Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
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Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
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Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#2Although I am sympathetic overall, it really isn't about programmers, it's about anyone doing mental-flow work with focus. Open plan is for a different state of mind and product. It can be condusive to some good outcomes, but the cost is the loss of flow.
Writers need flow. People studying need flow. I could imagine techs looking at breast cancer scans need flow. It isn't only programmers who need this.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#3Although I am sympathetic overall, it really isn't about programmers, it's about anyone doing mental-flow work with focus. Open plan is for a different state of mind and product. It can be condusive to some good outcomes, but the cost is the loss of flow. Writers need flow. People studying need flow. I could imagine techs looking at breast cancer scans need flow. It isn't only programmers who need this.
In the same vein, an office with a door won't help at all if you have higher-ups who expects instant responses to any messaging/e-mail query every five minutes.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#4I worked in an office with 10 other people once.
It worked well, as long as the other people were devs or admins who didn't phone all the time.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#5I like to think that providing a team with private offices and all the old-school perks would help create a working environment where they'd feel more appreciated, and thus end up working better.
If I ever hire a team that isn't remote, that'd be something I'd want to explore. That and giving them assistants. I want to find out what an experienced dev team that doesn't have to bother with any admin or other distractions can do.
Freeing people up as much as possible to just think and build in peace. I like to think that it would make a difference.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#6I worked in an office with 10 other people once. It worked well, as long as the other people were devs or admins who didn't phone all the time.
The shittiest thing about going back to the office after the long WFH period has absolutely been the normalization of taking calls at your desk in the open office environment. At least before we had the mutual understanding that it's loud as it is and calls are to be taken in meeting rooms or anywhere else really.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#7But, why offices at all? All my productivity problems are solved by just working from home.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#8In my whole professional life (last 15y) there was not a single time where I had anything resembling a private space where I could just close the door and work in peace.
The norm here in German startup world seem to be open floors. And if you do have rooms they get crammed full of people.
It's not the end of the world though. A room full of engineers is tolerable, and if they're on your team this is even desirable.
The trouble only comes when the CEO wants to see everyone sweating, so you get stuffed together with Sales or Ops.
Working from home made things a lot easier though. And if the company is big enough it's usually also possible to just book a meeting room if you need to work in silence for a while :-)
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#9When I graduated from college, never have I envisioned once that my optimal workspace is just a laptop, working from home, while spending time with fam, and get some hobbies done at the same time.
Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
#10"Team" does not appear once in the article. I find open plans to be superior as it makes the team go faster. People can unblock others, people can stop others from wasting time, people can immediately work together to think about a problem. And for times where you want to just pump out code you can put some earbuds / headphones on and use body language to signal that you are in deep focus.