Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction • Hacker News Board

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#61

Post by vacri » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:12 AM UTC

aimhb wrote: post #33

fishtoaster wrote: post #18

I don't think open offices are necessarily bad, but that they're harder to get right. What you need is: - A a decent cultural protocol around it. One place I worked had the very strong rule that you start all non-emergency communication asynchronously (usually text chat), even if the person is right next to you. Another place I worked at strongly respected headphones as the "don't bother me" signal. - A reasonable nu…

> One place I worked had the very strong rule that you start all non-emergency communication asynchronously (usually text chat), even if the person is right next to you. A little bit off topic, but I too have experienced this, and I have to say, it's awful for productivity, team building, and team assimilation. As a new hire, I would send my mentor a question and it might be ten minutes to fifty minutes before I woul…

Some kinds of work respond very poorly to interruption, and for others it's trivial. Breaking a coder out of their 'zone' kills their productivity. Breaking a typist out of their 'zone' is trivial. This being said, if someone is meant to be mentoring you, then this will require special tactics as it is a special relationship.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#62

Post by bennyg » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:15 AM UTC

What's the official term for my team, and my team only, in an open room where we can whiteboard problems, shoot the shit, play guitar, shoot each other with Nerf guns and churn out more work on average than my entire organization? Cause I love what I have now.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#63

Post by JimmyL » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:16 AM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #8

nikatwork wrote: post #6

And yet, despite all the studies and data, these things continue to spread like a plague through the corporate world. ...because it makes upper management feel good to keep the peons in a bullpen.

Have you ever priced cubicle panels and hardware? How about erecting walls and doors? There's a secondary benefit here.

There are also huge differences in the tax treatment of cubicles vs. walls, which can have a non-trivial impact on the decision making if it's an office of any size. Generally (and IANATL) cubicles and movable walls can be considered office furniture, whereas walls and doors are structural improvements - and those things have very different depreciation rates and benefits.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#64

Post by abalone » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:20 AM UTC

fishtoaster wrote: post #18

I don't think open offices are necessarily bad, but that they're harder to get right. What you need is: - A a decent cultural protocol around it. One place I worked had the very strong rule that you start all non-emergency communication asynchronously (usually text chat), even if the person is right next to you. Another place I worked at strongly respected headphones as the "don't bother me" signal. - A reasonable nu…

You mentioned headphones. Headphones seem to be an essential part of open plans. Not only do they send a don't-bother-me signal, they also drown out the noise.

But that's also a really annoying part of it. I don't want to have to put on headphones all the time.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#65

Post by Osiris » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:22 AM UTC

fishtoaster wrote: post #18

I don't think open offices are necessarily bad, but that they're harder to get right. What you need is: - A a decent cultural protocol around it. One place I worked had the very strong rule that you start all non-emergency communication asynchronously (usually text chat), even if the person is right next to you. Another place I worked at strongly respected headphones as the "don't bother me" signal. - A reasonable nu…

I'm in a cube farm right now and I don't find that the cubes make the noise any softer than my co-workers in another office that have an open plan. I can still plainly hear everything that people around me are talking about. I still find headphones a necessity.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#66

Post by abalone » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:33 AM UTC

niels_olson wrote: post #50

Work spaces I have had * High school: desk in bedroom. Unaware there are worse options: Productivity: 9. * College, year 1: dorm with roommate, cop-style desks facing each other. Shut up! Productivity: 4. * College, years 2-4: two roommates, desk under bed. Vaguely cramped, but not bad. Productivity: 6. * First ship: Flight of the Intruder style aluminum desk/dresser/bookcase measuring 24" wide, aligned athwartships,…

What do you think it is about your current shared cubicle that makes it the most productive ever?

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#67

Post by PhasmaFelis » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:33 AM UTC

nilkn wrote: post #12

It's increasingly becoming evident how ineffective offices can be as workplaces, especially in light of better and better communication for developers over the internet. Obviously this isn't true for all places and all cultures, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't frequently question my basic physical presence in the office sometimes. It is common for me to not talk to a single coworker about work throughout the day.…

I thought telecommuting was a great idea until I tried it. I have enough trouble focusing on my work at work. At home, no one can tell that I'm playing Team Fortress in my underwear as long as I keep the IM window open, and my productivity basically craters. I'd like to think that I'm a grown-up who doesn't need someone looking over his shoulder but, well, I'm not.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#68

Post by noarchy » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:34 AM UTC

pixelcort wrote: post #48

fishtoaster wrote: post #18

I don't think open offices are necessarily bad, but that they're harder to get right. What you need is: - A a decent cultural protocol around it. One place I worked had the very strong rule that you start all non-emergency communication asynchronously (usually text chat), even if the person is right next to you. Another place I worked at strongly respected headphones as the "don't bother me" signal. - A reasonable nu…

But if no one talks in the open plan layout, what's the benefit of open plan at all? Might as well give people their own private space free of visual distractions.

Private space for everyone costs more. The entire point of the open plan is to save money, but it gets sold as something entirely different.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#69

Post by obiterdictum » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:39 AM UTC

jacques_chester wrote: post #29

jyrkesh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you implement all of that perfectly, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of having an open office? (I.e. to stimulate more spontaneous collaboration)

The actual purpose of open offices is to save money. The collaboration stuff is marketing nonsense managers tell themselves to try and ease the cognitive dissonance of lying about it.

It highly depends on the team. In a small team that know each other well, it can work. Most of the time it's not the case, however.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#70

Post by ams6110 » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 2:40 AM UTC

fishtoaster wrote: post #18

I don't think open offices are necessarily bad, but that they're harder to get right. What you need is: - A a decent cultural protocol around it. One place I worked had the very strong rule that you start all non-emergency communication asynchronously (usually text chat), even if the person is right next to you. Another place I worked at strongly respected headphones as the "don't bother me" signal. - A reasonable nu…

One of the worst things for me in open plan offices is you can hear people eating at their desks. For me nothing is more annoying and distracting than to hear someone crunching on cookies or popcorn or potato chips at his desk. That's an instant headphones-on for me. It's worse than all the other background noise/conversations put together.