71–80 of 92 posts
Basically, you'd have a part of the office where you could take your laptop and go work in complete quiet. No conversations louder than a whisper, no music playing, no bringing food back to your desk. If you need to do any of those things, you go elsewhere.
As someone with the authority to make the necessary changes to our office environment, it frustrates me to read these kind of blog posts. I have read a couple dozen similar posts which merely complain about open offices, but offer absolutely nothing in the way of practical solutions. We don't have the opportunity or space to give everyone their own dedicated office, and cubicles I'm sure would be a living hell. I've…
Here's (part of) a solution: Let people work from home. I have to work in a loud, noisy, open plan office with barely enough room. At home, I have a nicely decorated, well set-up, spacious office with all the equipment I need, sitting unused. If you let people work from home, those that want to get can quiet, isolated environments in which to work. The people who still want to work in the office can do, and they now…
It's what I generally end up doing.
Multiple comments are mentioning wearing headphones with loud music. But what about earplugs (the disposable foam type)? I’ve worn them during physical work (with loud machines) and, at least for me, they were very effective. I felt I had more energy and focus. Has someone tried them for office work?
Also in my case they put too much pressure on the canal which eventually gets quite painful. When I was a mechanic it was more of a hassle but much better for my ears to wear proper ear muffs instead of disposable ear plugs.
Every time this debate pops up on HN, I find this quote from Bell Labs scientist Richard Hamming interesting to consider: I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems…
The problem with open office plans IMHO is that freedom does not exist. (well, maybe it does in the form of WFH if that is allowed).
Every time this debate pops up on HN, I find this quote from Bell Labs scientist Richard Hamming interesting to consider: I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a really nice set of Sennheiser headphones. They don't have active noise canceling, but the physical insulation they provide is good enough to drown out most noise, even without any music playing. Though I rarely play music very loud (I'm a musician, and very protective of my hearing), I still find the headphones to be tiring to wear for hours at a time. I've found this to be true even when I'm not playing any…
Sennheisers tend to clamp down pretty hard. Especially the 280's and 380's. Maybe another brand would work better.
As someone with the authority to make the necessary changes to our office environment, it frustrates me to read these kind of blog posts. I have read a couple dozen similar posts which merely complain about open offices, but offer absolutely nothing in the way of practical solutions. We don't have the opportunity or space to give everyone their own dedicated office, and cubicles I'm sure would be a living hell. I've…
1. Rearrange people to try to match similar "cultures" of interruption and speaking-at-desks. The first step is usually separating the salesfolk from engineering, but sometimes people in the same field have different styles.
2. The same way the company has mice and keyboards, offer headphones. Not necessarily noise-canceling or anything fancy, but decent ear-buds / over-ear stuff that can reduce the decibel level.
3. Create an IRC-channel-like mechanism for people to communicate. This supports different use-cases than e-mail or one-to-one IM communication, and is better suited for the "Weird, am I the only one having problems with server X?"-type questions.
As someone with the authority to make the necessary changes to our office environment, it frustrates me to read these kind of blog posts. I have read a couple dozen similar posts which merely complain about open offices, but offer absolutely nothing in the way of practical solutions. We don't have the opportunity or space to give everyone their own dedicated office, and cubicles I'm sure would be a living hell. I've…
Drapes? Are you being facetious? The main problem with open offices is noise, not line-of-sight; specifically, the noise of conversation, because we're always trying to make sense of it, which prevents any other kind of intellectual activity. I think I would prefer working in a sewing factory with the sound of machines, than in a semi-open office where I can hear people talking. (I have worked in factories for short…
It's related, because we are visual creatures.
When you block line-of-sight, those people who would have otherwise conversed loudly across the shared area are more likely to take it to a breakout-room or to use quieter, digital means.
Every time this debate pops up on HN, I find this quote from Bell Labs scientist Richard Hamming interesting to consider: I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems…
The problem is that in an open floor plan, a lot of people are stripped of the power to moderate themselves. This only benefits the person who would have never closed their door, not the person who decided they would keep it open for a while.