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The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

nathanmarz.com

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Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#31

Post by atlantic »

abalone wrote: post #10

Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…

Speaking as a developer, I've worked for years both in open-plan spaces and in individual offices. My experience is that productivity is incomparably better in an individual office. There was no upside to open-plan; just constant interruption and frustration.

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#32

Post by pekk »

abalone wrote: post #10

Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…

Wow. You think that time I spend coding features you asked for is not helping you?

Then at the end of the week, I am still giving an accounting of why a feature isn't finished on a schedule given by the same people who were interrupting the work I was doing to satisfy their stated priorities.

I'm amazed at how you totally ignore that this makes people miserable and contributes to bad management.

Why not learn to use email to ask a question?

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#33

Post by morsch »

cjf4 wrote: post #18

My work has a relatively unique (I think) set up that in my opinion pulls the best of both worlds. Basically, it's a big semi circle of 6-8 half cubes around the manager. So if you are looking straight forward at your computer, there aren't too many distractions. But if you want to talk to a teammate/manager, you just need to pivot your chair 180 degrees. It's a good balance of collaboration/help and concentration.

Sounds like a panopticon to me.

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#34

Post by fiatpandas »

My ideas:

1. For core teams, ditch the open floor plan and instead put teams into small (4-5 person max, with smaller options) private rooms that line the perimeter

2. Project rooms are not permanent. A team should expect to move around perhaps once every 3-4 months

3. Team leaders / managers would of course work in the same room as their team

4. In the center of the perimeter of team rooms could be a hacker workspace, shared areas, supplies, snacks, etc. With breakout meeting rooms around the space as well

5. executive leadership would work sitting with other specific staff (like finance, HR, office managers, etc) in an open floor plan-like area; most importantly, execs wouldn't have private offices because ideally they should be moving around meeting with the teams, jumping into conference rooms, jetting out of the office, etc.

6. this open area should be relatively quiet

7. people working in this open area should have ample access to private spaces for breakout meetings, private phone calls, reflection, relaxation, etc

Obviously these rules won't apply perfectly to every company and work type, but I'm just brainstorming

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#35

Post by pekk »

robinhouston wrote: post #26

“Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in impo…

Almost everyone misses fame, whether their door is open or closed.

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#36

Post by Goladus »

stephencanon wrote: post #23
Goladus wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixar had a really cool idea put all of the bathrooms on one side of the building I'd be interested to know how much they saved on plumbing costs. That seems to me like an architectural decision driven by financial concerns and sold as a benefit. Not that it isn't a benefit, many of the most interesting designs are a consequence of some practical constraint.

Apparently you haven't seen the Pixar buildings; it's pretty clear that little of their design was guided by financial constraints. They are about as far as it's possible to get away from typical cheap office construction.

There are always financial concerns. Just because you have a huge budget doesn't mean you don't min-max where possible.

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#37

Post by Robin_Message »

atlantic wrote: post #31
abalone wrote: post #10

Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…

Speaking as a developer, I've worked for years both in open-plan spaces and in individual offices. My experience is that productivity is incomparably better in an individual office. There was no upside to open-plan; just constant interruption and frustration.

> constant interruption and frustration.

The point of the post you are replying to is that the "constant interruption and frustration" enables other developers to be more productive, raising the overall productivity of the team.

Also, you probably remember the times when you were interrupted and it was annoying strongly, but do you remember the times you interrupted someone else and saved valuable time?

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#38

Post by empthought »

abalone wrote: post #10

Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…

That link about the Cornell study is comically bad. Where are the raw data tables?

Doing a little background research it seems they were comparing open floor plans to cubicles. They didn't even consider the obvious alternatives to the panopticon, such as remote work or the tried-and-true office with a door.

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#39

Post by pekk »

dkhenry wrote: post #27

I like open floor plans. I find I get more done in my open floor plan office then my closed off private office at my house. I hate how all these critiques are so absolute in that "Open Floor Plans are Bad". Open floor plans work, and they work well. Like Eric Schmidt if there was some secret benefit to having offices for everyone that could make workers so much more productive don't you think companies would jump at…

So the reason businesses shifted to open floor plans when they didn't use them before was that they suddenly became optimal?

Or maybe there are fashions in management as there are in anything else.

Re: The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies

#40

Post by mtkd »

crusso wrote: post #20
abalone wrote: post #10

Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…

it focuses on individual productivity This is one of those "beat the drum" issues on HN where we keep seeing article after article trying to drive the same one-sided point home. When I see this as the top article on HN, I just have to wonder if many of the people who come to HN are looking to disrupt the startup community. I've worked in environments that run the gamut from individual offices, to cubes, to small work…

> Maybe one or two in ten people have trouble working in that environment

In my experience they are the one or two that do all the heavy lifting.

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