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Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
31–40 of 86 posts
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#32I have been thinking about this problem. Why not create a exclusive spaces/floor for quite workers? Where you cannot make noise at all. Like in a library. So anybody irrespective of teams can just go there and get things done. I think good balance is necessary. Sales teams/Marketing teams cannot be just silently sitting around. They are conversation-prone with their work nature. But could use the exclusive spaces whe…
At a former company I used to work at, this is exactly how it worked. There was an area closed off in glass, literally called "the library". Though some of us called it the fishtank.
Rules were clear. It was for focussed and quiet work. Meetings and calls needed to be done outside.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#33So back in the day we solved the open office problem by putting walks and doors around each worker. We moved premises and took the opportunity to give everyone a (small) office with a door. About 70% of our actual floor plan was for common open space - big kitchen, diner, lounge etc. But for work you had a private space with a door. Over 10 years later we bought another company and had their local staff over for a vi…
Very few people get to actually try out the cell. Cubicles aren't offices. They're wire cages for moneys at the zoo.
We should try having more actual offices before we declare it equal but different to the elementrary school recess that are open office plans.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#34I rarely have every experienced a library where it was quiet enough to do deep work. There is always that one (or more) person that ruins it. Talking loud, talking on their phone, even watching a show on their laptop out loud. This is in the US.
The worst I experienced was in Singapore. Kids running around like it was a playground. Or teenage couples using it as a place to date. The last one is a big wtf head scratcher to me.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#35So back in the day we solved the open office problem by putting walks and doors around each worker. We moved premises and took the opportunity to give everyone a (small) office with a door. About 70% of our actual floor plan was for common open space - big kitchen, diner, lounge etc. But for work you had a private space with a door. Over 10 years later we bought another company and had their local staff over for a vi…
I remember going into an interview (written coding test too ha) and the cubicles had ceiling-high walls which were this dark plastic blue in color. The lighting was not right and it was dim. That was a weird place.
I worked in an open non-cubicle design too, closed back headphones ftw.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#36So back in the day we solved the open office problem by putting walks and doors around each worker. We moved premises and took the opportunity to give everyone a (small) office with a door. About 70% of our actual floor plan was for common open space - big kitchen, diner, lounge etc. But for work you had a private space with a door. Over 10 years later we bought another company and had their local staff over for a vi…
Very few people get to actually try out the cell. Cubicles aren't offices. They're wire cages for moneys at the zoo. We should try having more actual offices before we declare it equal but different to the elementrary school recess that are open office plans.
In my context cubicals are considered to be "open plan". We had some cubical dividers in our first office, way back in the day, but it's an interim stage at best.
Of course we had that because we didn't have space for walls. When we moved we got a lot more space, made offices, but monthly rent went up about 6 fold. It's a very real cost.
In fact, after salaries, it's our biggest cost by a long way. Given that most people are happy working from home we'll likely downscale our space a lot at our next lease renewal.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#37With remote work, open spaces from hell are (hopefully) a thing of the past, but key learnings on proper room culture are still valid after almost 200 years. How 400 people can work in deep focus in library but cannot do the same in company open space?
Maybe I have a psychological problem that most people don't have, but I can't work on a monitor that is publicly visible.
Maybe it's an overstatement but I personally feel like I'm in Panopticon when working in open offices. I do not experience the same feeling in co-working spaces and coffee shops though. It just feels more productive to work with strangers in the same room who don't care about what you're working on but are aware that you need to get stuff done. On the other end of the spectrum, work-from-home setups just feels very solitary and distractions are just more prevalent.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#38Many years ago, I attended a university with a library reading room like those shown in the linked article. The high, arched ceilings made a huge difference. You could hear the sounds of people talking, coughing, rustling paper, etc. from throughout the room, but the sounds were dampened and dispersed as they echoed off the ceiling. As a result, they were rarely distracting, and I was able to get a lot of studying done.
Conversations were discouraged not only by the library rules. The acoustics also made it difficult to understand what even people sitting nearby said.
Not many libraries or offices built today could justify the expense of such architecture, though.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#39So back in the day we solved the open office problem by putting walks and doors around each worker. We moved premises and took the opportunity to give everyone a (small) office with a door. About 70% of our actual floor plan was for common open space - big kitchen, diner, lounge etc. But for work you had a private space with a door. Over 10 years later we bought another company and had their local staff over for a vi…
> Interestingly the quiet ones complained about the loud ones (but not the other way around).
What else would you expect? The ones impinging on others were fine with it, the ones being impinged upon not so much.
> Different people have different needs.
This is the bit that people need to keep sight of. People and groups are all different and there’s no one size fits all answer.
Re: Libraries – how companies do not understand open spaces
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who will be the library nazi that kicks you out when you talk too loudly?
We don't need to refer to a librarian that way. Yeah, I know, Seinfeld did it. It isn't funny or interesting. It is a cliché. Let's try to choose our language so that our history and language can hold onto meanings that matter. There is a Star Trek TNG episode called Darmok that describes a culture that only speaks in metaphor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok Surely we have a better metaphor for a meek but power…
It's more modern to refer to them as library stasi, anyway. And probably slightly more accurate.