An inside look at Yandex.ru's offices • Hacker News Board

Re: An inside look at Yandex.ru's offices

#21

Post by eipipuz » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 1:07 AM UTC

smakz wrote: post #19

CWIZO wrote: post #5

As fantastic as this office is, I'd hate to work in a environment where anybody can freely look over my shoulder at any time. I'll take privacy and a dull office over this any time. We've managed to satisfy this concern ( http://www.mojalbum.com/popcom/popcom-office ) and I'm really happy about our office.

What are you doing at work that you don't want people looking over your shoulder? Serious question by the way - it always comes up in work environments that some people are pretty against the lack of privacy that comes along with these types of set ups, but really if you are at work there shouldn't be too much (if anything) on your screen which is private. I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide…

I think it is more a principle than a pragmatic choice. People want privacy for no other reason than having it.

Re: An inside look at Yandex.ru's offices

#22

Post by JabavuAdams » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 1:15 AM UTC

smakz wrote: post #19

CWIZO wrote: post #5

As fantastic as this office is, I'd hate to work in a environment where anybody can freely look over my shoulder at any time. I'll take privacy and a dull office over this any time. We've managed to satisfy this concern ( http://www.mojalbum.com/popcom/popcom-office ) and I'm really happy about our office.

What are you doing at work that you don't want people looking over your shoulder? Serious question by the way - it always comes up in work environments that some people are pretty against the lack of privacy that comes along with these types of set ups, but really if you are at work there shouldn't be too much (if anything) on your screen which is private. I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide…

> I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide open spaces and everyone is together with no walls between.

Visual and audio noise.

They're really bad for productivity of creators. They're good for managers / coordinators / investors.

The standard argument that "you can wear headphones" doesn't work for serious design work. Pounding music is great for grinding through list-ish stuff, but not for creativity.

It's like sleep deprivation. People who are sleep deprived will insist "I'm fine -- I just need a coffee", but their performance is much lower than those who are well rested.

EDIT> I'm not responding to the over-the-shoulder question here. I find it very distracting to see others' faces, though, e.g. with back-to-back monitors. Most of us are wired to pay attention to faces, so they cause a lot of visual noise.

At this point in my career, open-concept offices with > 4 or so people are a deal breaker. It makes me hate programming.

Re: An inside look at Yandex.ru's offices

#23

Post by sfphotoarts » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 1:22 AM UTC

smakz wrote: post #19

CWIZO wrote: post #5

As fantastic as this office is, I'd hate to work in a environment where anybody can freely look over my shoulder at any time. I'll take privacy and a dull office over this any time. We've managed to satisfy this concern ( http://www.mojalbum.com/popcom/popcom-office ) and I'm really happy about our office.

What are you doing at work that you don't want people looking over your shoulder? Serious question by the way - it always comes up in work environments that some people are pretty against the lack of privacy that comes along with these types of set ups, but really if you are at work there shouldn't be too much (if anything) on your screen which is private. I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide…

HackerNews.

Re: An inside look at Yandex.ru's offices

#24

Post by CWIZO » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 6:42 AM UTC

smakz wrote: post #19

CWIZO wrote: post #5

As fantastic as this office is, I'd hate to work in a environment where anybody can freely look over my shoulder at any time. I'll take privacy and a dull office over this any time. We've managed to satisfy this concern ( http://www.mojalbum.com/popcom/popcom-office ) and I'm really happy about our office.

What are you doing at work that you don't want people looking over your shoulder? Serious question by the way - it always comes up in work environments that some people are pretty against the lack of privacy that comes along with these types of set ups, but really if you are at work there shouldn't be too much (if anything) on your screen which is private. I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide…

I just don't like somebody looking at my monitor. I also don't like somebody looking over my shoulder when I'm reading a book or a newspaper, and there's nothing to hide there. It just makes me nervous. I just don't like being on display and knowing that at all times somebody could be watching me and I wouldn't even know it. That's why I like the layout of our office. We are all together, not 2 meters apart from each other, but everybody can "hide" behind his monitor(s) and have his privacy. Also the way we are organized I don't see others people's faces unless I want to (JabavuAdams pointed this out in his reply to you)

Re: An inside look at Yandex.ru's offices

#25

Post by va1en0k » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 9:31 AM UTC

VladRussian wrote: post #12

va1en0k wrote: post #2

http://media.englishrussia.com/ya/0_59819_f6ec66d1_orig.jpg Looks like "Russian" from some Hollywood movies. Not a single word in real Russian :-)

both are carrying what seems to be cigarette packs. They have smoking rooms now. What happened to the conveniency of smoking right in from of the computer? Did computers riot against second-hand smoking?

Smoking at your workplace is prohibited in Russia. It's good