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Let me take you through my dream office

blog.coderbyheart.com

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Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#41

Post by tckr »

mattpratt wrote: post #10

I recently finished _Deep Work_ by Cal Newport. In the book he discusses a workplace concept designed by David Dewane called the "Eudaimonia Machine". This workspace has multiple sections you progress through linearly, slowly moving towards independent, distraction free, personal chambers where you perform your most productive, thoughtful, deepest work. My dream office would have more rooms like this!

Yes!

I imagined having a floor where people arrange themselves based on lighting preferences, so the farther you go into the floor the lower the lights are. You can't have the lights brighter then the previous office.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#42

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

One sad thing that this article (I think inadvertently) illuminates is how hypersensitive Americans are about mundane parts of life like using the bathroom.

Markus' office design works over here in Europe because [I'm fairly certain] his crowd invests heavily in a healthy social culture at work, as opposed to a nervously litigious (i.e. immediately defer to HR) culture as is so common in the US.

Personally, I think Markus' office design is excellent. What I would change however, is the television setup. I've been 100% remote for most of my career, so I'm always the guy on the television. I would much prefer to be on everyone's screens individually like a little StarCraft briefing room.

Some benefits:

- sound quality is better

- less chance of audio feedback

- visual cues (like when someone wants to interject) are easier to pick up on

- screen sharing is usually easier

- difference in latency is less pronounced

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#43

Post by tckr »

r00fus wrote: post #29
mynameishere wrote: post #8

Traditional closed offices, conference rooms for group work, and multiple non-shared unisex bathrooms (exactly like the kind in a typical house--how innovative!) That's the perfect office, and I know because I've worked in it and every other variation.

How many houses have unisex bathrooms with stalls? I know it was popular on Ally McBeal, but how many of these exist? Or am I just sheltered and unworldly?

Yes, I'll update the design and remove the stalls.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#44

Post by coldtea »

Domenic_S wrote: post #33

You have to have meeting rooms. People always say you don't, but you always do. Where do you do sprint planning? Project brainstorming? Private meetings (with actual privacy needed, like reviews)?

>Where do you do sprint planning? Project brainstorming?

Both of these are things that are best avoided.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#46

Post by coldtea »

justinpombrio wrote: post #28
dbg31415 wrote: post #23

On the whole, certainly an improvement over any open-floor plan. But... some points made me cringe. > The unisex bathroom has a separate shower for those that come to the office by bike. I do not want a unisex bathroom. I've had a unisex bathroom... at work and in college and I don't want to go back to that again. Unisex bathrooms create way too many awkward situations... (And also, I wouldn't put the bathroom next t…

> Unisex bathrooms create way too many awkward situations... Fortunately this awkwardness can be avoided by having separate sex bathrooms, because people of the same sex are never attracted to one another. > And also, I wouldn't put the bathroom next to the kitchen... that's just odd. For plumbing reasons, things that require water tend to be near to one another. Ever noticed that bathrooms are always above one anoth…

>Fortunately this awkwardness can be avoided by having separate sex bathrooms, because people of the same sex are never attracted to one another.

Far less often, by biological imperative, so yes. It can be, if not avoided, diminished.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#47

Post by cyberferret »

Nice designs - I like them and would certainly consider some of those ideas in any future office fitout of mine.

However, I am unsure about those walls just inside the doorways that act as a buffer. Why not just have a door (with a glass window, the wall with the door doesn't already have a window)?

That way, the team working in the room can simply close the door when they do not want to be disturbed, or open it when they don't mind visitors. The window still lets others look in to peek at what they are doing, and the non window space on the door can still be used to put up signs, posters etc. as they would on the wall section.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#49

Post by noir_lord »

Decided to change job recently, applied for two, went for an interview at the first and they offered me the job.

I took it on the spot despite the other place paying more.

One of the reasons I took it on the spot was when asked where I'd prefer to work and I said somewhere quiet he said there are offices upstairs, take whichever one you want.

That was the major deciding factor (among others), I know the other place is open plan.

I'll take slightly less pay to sit in a quiet office and work over an open office.

(Other things I liked about the job where flex time, I buy all hardware I need myself, they pay for conferences, training courses, no phone on the desk (I asked for that and they said no problem), an interesting complex problem (I like enterprise stuff) and they are strongly focused on building out some proper in-house technical skill and replacing their creaking systems, I get technical freedom, I can use whatever I want on the backend and I'll be assembling a team as they bring stuff back in house and final kicker it's 10m walk from where I live so no commute).

Since both places pay more than enough for me to live comfortably in north of England I'll happily take the slightly lower pay (in the short term) for the above.

I don't think employers still understand how much some developers loathe open offices, it's not a 'prefer' to, it is a 'won't if at all possible'.

Re: Let me take you through my dream office

#50

Post by dyeje »

I like it a lot. Some tweaks I'd suggest:

1. Alternate configurations of the offices to handle growth. People are gonna get added, it's inevitable so you may as well make the best of it.

2. 2 - 4 meeting rooms. They're just a must. Customer / contractor calls, interviews, client meetings, private meetings (nobody wants to get fired in front of their peers), etc.

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