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Why Open Offices Are Terrible

washingtonian.com

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Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#41

Post by pivo »

nkrisc wrote: post #26
dkonofalski wrote: post #2

That really doesn't say anything about why they're terrible. They're just posting a bunch of random factoids without any kind of explanation for why those numbers might be. Seems like everything was cherry-picked pretty well.

Not only that, at least one fact, how much AT&T saved, seems to imply open office spaces are not terrible. That is because the click-bait headline doesn't specify for whom.

Well, if the other metrics are as bad as they sound then saving $3K USD per employee might not be a net win for AT&T.

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#42

Post by bsg75 »

kzhahou wrote: post #14
iamleppert wrote: post #4

I found I was the most productive when I was in a small office with 2-3 other developers, with a door we could close. Everyone was setup this way, and people ended up decorating each of their rooms and every room had a "theme" (ours was called the lounge). This degree of personalization brought me closer to my co-workers whom I shared the office with, and as a result we worked better together. In the afternoons, we'd…

Product idea: if you work at a startup of just 4-5 people and it's pretty quiet in your little space, we'll rent out temporary fake co-workers, who will talk loudly about their weekends next to you, shoot nerf guns, and get on the phone with AT&T to dispute a charge. The premium plan will include a manager who walks the floor and asks you how things are going. You can rent the co-workers on a weekly basis, or even ju…

That sounds like the next hot startup! Will you be dogfooding your own service?

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#43

Post by Johnny555 »

I toured Sun Microsytems a long time ago, and at the time, they said they gave all employees private offices. They had copious open areas for team collaboration, but everyone appeared to have their own (small) private office.

I think they eventually moved to floating offices with Sun-Rays everywhere, plug in your employee ID at any workstation and your desktop (and phone) magically appeared in that office.

Seemed like it would have been a good place to work at the time (mid 90's, just as they were starting to skyrocket along with the dotcom boom).

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#44

Post by vonmoltke »

pivo wrote: post #41
nkrisc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, at least one fact, how much AT&T saved, seems to imply open office spaces are not terrible. That is because the click-bait headline doesn't specify for whom.

Well, if the other metrics are as bad as they sound then saving $3K USD per employee might not be a net win for AT&T.

Office space has a direct line item on somebody's balance sheet. Productivity doesn't.

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#45

Post by sitkack »

kzhahou wrote: post #14
iamleppert wrote: post #4

I found I was the most productive when I was in a small office with 2-3 other developers, with a door we could close. Everyone was setup this way, and people ended up decorating each of their rooms and every room had a "theme" (ours was called the lounge). This degree of personalization brought me closer to my co-workers whom I shared the office with, and as a result we worked better together. In the afternoons, we'd…

Product idea: if you work at a startup of just 4-5 people and it's pretty quiet in your little space, we'll rent out temporary fake co-workers, who will talk loudly about their weekends next to you, shoot nerf guns, and get on the phone with AT&T to dispute a charge. The premium plan will include a manager who walks the floor and asks you how things are going. You can rent the co-workers on a weekly basis, or even ju…

Dude, your jonesing my idea. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9978487

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#46

Post by hire_charts »

The trick to making an open office plan work is to use the lack of walls to increase the square footage per employee. On top of that, it really helps to have "break-out" spaces or quiet rooms, where you can go to get some work done away from the bustle.

The problem is that it's easy to fall into the trap of cutting costs as part of transitioning to an open plan. You really can't have it both ways -- either you increase productivity and pay more in square-footage, or you cram everyone into a much smaller space at the cost of productivity and happiness.

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#47

Post by kzhahou »

sitkack wrote: post #45
kzhahou wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Product idea: if you work at a startup of just 4-5 people and it's pretty quiet in your little space, we'll rent out temporary fake co-workers, who will talk loudly about their weekends next to you, shoot nerf guns, and get on the phone with AT&T to dispute a charge. The premium plan will include a manager who walks the floor and asks you how things are going. You can rent the co-workers on a weekly basis, or even ju…

Dude, your jonesing my idea. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9978487

I've got second-mover advantage now!

Wanna split the three commas?

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#48

Post by sitkack »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #3

There seems to be little discussion of the benefits to open offices. I would like to know how much money is saved to startups without significant funding. A big company like AT&T has no excuse but "shareholder value" for lowering the quality of work life - because let's be honest, private offices are obviously best - but a startup doesn't really have that choice. Personally, I'm fine with some kind of mix. Some peopl…

> but a startup doesn't really have that choice.

It absolutely has that choice. No one is forcing startups to put people in open plans. No one is forcing startups to pay exorbitant rent.

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#49

Post by pan69 »

I can relate to the open office space fiasco. I have spend many years working in them.

However, it isn't always an easy problem to solve for companies either, office space can be quite expensive and to give every developer (let alone every person) a private office is in most scenarios just not going to be financially viable.

Having said, it should be doable for most companies to have at least a "loud" and a "quiet" space, i.e. two open spaces in stead of one. This gives workers at least some choice in which environment they prefer to work and it should be feasible for most companies out there.

Re: Why Open Offices Are Terrible

#50

Post by r00fus »

joeax wrote: post #22

Nothing beats a home office. Or a Starbucks office, or working wherever you want.

I don't like permanently working in my home office. I need other folks around me most times to really keep me productive.

My current pattern is to WFH 1-2 days a week, good for days with kids appointments or if I have back-to-back calls (e.g. from 6AM-2PM).

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