Open plan offices suck for everyone who needs to think. I don't know anyone who doesn't know this.
CEOs Want Their Offices Back
121–130 of 409 posts
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#122The penjulum of "things startups are wrong about" and/or "you succeed despite this rather than because of it" open plan offices will shift back the other way in the next decade to "deep work" and "closed door productivity". Joel Spolsky & co are just two decades ahead.
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#123No paywall: http://archive.is/tSeuX
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
The mechanical keyboard people in open offices bother me.
I recently got one and I admit it's really loud. But this shouldn't be an issue in a decent workplace. I have several guys near me who have loud voices and talk a lot. That's worse than a loud keyboard. Open office plans are the problem, not keyboards or loud people.
I agree with you that open office is the problem, however my old mechanical keyboard is louder than most people with a loud voice and it would probably be used more often.
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
The mechanical keyboard people in open offices bother me.
Agreed. I have a mechanical keyboard at home (Corsair Gaming K95 RGB), but at work I use a Mac wired keyboard (on a PC). Super quiet and probably the best performing scissor switch keyboard. edit: proper Mac keyboard type
I'm guessing you mean scissor switch not membrane.
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#126Why do CEO's think they're alone in the need for quiet spaces where they can focus? Sure some people can work in the noisy space where interruptions abound. The only thing in my office that works well with interruptions is my CPU. I'd rather have a Cube farm, but better yet, a small tiny phone booth as an office.
WSJ thinks that. Not CEOs.
~a CEO
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#127Why do CEO's think they're alone in the need for quiet spaces where they can focus? Sure some people can work in the noisy space where interruptions abound. The only thing in my office that works well with interruptions is my CPU. I'd rather have a Cube farm, but better yet, a small tiny phone booth as an office.
Just like the cargo cult Agile pandemic peaked a few years ago, I suspect we're reaching peak open floor plans right now. The overall negative effects of an open floor plan for a significant fraction of engineers (though not all) is self-evident and backed up by reams of data stretching back nearly 40 years: http://iansommerville.com/software-engineering-book/web/work... TLDR: 100 square feet of personal space is opt…
>"Just like the cargo cult Agile pandemic peaked a few years ago, I suspect we're reaching peak open floor plans right now."
Wait, that peaked? That hasn't been my perception. I'm curious where you are seeing that.
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
careful what you wish for. I also like silence. But I'd rather use noise cancelling headphones than work in the booth among thousands other booths.
I want a cube because it's not the noise that bothers me but the constant motion on the periphery of my vision. Cubes can be setup properly. They don't need to be row after row after row of cubes. We have them setup in pods that hold 6-8 people, one pod for each dev team. Only one way in or out, so there's no traffic moving through, with a small table in the middle that's mainly used to eat lunch or store treats that…
That. My previous employer was a subsidiary of a large US company. The subsidiary was all hip and open plan and I hated our office, even after I got some mild adaptations done (moved team assignments to "positive space" islands and install a 20" sound partition between teams' desks so at least teams had some privacy). The mothership had these neat Herman Miller layouts with team pods. It looked (to my European design sensitivities) butt-ugly, but I loved sitting there. So quiet, and the only bit of interruption you had was probably relevant because it came out of your team. Not a random sales guy strolling by (sorry, sales peeps - love you, but you're a noisy bunch ;-))
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I have a mechanical keyboard at home (Corsair Gaming K95 RGB), but at work I use a Mac wired keyboard (on a PC). Super quiet and probably the best performing scissor switch keyboard. edit: proper Mac keyboard type
I'm guessing you mean scissor switch not membrane.
Ahh, yes, you're correct.
Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back
#130Why do CEO's think they're alone in the need for quiet spaces where they can focus? Sure some people can work in the noisy space where interruptions abound. The only thing in my office that works well with interruptions is my CPU. I'd rather have a Cube farm, but better yet, a small tiny phone booth as an office.
Just like the cargo cult Agile pandemic peaked a few years ago, I suspect we're reaching peak open floor plans right now. The overall negative effects of an open floor plan for a significant fraction of engineers (though not all) is self-evident and backed up by reams of data stretching back nearly 40 years: http://iansommerville.com/software-engineering-book/web/work... TLDR: 100 square feet of personal space is opt…
In my experience semi-open layouts are the best. A handful people working in the same room on the same project generally seems to work well at encourage pair programming and exchange of information while having an actual room isolates from other distractions.
That said, I think in the programming world, remote work will eventually become the new office because it's the ultimate cost cutter and greatly opens up the pool of applicants.