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CEOs Want Their Offices Back

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Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#191

Post by djsumdog »

solnyshok wrote: post #16
coffeeski wrote: post #8

Why 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.

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've worked in tons of cubes for the first seven years of my career. I thought nothing could be worse, until I discovered the hell of open plan offices. I've been stuck in them for the past six years and it's a new level of hell.

Have you been in a cube? You don't have to watch other's pick their noses. It's way better than open workspaces.

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#192

Post by thedarkginger »

deepGem wrote: post #101
varelse wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I worked at Sun Microsystems for a while and their private office layout was really nice. I can't ballpark the exact size but the office could hold 3 gigantic CRT monitors, 2 desk phones, and had space for 2 visitors. I feel that a 2 person private office is quite optimal, since we are talking about teams. It's easier to pair program or discuss and even maintain silence when required. Office designers will have to pa…

Have never worked in a non-open office plan so I can't really conceptualize this but sounds interesting.

So if I envision a floor, do you just have rows of 2-person offices with hallways in between?

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#193

Post by blhack »

varelse wrote: post #151
blhack wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The standard keyboard layout, which every mechanical keyboard I've ever seen (including my beloved model M) is terrible for your wrists. The people using mechanical keyboards are not saving themselves anything. Get a proper ergonomic keyboard like the microsoft sculpt if you actually care about the health of you hands. Mechanical keyboards are cool, which is why I own one, and when I had an office why I used one ever…

I've been down this route many times. And after Dvorak, Kinesis, and a wide assortment of supposedly ergonomic keyboards, El-cheapo $15 Kensington USB keyboards and $20 Logitech trac-balls turn out to work best with my wrists, occasionally aided by Imax smartgloves. I have a veritable museum of failed keyboards and pointing devices in my closet. IMO there is no silver bullet here. Also to extend your automotive metap…

Have you tried the sculpt? I was having wrist pain that was preventing me from working up until about a week after mine arrived.

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#194

Post by splintercell »

dralley wrote: post #25
coffeeski wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take a 10% paycut to have a small office that fits 2 monitors, a filing cabinet and some pictures, rather then dealing with constant clattering of the guy behind me that decided converting a type writer into a digital keyboard was a good idea.

Brown-type switches are OK, it's the blue-type keys that are problematic.

I used to be the blue-vs-brown guy (mostly because my brown keyboard made a lot less sound that my coworker's blue), but then I tried his keyboard and let him try mine and it turned out that it wasn't about the keyboard switches, rather it was about the person using them. My blues made a lot less sound than his browns.

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#195

Post by BatFastard »

wastedhours wrote: post #46
markatkinson wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was told my brown switches were horrendous :(

Was once commended on my hard work since a manager could hear my constant typing on my Browns. Annoyed a lot of people in the process, of course.

Funny thing about loud keyboards. A few years ago my company had a programming pit, and I could tell when ever one of my younger programmers was chatting with a friend rather than working. His typing rate would go from 20 wpm to 100 wpm. FYI I quickly abandoned the programming pit, back to quite workspaces for all!

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#196

Post by splintercell »

nsxwolf wrote: post #140
maccard wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most cases, it's the keys bottoming out rather the switches. Guy in our office with a membrane keyboard who smashes the keys into oblivion is far louder than the two mechanical keyboards in the same space.

By the way, I cannot type without bottoming out, and I suspect this is something many people simply cannot learn to do. My hands will just not cooperate. I use Topre switches, which are supposedly quite ideal for practicing this magical voodoo typing technique, and when pressing a key enough to activate it but not bottom out, I have about a 50-50 chance of not activating the key at all. It's not something that's ever…

I use a topre too, and I bottomed out too, as it turned out that blues a lot better in terms of teaching you not to bottom out (because they have an audible click which provides you about the feedback of the actuation point).

I'd recommend to get used blue and try it out.

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#197

Post by coffeeski »

ageofwant wrote: post #92

Is there a HN facility where I could just block these pay-walled articles? I have nothing against someone trying to make a buck, but there is insignificant chance that I will 'subscribe' or login to read a wsj article. I just want to save me some time and wsj some bandwidth. OK maybe I just need to learn to look at the link.

Buy a subscription? Theres a link to the free version

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#198

Post by _raoulcousins »

jdc0589 wrote: post #87
jesseryoung wrote: post #50

It seems like when "Open Office" articles come out there seem to be quite a few people talking ill of them. I recently switched jobs and with it switched from an open concept (large room with whiteboards separating teams) to an office (shared with one other coworker.) Maybe I was conditioned to like it (I certainly didn't like it at first) but I really did prefer the open concept when working on a team of 8 or 9 peop…

This is why I actually like cubicles. you are physically close to your team, if your space is organized well you are on a common isle with people you work with, but you still have at least a little bit of isolation in your personal workspace. I DO NOT understand why cubes get so much hate.

Slight differences in cubes make a big difference to me. I was just moved to a cube where the only feasible setup is having my back to foot traffic and it drives me nuts.

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#199

Post by busterarm »

meddlepal wrote: post #118
LoSboccacc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many large company will do but the large brunt of codetariat working for cash strapped business living and dying according to investors and customers will be keept in the open spaces: they looks cool in photos, convey a reassuring sense of "working bees" and sells well to visiting customers, so I fear the open plan it's here to stay.

I think we can have our cake and eat it too. The all-glass office style at We Work could be adopted. I wish the glass was a bit thicker but the small shared office or bullpen model is ideal IMO.

Personally, I hated my experience in the glass-door offices of WeWork. The cheaper communal areas they had were vastly more productive and everyone was was respectful of it being a public space for everyone to work (for the most part).

The actual offices on the other hand, had almost no sound deadening between them, the hallways way too narrow and it was all-party, all-the-time. People from other companies getting absolutely smashed on keg beer starting at noon was a daily problem. At the one building I went to that had entire floors of conference rooms, you could hear everything from 3 conference rooms over, making phone calls impossible.

Re: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

#200

Post by throwaway76543 »

chii wrote: post #52
rayiner wrote: post #26

> The lofty building Jordan Hamad moved his tech-advisory firm into four years ago had the trappings of a startup idyll: open floor plan, polished concrete floors , custom-built communal tables. Decisions like this make me seriously question the whole idea that our economy is populated by rational actors. Obviously polished concrete floors are a terrible idea in an office. Even if you believe that open plan works, th…

but it fits the decor so well! When investors come, they wow at the decor, and that makes them feel we are worth investing in!

I worked in a highly visible operations center at a particular Fortune 50 company during the first dot-com go-around. Dedicated NOC designed to look somewhat like NASA MCC. Fishbowl facing a common area; very much on display for visiting executives who would often cluster outside the glass and watch Operations Being Done.

The relevant twist: An office manager felt the adjustable height desks weren't aesthetically pleasing. He set them all to the same height, removed the adjustment cranks, and sent out an email instructing us to not adjust the desks or to change monitor heights.

This policy lasted about a week before disgruntled employees with neck pain got in contact with folks responsible for employer liability.

I have never forgotten the lesson that workspaces are not always constructed with employees in mind.

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