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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

#141

Post by quanticle »

nilkn wrote: post #12

It's increasingly becoming evident how ineffective offices can be as workplaces, especially in light of better and better communication for developers over the internet. Obviously this isn't true for all places and all cultures, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't frequently question my basic physical presence in the office sometimes. It is common for me to not talk to a single coworker about work throughout the day.…

It is common for me to not talk to a single coworker about work throughout the day. Meetings are rare, always scheduled ahead of time, and always short.

Are you hiring? Are the pay and benefits competitive?

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#142

Post by robryan »

dingaling wrote: post #132
5teev wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet I'm not the only one who sometimes puts headphones on with no music, solely to broadcast that don't-bother-me signal.

> solely to broadcast that don't-bother-me signal. Current workplace has a no-headphones rule, exactly because of that. Many people were donning headphones as soon as they arrived in the office and not taking them off until home time, simply to avoid having to interact with anyone else. So now no-one can avail of shorter periods of non-interruption, but I understand why they banned them. In-ear earphones seem to be t…

Sounds like a terrible policy for concentration. On the surface management might think they are getting better results (more interaction) but it is probably at the cost of individual productivity.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#143

Post by epsylon »

sliverstorm wrote: post #104
5teev wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet I'm not the only one who sometimes puts headphones on with no music, solely to broadcast that don't-bother-me signal.

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.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#144

Post by robryan »

twistedpair wrote: post #78
aimhb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. A little bit off topic, but I too have experienced this, and I have to say, it's awful for productivity, team building, and team assimilation. As a new hire, I would send my mentor a question and it might be ten minutes to fifty minutes before I woul…

Amen. Worked in an open floor plan (30ft long rows with 8 people at each) and now work in an office of cubes (6'x7'), so actual desk space is the same. I found the developer collaboration and communication far better in the open plan than the closed plan. People were always communicating the the former and almost never pop their heads up for air in the later. Today a coworker was IM'ing me and I then I realized that…

Yeah, I feel weird about emailing/ iming people in the same room as me when something could be solved with a 30 second or so conversation.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#145

Post by icebraining »

abalone wrote: post #119
niels_olson wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not better than the urgent care, but it's on the high end. Mainly, the work is quite interesting and there's lots of it. Case-report quality stuff comes across my desk daily and large studies are in the making. I have dual screen monitors, (also had that at the standing desk at the last job), but I have also customized my world a bit more: I have vim tuned better (works reasonably well with Dragon, but could be…

Cool, so sounds like having a dialed-in routine & setup is a big factor. It's interesting your productivity goes up in Starbucks. I'm the same way too. Distracting conversations are bad but white noise is fine. Plus there may be something to the whole anonymity thing, in that you don't think about or engage the people around you as much.

It's completely true for me as well. I think knowing that someone might interrupt me at any time (which is true both at work and at home, most of the time) doesn't allow me to fully concentrate as well as I can in a place like a coffee shop or a library.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#146

Post by epsylon »

vectorjohn wrote: post #74
debt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My lord this is truth. I don't care what you did yesterday, what you're doing tonight, what you're doing this weekend, why you're wearing what you're wearing, who got you that thing, when you got in, when you leave, why you hate brad, why you hate brad but love donna, why donna's nice but you'd prefer to be home studying. did you get an extra $30 deducted from your paycheck? doesn't that suck? it only takes me 20 min…

Well, it sounds like you're mostly just an antisocial kind of person. I mean, if you decide to put an arbitrary wall between you and your co-workers where you are simply not allowed to make friends with anyone, that's a pretty sad existence. I mean, this job takes up ~50% of your waking life, and during that time you can't treat anyone around you as a friend? If all your co-workers are such uninteresting people, mayb…

> antisocial

Nope, just introvert.

If you don't know what an introvert is, here is a quick guide: http://i.imgur.com/f2BmB2x.jpg

I also recommend reading the book "Quiet" by Susan Cain. Even if you're more on the extroverted side of the spectrum, you will learn a lot about introversion and extroversion and how to deal with introverted people. (And even if you don't realize it, many of the people you know, whether they're friends, family or co-workers are introverts and have to deal with living in an extroverted world.)

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#147

Post by collyw »

ktsmith wrote: post #100
gametheoretic wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the top post indicates anything, it's the high precedence the psyche places on framing. Switch around your default- and exception cases and see if that helps take your mind off it. It's a real thing. This summer, because my room would get hot at night, I had to leave a fan on. At first, I couldn't sleep with the noise. But now that it's getting colder, I've tried leaving it off, and guess what. Ha. Now I need the…

I have worked in an open office plan and simply can't work with people around me talking. I had to wear my headphones all day every day. I would never accept a job in an open office again.

I have an office of 4, which is bearable. I have gone for a few interviews recently, and open plan seems to be the norm. It seems difficult to find a productive working environment.

I was way more productive when there were just two of us in the same office. That was when the organisation was just starting out.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#148

Post by aptimpropriety »

jacoblyles wrote: post #134
abalone wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mentioned headphones. Headphones seem to be an essential part of open plans. Not only do they send a don't-bother-me signal, they also drown out the noise. But that's also a really annoying part of it. I don't want to have to put on headphones all the time.

Protip: get earmuffs. The kind that construction workers use. They're about $20 on Amazon. If you combine them with earbuds, you literally can't hear a conversation right next to you. This is the setup that pro Starcraft tournaments use so that players can't hear the announcers and crowd.

Small nitpick: my understanding (perhaps moreso in more sound-dependent FPS) is that pro gamers are already sound shielded.

The two headsets were 1) voice chat with your team 2) large 'surround sound' headphones that really signaled direction.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#149

Post by codygman »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #67
nilkn wrote: post #12

It's increasingly becoming evident how ineffective offices can be as workplaces, especially in light of better and better communication for developers over the internet. Obviously this isn't true for all places and all cultures, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't frequently question my basic physical presence in the office sometimes. It is common for me to not talk to a single coworker about work throughout the day.…

I thought telecommuting was a great idea until I tried it. I have enough trouble focusing on my work at work. At home, no one can tell that I'm playing Team Fortress in my underwear as long as I keep the IM window open, and my productivity basically craters. I'd like to think that I'm a grown-up who doesn't need someone looking over his shoulder but, well, I'm not.

I've battled with this problem too. You can control it, it just takes some willpower.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#150

Post by collyw »

aimhb wrote: post #33
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…

> 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. A little bit off topic, but I too have experienced this, and I have to say, it's awful for productivity, team building, and team assimilation. As a new hire, I would send my mentor a question and it might be ten minutes to fifty minutes before I woul…

I often find the opposite. We discuss details, and go through options changing our minds a number of times on the way.

Via email (or text based communication), then the result is clear, and I can refer back to it afterwards. Also meetings with non-technical users tend to go around in circles where they discuss trivial details that are pretty irrelevant.

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