This look like open plan to me: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.709036,-74.006763,3a,75y,268... I assume those aren't developers?
Correct. That's the sales bullpen.
Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
51–60 of 78 posts
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#52Am I the only one that considers lunch to be a sacred, personal time that I don't want to spend on small talk with coworkers? I need my lunch break to recover from the day's stress and pace, so I can come back refreshed and ready to code for 4-5 more hours. As an introvert, I find the team lunches to be waay more stressful than actual work, and that eliminates any benefits of a nicely cooked meal. If I end up in a te…
I'm really really glad you mentioned this, it's something I wanted to touch on in the blog post but it was getting too side-tracked. I'm definitely in the same boat as you, my previous job used to be in an open office environment (at two different co-working places so it was LOTS of different teams worth of open office environments) and my lunch hour would be the only alone time I got.
Everything changed when I started at Stack though. As an introverted person I don't always want to be alone, but being alone is what makes me "recharge" so to speak. What's nice about having a private office all the time is I can choose to communicate with other people or not, there's always long-running Google Hangouts I can drop into if I just want to talk to another human being, or I can choose to be alone by myself for the entire day. Lunch though, is the only time I get face to face with my coworkers and it turns out I kind of miss that from being in an open office environment.
There's lots of people here that work on different teams and do drastically different things than me which would make it so I wouldn't communicate with them at all if I didn't simply grab lunch at the office and sit down at a random table.
I definitely agree with you that lunch as a team should never be mandatory though, it's asinine to steal an extra hour or whatever from everyone at your company with the goal of "morale" or whatever they want to say behind it. I'm super happy with the setup at Stack though, it works pretty well.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#53This look like open plan to me: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.709036,-74.006763,3a,75y,268... I assume those aren't developers?
Correct. That's the sales bullpen.
I want (and have) a private office. Why doesn't the argument extend to them as well?
Also: using the URL in the article, I couldn't find the developer offices. Are they down the stairs? Google Maps didn't let me navigate down them.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#54Am I the only one that considers lunch to be a sacred, personal time that I don't want to spend on small talk with coworkers? I need my lunch break to recover from the day's stress and pace, so I can come back refreshed and ready to code for 4-5 more hours. As an introvert, I find the team lunches to be waay more stressful than actual work, and that eliminates any benefits of a nicely cooked meal. If I end up in a te…
I'm really really glad you mentioned this, it's something I wanted to touch on in the blog post but it was getting too side-tracked. I'm definitely in the same boat as you, my previous job used to be in an open office environment (at two different co-working places so it was LOTS of different teams worth of open office environments) and my lunch hour would be the only alone time I got. Everything changed when I start…
I wrote the article and I probably end up working through lunch (or most of lunch) at least 2-3 days a week. It's definitely optional.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#55Am I the only one that considers lunch to be a sacred, personal time that I don't want to spend on small talk with coworkers? I need my lunch break to recover from the day's stress and pace, so I can come back refreshed and ready to code for 4-5 more hours. As an introvert, I find the team lunches to be waay more stressful than actual work, and that eliminates any benefits of a nicely cooked meal. If I end up in a te…
When I graduate college I was going to be frugal.
Working as a consultant, we always went out for lunch. After getting used to it (as a hard defined break from work), I can't imagine just staying at work all day without giving my mind a break.
If I don't leave work now, my productivity is shit in the afternoon. Well shittier than normal. As a morning person, I get 90% of my work done before lunch and tie up loose ends after lunch and plan the next days/weeks. Flex time is nice too, coming in to work at 5-6am then lunch at 11, home at 3 rocks.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#56The thing to consider here is Stack Exchange is a company that serves geeks, and is built by geeks. Naturally the culture and values of the company are going revolve around developers. But for a huge chunk of the companies out there everything revolves around sales and marketing. The actual role and importance of developers varies from company to company but very few of them are going to revolve around them in the sa…
Marketing person here. I hate open offices too. My boss insists it makes everyone more "open."
Open to him.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#57It bums me out some to see the standard-bearer for private offices in our profession showing us floor-to-ceiling glass walls in a panopticon arc, "not as creepy as you think"[1]. The Overton window's shifted so far to the cage-free side that privacy isn't even in our frame? OK, a few companies still believe in offices with walls. I don't doubt that it's a fine place to work, likely nicer than the cubicles I've worked…
The glass walls would be more tolerable if the mid-section was opaque/frosted glass, so you still get the light but you also get a degree of privacy.
Putting up transparent bubble wrap does a great job of blurring what's behind, while letting people see if you're in your office. Raid the shipping department.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#58I've worked in shared offices, open offices and for the last couple of years I've worked here http://imgur.com/a/13uvk (office on the cheap, it's my own company so I spend money only where it's important)
For me there is zero comparison, I enjoyed a shared office, loathed an open office beyond measure and absolutely love the peace and quiet that comes from working in a private office.
If my company isn't a success and I go back to regular employment I'm dreading that bit more than any other part of been employed.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#59Am I the only one that considers lunch to be a sacred, personal time that I don't want to spend on small talk with coworkers? I need my lunch break to recover from the day's stress and pace, so I can come back refreshed and ready to code for 4-5 more hours. As an introvert, I find the team lunches to be waay more stressful than actual work, and that eliminates any benefits of a nicely cooked meal. If I end up in a te…
It's definitely very optional here (at SE). Some people just grab a plate of food and go back to their office/desk/secluded corner to enjoy it by themselves or with a smaller group.
Re: Why We Still Believe in Private Offices
#60Am I the only one that considers lunch to be a sacred, personal time that I don't want to spend on small talk with coworkers? I need my lunch break to recover from the day's stress and pace, so I can come back refreshed and ready to code for 4-5 more hours. As an introvert, I find the team lunches to be waay more stressful than actual work, and that eliminates any benefits of a nicely cooked meal. If I end up in a te…
This. I use lunchtime as more of a time to break away from the office and reset, rather than to eat (though, I eat too).
In situations where I had a private office, I was more receptive to socializing with my coworkers.