open setup. I wonder what kind of cubicles the people have,…
Headphones are an integral part of the open office layout, especially for developers. I recommend decent-quality sound-isolating earbuds which can give you a personal audio environment at any time without irritating your coworkers. Using headphones is a sign you don't want to be disturbed, as well. This isn't a sacrosanct rule, but it should be taken into consideration when you choose to interact with someone, possib…
Headphones are a great idea for some people. I for myself work best in silence. Even if there is music playing it disturbs my concetration. Maybe I am especially weak at focussing, but I think to some degree this is true to everybody who listens to music while working.
I personally can't concentrate in any kind of open-space office. When I need to focus, the very feeling of other people being present is a huge distraction to me. It was true since early childhood - I couldn't do homework or learn anything at home if I wasn't alone in a room with doors closed. I don't really know how to explain it.
Same here. Nobody believes me when I tell them I can feel others' presence in a visceral way. I have lesser but still significant problems in cube environments. Would love to get out of the cube farm...and I believe I'd produce a lot more value if I weren't stuck in an uncomfortable place.
Headphones are an integral part of the open office layout, especially for developers. I recommend decent-quality sound-isolating earbuds which can give you a personal audio environment at any time without irritating your coworkers. Using headphones is a sign you don't want to be disturbed, as well. This isn't a sacrosanct rule, but it should be taken into consideration when you choose to interact with someone, possib…
That said, I am a huge fan of cubes/offices/personal spaces. The most productive I've ever been is in those types of environments.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I've had better results listening to white noise.
White noise hurt my ears, but I found pink noise working great and not disturbing. I could listen to it for an hour; at one point my imagination starts treating it as a sound of sea waves on a beach.
http://simplynoise.com/ has decent brown noise.
I remember some research quoted by Christopher Alexander (of design patterns fame.) although I cannot find the reference at the moment. I believe it was in the justification section for the "half-open wall" pattern. The gist of it was that people tend to prefer spaces that are about half closed (I'm quoting from memory, I'm aware this quantification is imprecise) - i.e. somewhere between a lone desk in the middle of…
Is this what you are referring to? http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.furniture.html
I believe the text you linked uses the Alexander's principles and applies them to office arrangement. Interesting.
I work on problems (code) that can take an hour to grok, another hour to get the code state into my head, and then more minutes to surgically implant the right change. Invite me into a meeting or chatter outside my cubicle, and I'm derailed. So that's why I get most of my work done early, early in the morning or after everybody else has left. This article presents the most blindingly obvious case. Why is it even wort…
The assertion I disagree with is that this is worse with an open office than a cubicle farm. In my experience cubicle farms are terrible because people don't see those around them that are being annoyed by an overly loud conversation.
I remember some research quoted by Christopher Alexander (of design patterns fame.) although I cannot find the reference at the moment. I believe it was in the justification section for the "half-open wall" pattern. The gist of it was that people tend to prefer spaces that are about half closed (I'm quoting from memory, I'm aware this quantification is imprecise) - i.e. somewhere between a lone desk in the middle of…
Hmm, according to that, it sounds like cubes should work better if the employee is facing outward. Computer on the open side of the cube with the screen facing into the cube, rather than computer on the far side of the cube. Is this common anywhere?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, according to that, it sounds like cubes should work better if the employee is facing outward. Computer on the open side of the cube with the screen facing into the cube, rather than computer on the far side of the cube. Is this common anywhere?
How do you get out? Crawl under the desk?
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