They should switch to libreoffice. Fixed everything for me.
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Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
51–60 of 148 posts
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#52We get it, HN is majority introvert, and really likes logical optimization using data. But some things aren't easily measurable. Is it a coincidence that companies who pioneered the open office plan are also some of the most successful in the world? Show me how you'd even begin to disprove that and I'll show you a dozen confounding variables making it silly to even try. What is the true impact of an open office on a…
DeMarco and Lister (Peopleware) saw the problems with open offices decades ago. The notion that open offices were a bad idea is not a new discovery. Companies like them because they are initially a lot cheaper than giving people their own offices.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#53"Meanwhile, “ease of interaction” with colleagues — the problem that open offices profess to fix — was cited as a problem by fewer than 10 percent of workers in any type of office setting." Here it is the other way around, the open office parts of the building are very quite, nobody dears make too much sound. It is much more social to walk into an office for a quick chat, only disturbing 1, 2 or 3 others.
Just imagine how "ease of interaction" is not a problem if you don't mind not to interact at all. That's another problem fixed forcefully by open offices. I like not being alone in my office, having the whole team of a dozen people in my reach. I don't like loud discussions either, but I can mute those with my ear plugs. I cannot unmute a solo office box.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#54Just a different opinion here. I have never worked in a single office space. I honestly can't imagine such a thing. But I do know how incredible good I am at distracting myself at home. Just having someone around, who are working on a different piece of the same puzzle is a major motivator.
That's the point, it's not binary between open plan or individual offices... you can have 2, 3 or 4 - people shared offices. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PeoplewareOnSharedSpaces "enclosed offices need not be one-person offices. The two- or three- or four-person office makes a lot more sense, particularly if office groupings can be made to align with work groups. Even in open-plan offices, co-workers should be encouraged t…
I find the atmosphere in a room with 2, 3 or 4 people far more oppressive that a room with a 100. Probably something to do with being able to ignore people when they are a multitude, but things getting too personal when it's a small group.
I always found it very easy to concentrate in big spaces as long as I feel nobody cares about what I am doing, and that seems easy in a big room. I also don't care much about small distractions or noises, I always hear people complaining about getting out of the zone when they have to chat a bit with a coworker. It takes me a big effort to get into the zone when I am starting to work, some kind of a starting period while I load all the relevant information in my head, but once I'm there I can get in and out and attend subtasks or have a conversation with somebody with no problem.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#55I truly dislike open offices. The constant sound of mechanical keyboards clacking really gets to me, and I'm not sure why. I wear headphones listening to loud music to cancel out the sounds of these damn keyboards.
Then there is the open plan office, combined with the clean desk policy. That way you have to endure the inane yacking going on around you and god forbid you try and figure something out on a piece of paper while you're working and go grab a coffee without locking said piece of paper in a drawer or it's a written warning. I hate the modern corporate office environment. HR should just be upfront about what open plan o…
There is also a policy of stuffing laptops in locked drawers or taking them home after work, although it's perfectly fine to leave one when going out for lunch.
Which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that company laptop is unusable for approximately 30 minutes after boot (or hibernate/suspend), when it tries to scan the whole drive for viruses or whatever.
I don't even want to count how many hours of productivity are wasted because of stupidities like these.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#56We get it, HN is majority introvert, and really likes logical optimization using data. But some things aren't easily measurable. Is it a coincidence that companies who pioneered the open office plan are also some of the most successful in the world? Show me how you'd even begin to disprove that and I'll show you a dozen confounding variables making it silly to even try. What is the true impact of an open office on a…
"Is it a coincidence that companies who pioneered the open office plan are also some of the most successful in the world?"
Yes. If a successful company had their employees sitting in bean bag chairs all day, that wouldn't mean that somehow bean bag chairs we're responsible for their success.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#57One facet that never comes up in these anti-open office articles is that it is 100% impossible to design the perfect office for you as an individual, for every other individual, all while designing an office that is perfect for the organization.
