definitely ture,
an environment which provide more freedom & privacy, will get more feedback, and make the worker happier.
Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
81–90 of 234 posts
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Joel Spolsky has written extensively about peopleware: "Ever wonder why everybody at Microsoft gets their own office, with walls and a door that shuts? It's in there. Why do managers give so much leeway to their teams to get things done? That's in there too. Why are there so many jelled SWAT teams at Microsoft that are remarkably productive? Mainly because Bill Gates has built a company full of managers who read Peop…
I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-workers and ask quick questions, I like the atmosphere, and if things are too noisy or distracting I just put headphones on and get in the zone.
I wonder whether your coworkers enjoy being interrupted frequently.
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#83This topic is discussed at length in Peopleware: http://www.librarything.com/work/17188 "If your organization is anything like those studied in our last three annual surveys, the environmental trend is toward less privacy, less dedicated space and more noise. Of course the obvious reason for this is cost. A penny saved on the workspace is a penny earned on the bottom line, or so the logic goes. Those who make such a…
> The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very influential. You think that's bad? Brooks first published The Mythical Man-Month in 1975 and I don't think those lessons have ever sunk in, either.
99% of the managers probably haven't even heard if somebody called Fred Brooks ever existed.
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#84Anyone who has worked in enough office environments for a while will recognize that the "best" environment is a flexible one. Sometimes it's working in the open, sometimes a quiet office with the door closed, sometimes at home or a coffee shop. When I took a mgmt role as VP/Engnring at a firm a few years ago, the first thing I did was assess and address morale, which was not good. One of the obvious things was that t…
Flexibility resonates heavily with me. In my current position I have a desk that's in an area that's a bit too social. In a lot of cases social is good for me. It puts me in water-cooler contact with the folks I need to interact with, and I avoid having to send an e-mail which elicits a reply copying the entire org-chart, turning it into a "who can be more formal and professional" contest. On the other hand, this des…
"In my current position I have a desk that's in an area that's a bit too social."
My small team has just been moved from by the door and the photocopier/printer bay to a position further back by a wall. Calmer, quieter and we are getting on with more stuff. This is an open plan office with ~70 people based in it.
Caveat: I'm a teacher so I spend a lot of time in classrooms anyway
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#85It's not a dichotomy between open-plan and individual cubicles
I've never worked in a cubicle office but it doesn't appeal, however I hate open plan offices too... for the reasons in the article - too much extraneous noise
Favourite office was more like a house, about half a dozen people to each room. The rooms were open to each other, doorways but no doors, no barriers to wandering through to the next room for a chat.
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate to sound like I'm trivializing your disorder, but have you tried a good pair of closed-ear headphones? I sit in a room of 40 or 50 chatty computer folks, and everything is silent when I put on my Sennheiser headphones. It lets be effectively choose whether or not I want to be distracted by sound, which I do sometimes (hearing conversations I want to be a part of it quite important to me).
As someone who also has ADHD and OCD, close-ear noise-canceling headphones aren't the solution. And they don't work. As someone else mentioned, visual noise is just as much a problem. Couple that with what an open office implies: easy access. Besides, I don't want to always be wearing headphones while I'm coding. I do enjoy quiet and peace while working, without needing my head and ears wrapped. Another issue with AD…
>Another issue with ADHD isn't just being distracted, but also getting back to work after being disrupted. It's easy to talk about getting into the zone, but for someone with ADHD, it's even more challenging. Since I've started medication, I've seen firsthand the dramatic difference.
Did you have similar problems in College? That is, if you get distracted from homework assignments (say, friends are bugging you to go out), then it would take you much more time to get back at it again?
It happens to me all the time. It takes me a lot of time to finally force myself to do some assignment, and if I go out, I might waste almost the a whole day afterwards just trying to get into "the zone" again... Unfortunately, the meds are giving me side effects (increased heart rate).
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate to sound like I'm trivializing your disorder, but have you tried a good pair of closed-ear headphones? I sit in a room of 40 or 50 chatty computer folks, and everything is silent when I put on my Sennheiser headphones. It lets be effectively choose whether or not I want to be distracted by sound, which I do sometimes (hearing conversations I want to be a part of it quite important to me).
http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-Earphone/d... Those effectively eliminate auditory ADD in an open environment. Nothing has been more effective than these for me.
Careful. Daily use of in-ear headphones can lead to impacted ear wax. Your hearing will gradually degrade until you can't understand people at all. Then one morning you wake up and realize you're deaf and you make a trip to the doctor where they pull out a block of ear wax the size of a lozenge and just as hard.
Happened to me twice before I ditched using in-ear headphones at work.
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-workers and ask quick questions, I like the atmosphere, and if things are too noisy or distracting I just put headphones on and get in the zone.
I wonder whether your coworkers enjoy being interrupted frequently.
Having the luxury to be interrupted frequently and yet not get frustrated is likely a indication that you are doing a lot of small tasks that don't require long hour focus.
If you are doing something important that needs you to be focused on on particular a thing for long hours,without any interruption, frequent interruptions are disastrous.
There are also more ways to look at it.
If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career.
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#89I've worked in every possible configuration, and I've watched teams work in every possible configuration. I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for organizations as a whole. Some initial conclusions: - We'd be wise to distinguish what we'd all like to have as an office from what actually functions best in a larger system. It is erroneous to think that simply because you like somethin…
"I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for organizations as a whole."
The original article is quoting peer-reviewed research that tends to support the opposite of your opinion. What do you think is wrong with the methodology employed in the OA?
Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
#90While I don't prefer open office plans, I think it needs to be emphasized that not all open office plans are equal. There are compartmentalized open plans, where a specific team or division is grouped together in close proximity, and then you have some form of the "kitchen sink", where any number of teams (if not the whole company) is just thrown into a room. The latter is extremely unpleasant, IMHO. Being constantly…
You also have to consider how closely packed everyone is. At my last job we had an open plan office for the four people in my group but we were all about 20 feet apart and it was great. It was easy to communicate, but it wasn't distracting. Having lots of tiny conference rooms for talking to people or taking phone calls is also very important for open plan offices.