Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction • Hacker News Board

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#191

Post by djhworld » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 7:28 PM UTC

I'm currently on training on higher floor in the office, it's such a contrast to my usual desk. On the higher floor they have LOTS of natural light and there are only about 30-40 people on the floor with huge desks and lots of space in between each desk. It's so nice and quiet too.

On my floor (much lower down the building) there are about 100-120 people crammed into tiny little desks with hardly any natural light. It's so noisy with everyone in close proximity you can hardly hear yourself think, let alone getting on with coding.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#192

Post by djhworld » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 7:31 PM UTC

jusben1369 wrote: post #72

Anybody here feel like this might be a generational issue? I suspect the negative crowd is north of 30 and/or experienced non open spaces. But just a guess.

I'm 26 and I hate open plan.

Well, I hate the way it is implemented. If you reduced the number of people on a floor, with more desk space and space around desks, I think it could be a MUCH more pleasant environment.

But with managers cramming so many people onto a floor it really grinds you down.

There must be a formula somewhere that calculates the "optimum" or "agreeable" workspace somewhere

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#193

Post by asdasf » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 7:33 PM UTC

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 means activities that interfere with others or society. Lacking a desire to socialize is asocial, not antisocial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_behavior http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asociality

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#194

Post by MamaDalton » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 8:00 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #131

I used to trade on the largest trading floor in the world. It's the ultimate open office plan - MD next to associate director next to operations analyst next to napping beer cart attendant. Information flowed like quicksilver, and bureaucratic hurdles were resolved in a rapid sequence of huffs and grunts. For pounding through a structured list of tasks, there was no match. For more cerebral work, I hated it. My most…

I would die a thousand deaths in an open layout office. If offices must design their spaces for max efficiency of desks rather than of work product then they are not utilizing max efficiency of their greatest asset—their people. The idea above of a 'library retreat' has some benefit; but what if you have 1/2 an office of folks who need quiet to produce? It would be vastly important I think to include such questions on the interview...and to know how to answer them for the interviewee.

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#195

Post by tempestn » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:58 AM UTC

henrik_w wrote: post #130

tempestn wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in an open office situation once with a co-worker across from me who listened to sports talk radio all day - no headphones. I literally can't imagine a more distracting work environment.

Me neither! Did you ask him to use headphones?

Eventually, and amazingly we actually became decent friends... eventually. In the early days it was a matter of picking my battles, and there were other more important things to work on. (Hard as that might be to believe.) So for a while I just put my headphones in and tried to tune it out.

(Initially I just asked him to turn it down, and I don't recall the exact response, but it was probably approximately, "No.")

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#196

Post by joe5150 » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 11:11 AM UTC

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.

Also: http://i.imgur.com/bZwKOzy.jpg

Re: Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction

#197

Post by vectorjohn » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 4:19 PM UTC

epsylon wrote: post #146

vectorjohn wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 the…

Yeah, I know what an introvert is - that comic describes me very well.

This person still sounds more antisocial than introverted. And if they're just extremely introverted, then news flash: they live in the real world with /other people/.

I'm introverted but at work a lot of what people want to talk about is not work but /does/ align to my interests (software, engineering, etc.). So talking happens, and this person trying to shove their workaholic no-nonsense BS down everyone else's throat is no good.