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Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

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Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#11

Post by virmundi »

I wouldn't attribute the movement to Google, strictly speaking. I worked at a large insurance agency for a few year. They had partially open cubes (low walls). I don't presume they've ever been influenced by what Google does.

The low walls were a blessing and a bane. My team worked well like that. None of us are particularly loud people. We all had headphones and quiet music. The flow of the pen allowed easy communication and rolling between each others cubes.

The bane came from other teams around us. There was a woman that was going through an extremely messy divorce (attempted murder of herself and children by arson). She was understandably upset. Rather than taking family medical leave she would talk to her mother for hours in her cube. Her voice was particularly grating to me. I ended up leaving one day to buy a pair of firing range headphones and firing range earplugs.

Sadly the headphone/earplugs only sort of worked. They're designed to reduce low noises like a gunshot. Her voice was higher. They did help. I was able to concentrate.

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#12

Post by a2tech »

The best office setup I've ever worked in was a narrow building that had smallish offices (big enough for two people) on the outside (each had a small window) and open meeting space in the middle. Everyone had their own space (like to leave junk on your desk? clean freak? everyone is happy) and if you wanted to hang out or hold an impromptu meeting the common area was literally outside your door. Most of the time people's office doors were wide open so no one was closed off but if you wanted to really focus or take a call or listen to a video or just disconnect for a minute you could shut your door.

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#13

Post by badmadrad »

Open offices are type A/extroverted personality wet dreams. Everybody they need is within earshot and they can see EVERYTHING so they can properly control everything. However for introverts, people with noise sensitivity, or people with ADD this is an absolute nightmare. I find a lot of engineers tend to be either introverts or have some type of manageable ADD so it doesn't surprise me that many people would be negatively affected by an office layout like this.

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#15

Post by a2tech »

kzrdude wrote: post #9
a2tech wrote: post #2

Yup. Its impossible to really focus in an open-office work area. I have to meet with another team occasionally that's management bought into the open-office hypetrain. Its awful. The noise is overwhelming, there's constant distractions (even small noises like people shifting in their chairs can become overwhelming when its coming from you from every direction)

It sounds like the acoustics are pretty bad if small noices are that noticable. Can you get them to install sound dampening?

This is a large open space with small 'break spaces' (soft carpet covered cubicle walls left scattered around) that break up sound/spaces between different groups. They have the soft drop ceiling tiles to help absorb sound. The floors are carpeted.

There's really only so much you can do with a hundred people in a large open space-there's a constant background hum of people moving, shifting, eating, listening to music that you just can't get rid of

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#17

Post by raldi »

The thing is, if you ask any rank-and-file Google engineer, they'll totally agree that the sweatshop layout -- oops, I mean the open-office layout -- is hugely detrimental to productivity and morale.

So it's not like the company isn't aware; it's just that they seem to believe the negative effects aren't bad enough to offset the cost of more office space (or the opportunity cost of slower hiring)

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#18

Post by ProAm »

bdhe wrote: post #10

This keeps coming up every so often, so here's a different discussion I'd like to get into. How do we measure something as ambiguous as productivity? And I contest some of the points raised: For companies where people are mostly left to themselves save for meetings and sync ups, is it really about a supervisor's ability to monitor what you're doing? Collaboration is probably the driving force, which again raises the…

I think it's pretty easy. Can you honestly say you get more work done in a day with constant interruptions and distractions? Not only output is affected but the quality of the work completed. I might get the same volume of work out the door but if Im distracted I promise there are bit and pieces that have careless errors in it, which leads to re-work. This is something that you can easily ask your employees if they'd like private working quarters vs open office.

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#19

Post by nilkn »

mullingitover wrote: post #5

Open plan offices: 30% drop in productivity for a 20% drop in real estate costs.

Plus an approximately 0% chance of hiring anybody who currently has their own private office, unless you have something really special to offer (considerably above-market compensation or prestige or a position on a remarkably interesting project).

Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace

#20

Post by robotkilla »

zenogais wrote: post #7

This has been known to be a productivity killer for years, but I still haven't seen significant moves being made to change it. From a management standpoint I know an open layout allows you to pack a lot more people into the same space, so perhaps the costs outweigh the benefits for many businesses?

An open floor plan is one of the big reasons I started abusing our work from home policy at my last job, and a huge reason for not wanting to return to the work force since leaving that job.
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