Agree with all of it except the end. Don't fall for the "work from home" bit. Sure there is privacy, but it's also isolating and destroys the primary barrier to working around the clock.
Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
91–100 of 148 posts
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 productivi…
When i worked for Reed Elsevier in london I used to boot my laptop and go across the road to get breakfast in the 10-15 mins that took the laptop would have booted :-)
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#93The first 2 startups I worked for back in the early 2000's were open offices, though there were only 6 of us in one room at the first startup, and 3 at the other.
At the first startup, thankfully, customer service was in an open office in another part of the small building. Couldn't imagine having to work next to those conversations.
In the first company it wasn't so bad, we had all our computers circled and pointed toward the center (mostly) which afforded us a little bit of privacy at least, but it was awkward looking up to have a thought and making eye contact with a fellow coder across from me. Though sometimes it was funny. I think the hardest part was the distraction of being the end-point for anyone's conversation at any time they felt like talking to me - no matter how good a coding groove I was in. Or maybe it was having to listen to 2 other coders figure out a problem together in the same office where I was trying to work. Hmm. Either way, I prefer private offices.
At the next startup I went to, the computers faced the wall in the office. It was designed this way so the management could look over our shoulder all day long. Needless to say, I quit within months. Constantly being questioned why I was working in a certain file, or viewing part of the project's website that the boss didn't understand made me cringe. I'd go home grumpy everyday. I'd eat in my car at a creepy park across the street just to get away from the place. It was awful.
Worked for myself ever since. In an office.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#94The best working environment I was ever part of in terms of productivity was set up with private offices, but at the team level. We'd have a team of people who were all working on the same component (five or six people) in a room with each other, but otherwise insulated from the bustle of the office. It was hugely helpful to be in a room with all of the people who were relevant to your work, and no other distractions. That may have just been due to having a good team, but I have a lot of good memories from that time.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#95We 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?
Many companies that have been among "the most successful in the world" got there without open offices.
Just because a company does something doesn't mean it was a major factor in its success. We have no way of knowing if Google (or whoever) would have been less successful had they not been such fans of open offices (conversely they may have been even more successful - we have no way of knowing).
> Show me how you'd even begin to disprove that
Aside from the studies mentioned in this article there have been many other articles[1][2][3][4][5] written citing numerous studies (some spanning decades!) that consistently show open offices are terrible. Just because some companies have been successful despite that doesn't mean the science is wrong (that would be like saying smoking isn't bad for you because you know healthy 90 year-olds that smoke a pack a day).
> What is the true impact of an open office on a culture of collaborative interaction?
As developers we spend the vast majority of our time not collaborating. For jobs where you're interacting with others for most of the time you can make a stronger argument for an open office - but when you only spend a small amount of time doing so it doesn't make sense to optimize for that (given the numerous downsides).
[1] http://www.newyorker.com/currency-tag/the-open-office-trap
[2] http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-flo...
[3] http://theconversation.com/open-plan-offices-attract-highest...
[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/04...
[5] http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/15/why-the-open-office-is-a-ho...
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#96I 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.
Mechanical keyboards? Luxury. Most (all?) places cheap enough to go with open offices give everyone cheap rubber dome keyboards.
Yeah, I suspect the coworkers brought in their own mechs which makes them at fault here. Mechanical keyboards are loud enough to disturb others in a private office setting, I can't imagine hearing multiple nearby with no walls.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#97The first 2 startups I worked for back in the early 2000's were open offices, though there were only 6 of us in one room at the first startup, and 3 at the other. At the first startup, thankfully, customer service was in an open office in another part of the small building. Couldn't imagine having to work next to those conversations. In the first company it wasn't so bad, we had all our computers circled and pointed…
6 and 3 in one room isn't bad at all, as long as everyone's working on the same project / the same tasks - that way, discussions you overhear are relevant to what you're working on at the time, and not a distraction / irrelevant noise.
With the managers though... Yeah that's annoying. I'd invite them to sit down next to you for a nice four-hour pair programming session - and if they refused, they probably didn't really care and they can leave you to it. Glad you left, micro-management like that just says that the management thinks you're inept and / or doesn't trust you.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#98Just 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.
Apparently you indeed have never worked in an office space. Because it's approximately 10% "working on a different piece of the same puzzle", and approximately 90% "talking about 'Age of Ultron' at top volume for hours straight".
Yep more distracting that having executive jet engines being tested out side your office (I used to work on campus at cranfield)
Though being able to go and watch the spitfire they rebuilt being demoed was really cool.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#99I fully agree. I currently work for a startup and after we moved into a new office last month our management had the glorious idea of putting the programmers next to the customer support team in an open office :/ It's horrible - I have to endure the customer support calls the whole day long and can't find even 5 min. in silence, in order to concentrate on the programming tasks I'm supposed to do. I tried putting on h…
Have you at least provided feedback to the managers? Like cold, hard feedback "I cannot work like this, I and my colleagues are going to quit and you're fucked when we do" kinda feedback.
Re: Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
As Joel Spolsky noted, getting natural light to a large number of small rooms is basically a solved problem: how many hotel rooms do you see without a window? Sure, private offices are smaller than hotel rooms, but offices generally have large numbers of meeting rooms, labs and common areas that don't need windows. Of course, that means that you need to build office buildings more like hotels; you can't so easily ret…
Hotels can do that because their revenue is directly dependent on the quality of their rooms. No hotel can sell rooms without windows, so every hotel has to invest in architecture that gives every room a window--either through exterior convolutions, or a giant hollow atrium to soak up useless interior space. This is not true of other businesses. A software company makes no money at all from its architecture, so it ca…
Offices should do that because their revenue is directly dependent on the productivity and happiness of their employees. Likewise, no office builder should be able to sell offices without windows.
After all, you'll spend more conscious time in the office than in a hotel room.