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Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

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Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#41

Post by Quimoniz »

throwaway64787 wrote: post #11
lawgimenez wrote: post #9

When I graduated from college, never have I envisioned once that my optimal workspace is just a laptop, working from home, while spending time with fam, and get some hobbies done at the same time.

>while spending time with fam, and get some hobbies done at the same time Getting paid to waste time not doing your job is considered work now?

> Getting paid to waste time not doing your job

Pretty much the definition of 90 % of all the meetings. Just putting on bluetooth earpieces and doing the laundry doesn't deduct the value of me hearing another round of very efficient 'cost savings' that they thought about somewhere up the chain or other administrative ideas.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#42

Post by lnxg33k1 »

nox100 wrote: post #18

Some do, not all do. I do much better in a room with ~6 people that are working on the same project. Much better than working at home. Much better than a private office (which I've had). Having people around me working on the same project is invaluable for me for * asking quick questions and getting an instant answer. vs chat where I may not get an answer for hours. * running ideas by others. This doesn't happen on c…

[flagged]

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#43

Post by nightfly »

throwaway64787 wrote: post #11
lawgimenez wrote: post #9

When I graduated from college, never have I envisioned once that my optimal workspace is just a laptop, working from home, while spending time with fam, and get some hobbies done at the same time.

>while spending time with fam, and get some hobbies done at the same time Getting paid to waste time not doing your job is considered work now?

Instead of wasting time browsing news sites playing on your phone or just zoning out during downtime, actually being able to take a break and do something you care about instead is _awesome_

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#44

Post by spike021 »

azangru wrote: post #35

Judging by the comments here, nobody is doing pair programming / mob programming?

My team is fully remote and we definitely do pair programming from time to time. Not so much mob programming as much as mob code review on occasion to understand significant code changes and their related decisions.

But not nearly to the degree as my old job pre-pandemic that was roughly 3 days a week all in the office and 2 days a week whatever you wanted.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#45

Post by [deleted] »

rightbyte wrote: post #30
qayxc wrote: post #22

The article oversimplifies things a little, IMHO. It's not the open floor plan office that's the main cause of the problem for DnD type work, nor are offices with doors a general solution. It's all about policy. A separate office with a door doesn't do you any good if every ten minutes someone drops by to knock on it. A private office also doesn't help if you're constantly bombarded with "urgent" messages from variou…

DnD? I can't not read Dungeons and Dragons. Debug and develop?

[deleted]

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#46

Post by matsemann »

ath3nd wrote: post #37

People like you are the reason I personally don't want to be in an office. > asking quick questions and getting an instant answer. vs chat where I may not get an answer for hours. Basically like having a toddler around. Sorry for the negative take here but how it's written it feels like you don't necessarily realize that some people do need deep work, and prioritize your quick satisfaction to other's focus. Or I migh…

I think I would be fine not having you in the office, given your condescending response..

> Basically like having a toddler around.

I changed jobs during lockdown. When I've joined other companies earlier, everyone knew to step in to help the new guy. So people would constantly ask me how I was doing, see if I were struggling and ask to help me, or I could just poke someone in the room.

But getting onboarded remotely during lockdown (in a non-remote-first company), I didn't know who to ask. No one could see me being stuck. I couldn't just ask out in the open room. Writing a message in a chat channel meant it could take ages before I got any help to get going.

Yay to me for at least not "disturbing" people. But the tradeoff here is that the whole team suffers as a team, just so people can have personal productivity. Which I think lessens speed in the long run. We're not code-monkeys picking Jira-tasks and dishing out features. We're working on a project together.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#47

Post by lnxg33k1 »

ath3nd wrote: post #37

People like you are the reason I personally don't want to be in an office. > asking quick questions and getting an instant answer. vs chat where I may not get an answer for hours. Basically like having a toddler around. Sorry for the negative take here but how it's written it feels like you don't necessarily realize that some people do need deep work, and prioritize your quick satisfaction to other's focus. Or I migh…

This shit about being connected is killing me, people goes to work as part of their social life and are ruining everyone else existence, if people doesn’t have connections therapist is where they should go not coworkers

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#48

Post by xkbarkar »

charcircuit wrote: post #10

"Team" does not appear once in the article. I find open plans to be superior as it makes the team go faster. People can unblock others, people can stop others from wasting time, people can immediately work together to think about a problem. And for times where you want to just pump out code you can put some earbuds / headphones on and use body language to signal that you are in deep focus.

I smell troll

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#49

Post by baz00 »

azangru wrote: post #35

Judging by the comments here, nobody is doing pair programming / mob programming?

I don't think pair programming exists in reality. It is talked about a lot.

Pair debugging does exist but only when stuff goes wrong. This is the vain hope that perhaps two people can make up one competent person when the shit has hit the fan.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#50

Post by overflyer »

rzz3 wrote: post #7

But, why offices at all? All my productivity problems are solved by just working from home.

Have you guys ever thought about the fact that there are nerds that like so socialize and hate working from home, because it gets f'ing lonely after a while? I want to see people. The corona pandamic where I worked almost 2 years from home drove me into a severe depression.
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