Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

blobstreaming.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

551–560 of 593 posts

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#551

Post by fomine3 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #346
musicale wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hate that due to the visual distractions and lack of privacy, but "quiet as a library" is absolutely essential. It does sound like that office layout (as with most US office layouts) is designed to clearly reinforce the status hierarchy.

> clearly reinforce the status hierarchy Oh, yeah. Hierarchy is very important, in Japanese business culture.

To emphasize hierarchy, it's common to give cheap office chairs without wrist rest for who aren't at high hierarchy in traditional companies . It's one of the worst way, it harms health.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#552

Post by throw1234651234 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #236

I worked for a Japanese corporation. The Tokyo offices had enormous rooms, with long rows of desks, arranged by section/department. The section manager's desk was at the end of each row. VPs, with billion-dollar budgets, had small, schoolteacher-style desks, in the corner of the room. These enormous rooms, with hundreds of engineers, were quiet as a library. They had carpeting, people wore "office slippers," and ther…

Leveraging my extensive rapid-paced AI-augmented automation experience*, I have discovered an innovative, self-service solution utilizing a revolutionary, modern material that dynamically shapes itself to fit an external acoustic meatus and turn even the loudest office into a harmonious, quite garden of productivity.**.

* I did manual labor on a factory production line to pay the bills in college

** Put 20 cent earplugs in your ear

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#553

Post by sensanaty »

overflyer wrote: post #50
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.

On the other hand I have no interest in socializing with my colleagues, and I'm no intravert either. I have plenty of actual friends outside of work, and the nice thing about working from home is that I can catch up with my mates during the workday while still working!

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#554

Post by sensanaty »

azangru wrote: post #35

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

Pair programming is one of those things you hear about so often, but I've never worked somewhere where it was actually done.

Most devs, myself definitely included, don't wanna sit there with another one while they work on a single problem. We both have our own respective tickets to worry about, who's got time to split entirely dedicating to 1 ticket that isn't yours?

Instead if we hit a major roadblock we'll shoot out a message like "hey dude got a minute?" And hop on a huddle on slack, but I definitely wouldn't call that pair programming the way it's usually implied

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#555

Post by dlivingston »

Apocryphon wrote: post #257
rmbyrro wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, you might have an overly optimistic view of unions. And you might also be ignoring the downsides of unions. I get that unions were/are necessary for things like mining workers or so, but SWE is quite different. I'd expect a union to be net-negative in our sector.

Systemic problems require systemic solutions. For over a decade now we’ve seen a steady supply of blog articles, studies (e.g. https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/07/in-open-offices-work... ), and choruses of comment threads all agreeing that coders do not like open offices. Yet all of this is empty sentiment because managements don’t seem to care; they might not even notice. Now, a union might not be the solution t…

Who makes the decision on office layout? Like specifically, what is the name of the role in a company that does this?

Further, has anyone talked to one of these persons before on changing the office layout to a developer-friendly design?

I've really wanted to do this but I'm not sure who in my company I would talk to about it.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#556

Post by RagnarD »

I think it was Fred Brooks, in the classic The Mythical Man Month (all the back in 1975), who noted the importance of not interrupting programmers' trains of thought. One of the general recommendations was to turn off phone ringers, for example. If it takes 15 minutes to get back into a concentration groove, being bothered 4 times an hour is a guarantee of destroyed productiveness or quality or both.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#557

Post by wrboyce »

anthonypasq wrote: post #522
ayuhito wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a Japanese corporation where each floor had different rules. One floor had an open-plan layout where people were open to chitchat, another open-plan floor that expected everyone to be quiet, and there was a floor with reservable cubicles or sound-proofed rooms. In general though, I do agree that the culture is on the quieter side. I really enjoyed working there because the level of isolation was entirely…

this is how most university libraries are set up

In the USA, perhaps. An amusing statement really, given the context.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#558

Post by berniedurfee »

ayuhito wrote: post #322
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #236

I worked for a Japanese corporation. The Tokyo offices had enormous rooms, with long rows of desks, arranged by section/department. The section manager's desk was at the end of each row. VPs, with billion-dollar budgets, had small, schoolteacher-style desks, in the corner of the room. These enormous rooms, with hundreds of engineers, were quiet as a library. They had carpeting, people wore "office slippers," and ther…

I worked for a Japanese corporation where each floor had different rules. One floor had an open-plan layout where people were open to chitchat, another open-plan floor that expected everyone to be quiet, and there was a floor with reservable cubicles or sound-proofed rooms. In general though, I do agree that the culture is on the quieter side. I really enjoyed working there because the level of isolation was entirely…

Sounds like the Amtrak quiet car for early morning routes. I loved the quiet car.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#559

Post by jaarse »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #236

I worked for a Japanese corporation. The Tokyo offices had enormous rooms, with long rows of desks, arranged by section/department. The section manager's desk was at the end of each row. VPs, with billion-dollar budgets, had small, schoolteacher-style desks, in the corner of the room. These enormous rooms, with hundreds of engineers, were quiet as a library. They had carpeting, people wore "office slippers," and ther…

I have found that North American divisions of Japenese companies will be setup the same way. The managers sit at the front facing into the room. All of their subordinates will be facing towards them.

Toyota sticks out in my mind, only because of the scale of the room. There were hundreds of desks in one large open space, and if you looked up from your desk you could see every last one of them. But I’ve seen it in other smaller Japenese companies as well.

Re: Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

#560

Post by antoniuschan99 »

hmaxwell wrote: post #52

I work at a 30 person company in a partitioned office designed for four people, including the CEO, a graphic designer, and a secretary. My role involves focused programming tasks, which are frequently disrupted by the office dynamics. When the CEO is away, the graphic designer and secretary frequently engage in loud, casual conversations, discussing everything from personal matters to home decor, like curtain colors.…

Send this to your coworkers :P

https://switchandclick.com/best-loud-mechanical-keyboards/

Post reply on HN