Besides the productivity aspect, its a reflection of single dimensional focus of Zuckerberg. If facebook continues to be a platform of social collaboration between people, then the team building it has to live it as well. Given that the developers spend major part of their day at office, this idea would be unconsciously forced into them every day. They would be more social and collaborative in presence of other human beings (or will learn to be). This is what facebook is about.
“Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
301–310 of 468 posts
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a counterpoint, I recently moved from an open-plan office to a private office at Microsoft, and I definitely prefer the open plan. I feel more energized in an open plan, and I now make it a point to walk around the halls and drop in on people who are open to it (green status light on the door).
This is fascinating to hear. I'm curious: did the open-plan office have private spaces available for when you needed them? > I now make it a point to walk around the halls and > drop in on people who are open to it (green status > light on the door). That's funny and interesting that they have actual lights on their doors. When I ran my own consulting thing and worked from home a lot (often at odd hours) my partner a…
Not everyone has them, they're called the "Blynclight." They just sit outside your door and light up with the same color as your status in Microsoft Lync (red = busy, yellow = away, green = available). If you're in a Lync meeting, or on the phone, or have set "do not disturb," your light will be red.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Why don't you take a nice walk to clear your mind. Might I suggest our 9-acre roof which is a park?"
The thought of going for a walk and only seeing my coworkers sounds horrible and not very clearing.
There are thousands of employees there, right? Surely you wouldn't recognize any significant portion of them on a given random walk in the park.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#304a single room that fits thousands of people. What a nightmare. These "glass palace" offices may work for bankers or marketing teams. For programmers you could just as well plant their desks into the middle of a mall.
My boss asked me for input when scouting for a new office a while back. I asked for private offices, because for programmers working in an open space is like writing a math exam at a busy lunch restaurant. She said she understood. And then she signed us all up for an open space office anyway.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#305a single room that fits thousands of people. What a nightmare. These "glass palace" offices may work for bankers or marketing teams. For programmers you could just as well plant their desks into the middle of a mall.
The offensive part is the people who say that open offices are MORE EFFICIENT than a traditional office. I have a hard time believing that one. Given how high programmer salaries are, the productivity loss due to open offices is almost definitely more than the office space savings. It seems like an introvert/extrovert thing. The introverts would prefer a quiet working space (and they're usually the best workers), but…
> the productivity loss due to open offices is almost definitely more than the office space savings.
Individual productivity isn't the aim. I've seen research that suggests the most predictive factor in the success of a team is how much they communicate. Yes, you might lose out on lines of code productivity, but you might also find that you're writing much more of the right lines of code and your colleagues are too.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#306I currently work with people across the world, Indians, Chinese, French and people from various other nationalities. This open office thing makes it just worst. The most annoying thing I have come to face until now is the part where people from the same country start aggregating in groups over the floor talking in their own native languages. Constant chatter over simplest and silliest of the issues, previous night's…
The fact they're not speaking English is not relevant, so I think this just boils down to "having to hear other languages makes me uncomfortable". If you just didn't want to have distracting talking happen around you, then you would not have included the bit about the languages. Simply from a distraction standpoint, foreign languages that sound nothing like English are probably better, since you lose your ability to eavesdrop.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#307People always talk about the terrible NOISE in open office plans. For me, I hate the feeling of BEING WATCHED. It's just unnerving. There's people all around me with low cube walls... * I want to stare ahead as I focus - someone's looking at me. * I have my big headphones on and am rocking to the music - someone's looking at me. * I wanna put my head down on desk and think - someone's looking at me. * I check gmail -…
I second this. For me it's not even about being watched. It's that unnerving feeling of presence of other people that often makes me unable to focus in open-space setting at work. I had that since forever - even as a kid I aways closed the door to my room. I'm usually the last person to leave the office and when I see a cow-orker of mine staying late I start to feel irritated (saying in my head "hey, this was supposed to be my time for focused work!").
Funny thing is - I'm not an antisocial person. I love people. Just not when I'm trying to focus on something. Then the very presence of others makes me nervous.
And yes, when I'm focused, I like to talk to myself out loud, lie down on a couch to think, rock to music and draw a lot (when designing something). All those things look silly and I'm uncomfortable doing any of it when not alone.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#308People always talk about the terrible NOISE in open office plans. For me, I hate the feeling of BEING WATCHED. It's just unnerving. There's people all around me with low cube walls... * I want to stare ahead as I focus - someone's looking at me. * I have my big headphones on and am rocking to the music - someone's looking at me. * I wanna put my head down on desk and think - someone's looking at me. * I check gmail -…
I have similar problems with anxiety and have come to partial terms with them this way: when I'm at work, I'm performing. If part of that performance is dancing around in my chair or putting my head down on the desk or reading irrelevant websites from time to time, so be it. This is my own self-expression. And anyone who gives a shit about it who isn't my boss can get fucked.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#309Reminds me of the episode of "Better Off Ted" where they invent an itchy chair and it increases productivity because workers can't get too comfortable. In focus group testing, they find a maximum limit of uncomfortableness before people start jumping out of windows. I keep thinking the latest announcement of "gigantic open floor plan" is going to be that stroke too far. But I have also learned to be disappointed.
That show was truly prescient in many ways. Man do I miss it.
Re: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
No pictures of day to day work space, alas.
I saw this one from Chris Marra https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204715357418943
So they invented a conference room or office that can't accommodate those with mobility issues?
"Someone clear a path for the wheelchair!"