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Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

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Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#181

Post by scrabble »

sahglie wrote: post #173
bane wrote: post #165

Open plan offices are one of many signals that make me very wary of modern management concepts. In trade publications 20 years ago, you'd read breathless articles about the end of cubicles and the advent of minimalist, modern, open office plans. gasp! collaboration! gasp! accountability! gasp! blah blah Now years later it's obvious why they took over the world, CEOs everywhere saw the bright open office spaces, with…

For me the thing that is really the worst about the open workspace is not the noise--I can put in ear plugs and then noise reducing headphones. The worst is seeing people move around in my peripheral vision, that just makes it impossible to concentrate.

I agree. I absolutely hate visual distractions. They occur constantly in the open office I'm in. It used to be worse as my desk faced a popular meeting room, but it's still pretty bad.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#182

Post by jonnathanson »

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 would add to that: don't have fewer rooms than you have continual need for.

In a previous job, we had an open office layout with a handful of small conference rooms. The rooms were always being fought over -- resulting in the institution of a byzantine booking system involving Outlook calendars and admin permissions, with the office manager as bottleneck to booking a room.

As a client-facing person (i.e., someone who needed to be on the phone a lot), I hated it. More often than not, I found myself walking around downstairs, in the building lobby, or out on a balcony somewhere when trying to conduct business. I got sick of fighting over conference rooms, and sicker still of trying to evict squatters from rooms that I'd booked for urgent meetings or calls. And if I ever needed a quiet place to go concentrate on something, that was pretty much out of the question for most of the day. I ended up taking a lot of work home with me every night, simply because I couldn't get it done at the office.

I enjoyed some great chit-chat with coworkers, and I probably saw more YouTube videos and memes in that office than I have anywhere else. Productivity kind of sucked, though.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#183

Post by a8da6b0c91d »

klochner wrote: post #11

Ways this could be biased: - higher skilled workers are in closed offices more often * and satisfaction varies by skill level - p(open office) varies by industry * and satisfaction varies by industry - people feel more comfortable doing non-work items behind a door * and they like getting personal tasks done As a developer I'm happy in an open office, as long as I have enough space, and I'm separated from the sales (…

The first thing I think of when I hear "open office" is a call center. Of course those people hate their jobs. Did they control for that sort of work?

That said, I have worked in a few class A office spaces and the difference between class A and any other arrangement is huge. Always the perfect temperature, designed to muffle noise, enough glass to see what's going on but enough partitioning to avoid distraction. I'm not sure the cost can be easily justified, however.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#184

Post by cma »

JimmyL wrote: post #63
joezydeco wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you depreciate them, you have to either dispose of them at some point, or sell them at a loss (and you can only depreciate the loss). Over time it could cost more than walls, or have an extremely long depreciation schedule.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#185

Post by normloman »

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…

Policies that enforce silence is what's needed for open office plans to work. But silence would also cancel out any supposed creativity benefits.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#186

Post by codex_irl »

I cannot stand open plan offices, to many visual & noise distractions....even just people walking around distracts me (at they coming over to talk with me? I hope not!) Call me crazy, but I much prefer having a small / private office with the door open 70-90% of the time....it is not like I am going to be less accountable (git log anyone)

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#187

Post by mahyarm »

mathrat wrote: post #158
mahyarm wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really is organization dependent. Do your managers look over your shoulder and micromanage you? Would they get upset if they see HN in your web browser more than once or twice a day? Do you worry about them 'catching' you? Are you surrounded by 4 dozen people with multiple loud passionate discussions guaranteed to happen per day? Possibly in a language you don't understand most of the time? And whenever they do…

Agreed it's totally organization dependent. Basically fishtoaster said what I wanted to say more clearly than I did. It requires thoughtful management to get right. But I think the same is true of any office environment, open plan or no. I think the article is a bit unfair and essentially saying "badly managed open plan offices are bad."

It's like the Java argument. It's less likely for founders and managers setting the culture to screw up private offices or small group offices than open offices.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#188

Post by masomenos »

epsylon wrote: post #143
sliverstorm wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good headphones are comfortable. I actually prefer them sometimes to no headphones, 'cause they keep my ears warm.

I wear glasses and I have yet to find a pair of sufficiently isolating headphones that doesn't become painfully uncomfortable after 1 hour. And I've tried various high-end solutions.

Tried Etymotic earbuds? They come with a bunch of adapters to fit different sized ears. My model is of course discontinued but the mc5 looks closest. http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/mc5.html

edit: unlike any other earbuds I have tried, they are engineered to survive the inevitable wax-plugging. Just replace the filter & you're back in business.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#189

Post by sahglie »

hammock wrote: post #177
sahglie wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the thing that is really the worst about the open workspace is not the noise--I can put in ear plugs and then noise reducing headphones. The worst is seeing people move around in my peripheral vision, that just makes it impossible to concentrate.

Have you tried blinders? Funny enough this ad says "Blinders, because she shies at new ideas" http://www.matthewkressel.net/wp-content/uploads/blinders.jp...

LOL, I haven't. Thinking about a dev wearing those on top of noise reducing headphones is a pretty great mental image though. :-)

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#190

Post by GFischer »

sahglie wrote: post #173
bane wrote: post #165

Open plan offices are one of many signals that make me very wary of modern management concepts. In trade publications 20 years ago, you'd read breathless articles about the end of cubicles and the advent of minimalist, modern, open office plans. gasp! collaboration! gasp! accountability! gasp! blah blah Now years later it's obvious why they took over the world, CEOs everywhere saw the bright open office spaces, with…

For me the thing that is really the worst about the open workspace is not the noise--I can put in ear plugs and then noise reducing headphones. The worst is seeing people move around in my peripheral vision, that just makes it impossible to concentrate.

I think I read here that people in wall-facing desks on shared offices are more stressed (due to unconscious worry/instincts due to people moving at your back)
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