Many people here advocate private offices, which are great, but as soon as you start putting up walls, you've totally restricted access to natural light in the interior of the building. Access to natural light and breaking down the hierarchy that came with private offices (exterior for high-level employees, corner for the highest) are partly responsible for creating an environment where open office are desirable alternatives.
With all of condemnation for open plan office happening, I'm excited to see what the next swing of the pendulum back toward privacy will bring us. Hint: It won't be private offices.
Some of the things I'm excited about in this regard are:
-Activity-based working office designs
-Increased working from home/telecommuting arrangements
The most important part of office design is to consider your company's culture, and then develop an office that will best support it rather than jumping onto what types of designs have worked for the unique cultures of other companies.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#58Everybody needs a balance between productive alone time and creative brainstorming time. Most companies I've seen achieve this with an open space and plenty of WFH for all employees. Basically we meet 2-3 times a week to organize and share ideas, and spend there rest of the week heads down at home, coding in whatever pace and setting we like. Closed private offices enable people to slack at work and pretend to work 8…
Closed private offices enable people to slack at work and pretend to work 80h week while actually dozing off most of the day. I'm not saying everybody does that, but it's certainly a possibility and something I have observed few times. I observe this often. My workplace has closed offices for the middle managers, with windows so you can see in, and you can tell from their body language that they're either slacking of…
Well, for this very reason an open space office should have enough conference rooms for everybody. I dread the moment when I will need to "walk through the door" to speak with a manager. That's intimidating and discourages people from communicating with them. While private rooms help them do the job on the same and above level, I don't believe it works well for their teams.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#59We get it, HN is majority introvert, and really likes logical optimization using data. But some things aren't easily measurable. Is it a coincidence that companies who pioneered the open office plan are also some of the most successful in the world? Show me how you'd even begin to disprove that and I'll show you a dozen confounding variables making it silly to even try. What is the true impact of an open office on a…
Surely you don't actually need to measure anything. Just ask people what they prefer.
And to be fair, I've met people, online and off, who legitimately like open offices or would prefer a hybrid. But I've met roughly an order of magnitude more people who don't like them at all and just want a quiet, personal space.
And you're right, there are a lot of confounding factors when you look at companies like Google. For instance, I'm sure the prospect of getting filthy rich was pretty enticing for early employees, who probably found the work conditions nearly irrelevant in comparison. Same thing goes for Facebook. There's a well-known notion that some companies are just so successful so fast that they can basically do anything in terms of office dynamics and it will work for them. This is commonly applied to Valve's management strategy (or lack thereof).
Also, you could fairly easily argue that both Google and FB met with the majority of their success before they engineered massive open office farms. You could also fairly easily argue that both have been doing a pretty mediocre job lately, with some successes but lots of failures, mostly just maintaining their status (especially Facebook, in my humble opinion).
I'd imagine that the more upside there is for employees, and the more empowered the employees are in general, the more they'll tolerate and perform well in an open office on average.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://hbr.org/2014/10/workspaces-that-move-people "data suggest that creating collisions—chance encounters and unplanned interactions between knowledge workers, both inside and outside the organization—improves performance" Just one of many notable quotes from the article. It isn't a formal study but it is pragmatic i.e. "Managers might be tempted to simply build big social spaces and expect great results, but it’s…
Peopleware also suggests having open ("communal") spaces as part of the solution, I really like their approach. http://javatroopers.com/Peopleware.html#Chapter_13 Tom de Marco quotes Cristopher Alexander, his first rule is that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution :) but there are patterns :) Alexander identifies the need for all three of - a communal space - a semiprivate/team space ("war rooms", etc) - a privat…
"War rooms" are a terrible idea, moreso than open offices. Ideally, they're rooms constructed specifically for that purpose. In reality, they're often re-purposed conference rooms not designed to house a team for days at a time.