The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light • Hacker News Board

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#211

Post by swozey » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:21 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #71

Oh yes please. I work as a games programmer at a massive studio and it looks like 90% of people here prefer complete darkness during the day, to the point where they have these umbrella-like covers above their desks to cover any light from the lamps that somehow miraculously are still on. Me and few other people occupy a little corner next to a window that we stubbornly refuse to close the blinds on, despite bi-weekl…

Are you sure the lights aren't reflecting on their monitors? My monitors face the windows in our high rise and around 3pm I can barely see my screens and have to adjust everything to reflect less, and these are matte monitors.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#212

Post by beat » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:27 PM UTC

bstar77 wrote: post #199

l33tbro wrote: post #113

Currently working alone in my own windowless office in an almost completely windowless building. Compared to the previous 'open-plan' gig where I sat opposite opposite Jill-from-Comms and Sales-bro Bryan, it rules so hard. So yeah,"the #1 office perk" for me is not getting interrupted with inane shit every ten minutes.

My solution was to buy a pair of headphones with good sound isolation. The building could be burning down and I'd wouldn't give a shit.

I find it difficult to work while wearing headphones. Music is very distracting.

I just spent two and a half years working from home, where I could leave the tv on in the background. That was awesome. A little motion out of the corner of my eye, some noise, but nothing structured in a way I cared about. Loud reality shows about mechanical stuff were my noise-companion. I could just ignore them.

Music is full of structure. I love it far too much to work with it.

On the positive side, the "open office" I'm in now has some restaurant-style booths set up with glass doors. They're lifesavers.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#213

Post by jimmy1 » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:29 PM UTC

bstar77 wrote: post #199

l33tbro wrote: post #113

Currently working alone in my own windowless office in an almost completely windowless building. Compared to the previous 'open-plan' gig where I sat opposite opposite Jill-from-Comms and Sales-bro Bryan, it rules so hard. So yeah,"the #1 office perk" for me is not getting interrupted with inane shit every ten minutes.

My solution was to buy a pair of headphones with good sound isolation. The building could be burning down and I'd wouldn't give a shit.

Here I feel the need to share what I feel like is my ultimate setup: put in earplugs first, then cover with sound deadening/isolating headphones, finally play white noise. I don't hear shit.

Added bonus: put your chair and feet on a mat with vibration deadening material such as sorbothane, so you don't even feel people walk by.

Next I am planning on experimenting putting up a tri-fold poster board to block out visual distractions, too.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#214

Post by peterwwillis » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:29 PM UTC

iamdave wrote: post #208

bstar77 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution was to buy a pair of headphones with good sound isolation. The building could be burning down and I'd wouldn't give a shit.

New job has me sitting next to a 20U rack cabinet with my network "lab" humming away all day long in an office I share with one other person (plenty of space for the two of us). Support is right down the hall. I don't hear a thing except every now and then someone running the ice maker but it's well buffered by the three Dell blade servers lol. It's awesome .

Your setup may not be very noisy, but if it were at 88 dB, I would consider earplug headphones to reduce the risk of NIHL or tinnitus.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#215

Post by xxpor » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:30 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #205

mooss wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did an internship last year which consisted in writing unit tests for a raytracing library that was among other things - I was told - used to determine if buildings were on paper getting enough sunlight according to european standards. I'm not sure whether they were talking about EU regulations or about the regulations of specific european countries. Edit: typos

There are planning regulations in the UK preventing new developments from "stealing" light from existing buildings, there's also a Right to Light. Eg http://www.right-of-light.co.uk/services/calculations-and-re...

>There are planning regulations in the UK preventing new developments from "stealing" light from existing buildings,

Sounds like backdoor NIMBYism

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#216

Post by jwr » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:30 PM UTC

beat wrote: post #212

bstar77 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution was to buy a pair of headphones with good sound isolation. The building could be burning down and I'd wouldn't give a shit.

I find it difficult to work while wearing headphones. Music is very distracting. I just spent two and a half years working from home, where I could leave the tv on in the background. That was awesome. A little motion out of the corner of my eye, some noise, but nothing structured in a way I cared about. Loud reality shows about mechanical stuff were my noise-companion. I could just ignore them. Music is full of struc…

Yes, music is more distracting than people think. Its effects can be subtle: it engages your creative brain, so you end up working like crazy, only to notice afterwards that the work was not needed at all (there was a better solution, but your creative abilities were busy processing music).

Don't listen to music while doing creative work. Use noise, like sounds of the sea (I use an app called "Naturespace" for high-quality audio).

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#217

Post by thekingofh » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:31 PM UTC

DenisM wrote: post #202

Rarely discussed is the fact that professional phography lighting has high CRI and is not that expensive. There are plenty of LED panels on Amazon that can be rigged to work as desk lights. Also, you can buy a professinal CRI meter so that you can get an idea of what you’re buying here. Outside LED there are also high-CRI CFL lights which are easier to fit into overhead lights compared to LED. Still they need to be m…

Can you explain what you mean? Is this similar to natural lighting somehow?

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#218

Post by monocasa » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:40 PM UTC

gjhicks wrote: post #207

betterworldb wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's modernist design. And it sucks.

Maybe bad modernist design or the out-of-favor brutalist design. Modernist design does not favor large slabs of flat concrete. Really, no form of design does. So, it's really just bad design.

Even brutalism wasn't for big empty slabs for a plaza.

I've heard that cities are going that way to make pop up events easier. I don't think it really makes it that much easier though, and it looks like shit when an event isn't going on.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#219

Post by Ocerge » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:41 PM UTC

Sileni wrote: post #183

l33tbro wrote: post #113

Currently working alone in my own windowless office in an almost completely windowless building. Compared to the previous 'open-plan' gig where I sat opposite opposite Jill-from-Comms and Sales-bro Bryan, it rules so hard. So yeah,"the #1 office perk" for me is not getting interrupted with inane shit every ten minutes.

I will never work in an open plan building again. It left me absolutely brain dead and begging the clock to go faster because I couldn't think at work anyway.

I feel the same way, but I'm just not sure I'm to the point where I can demand to not work for an open plan company; it's how it is pretty much everywhere I've interviewed. I'd be curious to see percentages in terms of tech companies that still have office rooms for their engineers.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#220

Post by beat » Wed, Sep 05, 2018, 3:42 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #216

beat wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it difficult to work while wearing headphones. Music is very distracting. I just spent two and a half years working from home, where I could leave the tv on in the background. That was awesome. A little motion out of the corner of my eye, some noise, but nothing structured in a way I cared about. Loud reality shows about mechanical stuff were my noise-companion. I could just ignore them. Music is full of struc…

Yes, music is more distracting than people think. Its effects can be subtle: it engages your creative brain, so you end up working like crazy, only to notice afterwards that the work was not needed at all (there was a better solution, but your creative abilities were busy processing music). Don't listen to music while doing creative work. Use noise, like sounds of the sea (I use an app called "Naturespace" for high-q…

I'm a musician, so I find most music to be almost ridiculously interesting. Leads me to thinking about the music rather than the work I should be doing. And I find headphones to be physically uncomfortable very quickly.