Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick • Hacker News Board

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#51

Post by lifeisstillgood » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:17 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #43

I've worked in every possible configuration, and I've watched teams work in every possible configuration. I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for organizations as a whole. Some initial conclusions: - We'd be wise to distinguish what we'd all like to have as an office from what actually functions best in a larger system. It is erroneous to think that simply because you like somethin…

I see office environment as a proxy for willingness to expend effort and time in making high performance teams and letting them get on with it.

If a management tier is unwilling to spend money arranging desks to avoid constant interruptions that common sense tells us will be detrimental, then it is a management tier that is unlikely to have been a blip and then make all other decisions well.

Google Ed Catmull, the quiet co-founder of Pixar, interviewed at economist conference 2010 - it is far and away the best example of simple focus on getting teams to work well - no "do it my way" but plenty of "if the team is functioning well there are enough good people in it to over one anything"

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#52

Post by nairteashop » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:17 PM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #41

ghotli wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-Earphone/d... Those effectively eliminate auditory ADD in an open environment. Nothing has been more effective than these for me.

I have a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 15's, supposedly one of the best noise canceling headphones you can buy. While it eliminates alot of the noise, noise still gets in.

I've tried the Bose QC and the Shure, and IMO the latter is better at removing ambient sounds.

The Shure does not use active noise cancellation like the Bose, but I think it is more effective simply because it fits snugly in your ear like a set of ear plugs. (It's also more uncomfortable because of that.)

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#53

Post by DanielBMarkham » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:21 PM UTC

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #51

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #43

I've worked in every possible configuration, and I've watched teams work in every possible configuration. I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for organizations as a whole. Some initial conclusions: - We'd be wise to distinguish what we'd all like to have as an office from what actually functions best in a larger system. It is erroneous to think that simply because you like somethin…

I see office environment as a proxy for willingness to expend effort and time in making high performance teams and letting them get on with it. If a management tier is unwilling to spend money arranging desks to avoid constant interruptions that common sense tells us will be detrimental, then it is a management tier that is unlikely to have been a blip and then make all other decisions well. Google Ed Catmull, the qu…

I'm not sure we're disagreeing.

I'm simply saying that performance -- as measured by the team itself -- may be maximized by the team deciding to do things that it finds uncomfortable. You also don't always optimize overall performance by optimizing individual performance.

There's also the issue of communication versus productivity. Communication is a far greater obstacle to many technology team's success than individual productivity. Bunch o' guys working by themselves in a nice, quiet cushy office doesn't give you the cross-talk, annoyance, problem-solving and innovative banter you get by putting them all together. Sometimes doing things you find annoying or troublesome is actually the best way to reach your goals. Surely this isn't a new observation.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#54

Post by zeroexzeroone » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

digisign wrote: post #19

zeroexzeroone wrote: post #3

I can definitely see how this could make people more sick, though I work in an open office and I rarely get sick, could be genetics or it could be that I eat food grown locally, work out and run every day and generally have alot of fun outside of work. The human body NEEDS to get sick to build anti-bodies - without these then you will get sick more often. The American way of "Take antibiotics or medicine as soon as y…

Curious, do you get much sun? Vitamin D definciency commonly results in sickly people too.

I do get quite a bit of sun, most of my fun is outside.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#55

Post by shortstuffsushi » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

I tend to agree with this article. My office went from a "bullpen" arrangement (team size cubicle areas) to and entirely open floor. To me the feeling is almost like a sweat-shop -- row after row of programmers working away.

While my team specifically tends to be pretty social, I've found other areas of the floor seem to be utterly silent, and in these the above feeling is even more solidified. We've been able to kind of avoid the feeling by finding a natural corner of the building that almost puts us back into that 'bullpen' environment.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#56

Post by pullo » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:24 PM UTC

jroseattle wrote: post #40

Anyone who has worked in enough office environments for a while will recognize that the "best" environment is a flexible one. Sometimes it's working in the open, sometimes a quiet office with the door closed, sometimes at home or a coffee shop. When I took a mgmt role as VP/Engnring at a firm a few years ago, the first thing I did was assess and address morale, which was not good. One of the obvious things was that t…

how did you resolve the frustrations of the product management team and other non-engineers who interact with the engineers? can you elaborate?

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#57

Post by zeroexzeroone » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:24 PM UTC

usea wrote: post #45

digisign wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, do you get much sun? Vitamin D definciency commonly results in sickly people too.

You don't need much. National Institutes of Health recommends 5-30 minutes of daytime exposure, twice a week. [1] http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional...

Sorry but I don't trust anything with .gov to tell me what my body can already tell me. We have to learn to listen to it.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#58

Post by akurilin » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:28 PM UTC

I wonder if shared office spaces with hundreds of teams in them, a very popular startup location these days, is perhaps the worst of the breed. Half a dozen teams talking to each other, multiple people on the phone, people having lunch behind you, dogs running around the office, phones ringing, skype sessions, car alarm outside the window etc etc.

On the plus side at some point it gets dense and chaotic enough to become pure white noise.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#59

Post by monkeynotes » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:29 PM UTC

lmg643 wrote: post #39

Cushman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Those who make such a judgement are guilty of performing a cost/benefit study without the benefit of studying the benefit." Sounds like the last forty years of mainstream corporate policy in a nutshell.

Joel Spolsky has written extensively about peopleware: "Ever wonder why everybody at Microsoft gets their own office, with walls and a door that shuts? It's in there. Why do managers give so much leeway to their teams to get things done? That's in there too. Why are there so many jelled SWAT teams at Microsoft that are remarkably productive? Mainly because Bill Gates has built a company full of managers who read Peop…

I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-workers and ask quick questions, I like the atmosphere, and if things are too noisy or distracting I just put headphones on and get in the zone.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#60

Post by wadetandy » Sat, May 25, 2013, 5:29 PM UTC

I work for a large company with an open office plan. We have many different types of employees, from software developers to sales folks to editors and writers. While there is the occasional complaint about a loud coworker or something, I generally very much enjoy the atmosphere, and I hear similar comments from my colleagues.

One of the things that makes our implementation very effective is that everyone from the CEO to the interns sit at the same desks and share the same environment. The culture is very open and everyone is encouraged to walk up to anyone and ask them a question or ten, of they have them. This collaborative environment more than makes up for the occasional loss in individual employee productivity, in my opinion.

It probably also helps that we are an instant message culture as opposed to a phone conversation one, which cuts down on a lot of the noise distraction as well.