161–170 of 509 posts
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> The meeting rooms cost a few hundred and need to be pre-booked. Is this one of those "we work" type of environments where everything is rented piece meal?
Yes, just not we-work. The only thing that’s free is the instant coffee and milk.
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My biggest hurdle—aside from undocumented code—at my new company, is fucking mouth noises from coworkers and the sound of crumpling snack bags in an open office. It's to the extent where I have to leave the area and regain composure before mentioning it. If I can't find a way to manage, I'll leave, but I'm not in the financial position to have that luxury yet. What will probably happen, is I'll work up to a slow comp…
Your situation is so absurd that I'm immediately reminded of the film "Joe vs. the Volcano". I think everyone here wishes you the best of luck.
My biggest triggers are people who eat crunchy food with open mouths; people who slurp their drinks; people who are oblivious to their environment and sing loudly in open offices. Colleagues next to me eating hard carrots, chips, anything crunchy. Or Chinese expats who slurp their soup and coffee (normal in their culture; rude in mine)... it drove me crazy. The singing one drove me insane at my last job. An office la…
> I wanted to murder her. No joke. If I could get away with it, I would have. The anger was physical and deep. Rage and disgust was the feeling, and I felt personally attacked. It felt like a "fight or flee" instinct, where I'd prefer to fight. Just in case you're not using hyperbole, you might consider some visits with a good counselor. I think most people can learn techniques to avoid getting so angry, and the unha…
There are two mutually exclusive groups of people: "Concentrators(1)" and "Communicators(2)". Concentrators must have conditions that allow one to form and hold complex ideas, and act upon them. This is almost always some degree of a quiet environment, without visual or auditory distractions. the opposite of the ideal conditions of Communicators. Communicators must interact with others to do their job. (1) Typical of…
It's usually older and/or more introverted people who complain about the open-office craze, but there's absolutely no shortage of programmers who will strongly defend it.
The other type of noise that really affects my ability to concentrate is loud whistling that people will sometimes do as they walk down the halls, again reflecting off all the surfaces in the office, which my brain seems to involuntarily interpret as "Hey! Hey! Hey, hey look! Hey!" and constantly resets my focus as though someone had just tapped me on the shoulder every few seconds.
When I'm not trying to concentrate hard on something I tend not to be bothered by even these noises - but when working it can feel almost like being physically harassed. I suppose this is a form of misophonia, but it is extremely context-dependent and at other times I enjoy the diversity of sounds (including the whistling).
I've never worked in open-plan offices. But cube farms are bad enough. One of my coworkers was going through a messy divorce. And spent time on the phone arguing loudly with his wife. And talking with his attorney.
I ended up knowing too much about his situation. And I sympathized with his wife. So it became problematic to work effectively with him.
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When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Yep, sorry, but at the very least destroying your employer's property... I mean, do I have to spell it out.
I am curious about this. Do people who work in the open plan office, feel bothered by clicky mechanical keyboard sounds (cherry mx blue, greeen etc)?
I use a mechanical, as the Apple keyboards gave me RSI. My pain has gone away since, and I've not had any complaints about noise. (Much of my office uses mechanical, and most of us do it for our wrists.)
I use some of the quieter switches; I'm not in mechanical for the noise, but for the feel & layout. That said, it's about on-par noise wise with an Apple keyboard, but people think mechanical == noise.
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That was a very, very stupid thing to do. https://latterdaysaintmag.com/the-parable-of-chestertons-fen...
Chesterton's Fence works when the people in authority are willing and able to change things with adequate understanding and justification. Sometimes no one knows why the thing is there and the options are remove it and see what happens or keep devoting resources and accommodations to it while it reduces quality of life. I'm usually critical of SV style creative destruction, but sometimes asking for forgiveness instea…
There's a big downside here. If he had asked the purpose of the printer, that would have identified him as the one who disliked it, and the most likely perpetrator if something happened to it.
Also remember the old saying, "it's always better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission". It's true usually. If he had asked to do something about the printer, the likely answer would have been "no", because the superiors didn't want to expend any energy on it and it wasn't bothering them.