Anybody with a brain knows that open plan offices are just plain bad in just about every way - except one - they’re dirt freaking cheap, which is why they’re everywhere, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
I’ve worked in this business long enough to remember when, even as a lowly sysadmin, I had either my own office or a shared office with one other person.
I’ve worked in this business long enough to remember when, even as a lowly sysadmin, I had either my own office or a shared office with one other person.
I’ve worked in this business for three weeks and I’m hacking away alone in what used to be the boss’ office.
The plan is to set up my very own remote office too.
And it should be repeated over and over until pointy-haired management stops with the open plan office abuse, and people start demanding reasonable working conditions en masse.
Things won’t change until a very successful company or startup says their success was because of their not-open office plans. PHBs follow what the big, successful companies do.
We already have that. Microsoft always gave their employees offices. And they are somewhat successful. Yet no other company ever followed their lead. Go figure.
Yeah, is anyone ever arguing for those things? I don’t mind the one at my office, but we’re also a very small office with an average of six employees in it. I might like it better if we were even more isolated, but except for my coworkers’ typing, I hardly ever hear anything at all.
The worse open-plan office I’ve been in is when developers were sharing the room with marketing. There was time it was literally impossible to work or concentrate. On busy day, marketing guys would spend all day talking loud on the phone. On quiet days, they’ll spend most of the time chatting loudly with each others. Even when I had urgent work, I had no choice but to give up and browse the web or go out, since I couldn’t do any work. Talk about productivity.
It’s not even a criticism of the marketing department - they enjoy their job and good for them, but it was absurd to put us all in the same room.
The fact that the option to work remotely is not a standard thing in 2018 is just shocking in my opinion. Vast majority of people working in tech end up commuting just to sit in front of a computer in a different place. The whole model of having people clock in and out is based around factory work. It makes absolutely no sense for creative activities like programming. You don’t have a steady output as a coder, and you’re not going to be productive for 8 contiguous hours a day.
I also think that remote work is one of the most practical ways to combat traffic congestion in big cities. If everybody who works with a computer would get off the road then we’d have drastically less traffic in cities.
It doesn’t even have to be all or nothing, as you point out a mix of coming to the office a few times a week and working from home when you don’t need to be there would be a huge improvement. There’s also benefit for the companies as they would need a lot less office space.
Agreed on all counts. I just think it’ll be hard to find a workplace that truly commits to abandoning work hours and trusting that the engineers will deliver better. I would even sign a piece of paper that says “if my work output decreases, I’ll stop”.
Agreed - while headphones can at least block out audible distractions in an open-office plan, there’s nothing to be done for people shooting hoops and reenacting last night’s Warriors game, or people trying to circumvent my “do not disturb” notice on Slack by waving their hands in front of my monitor (both actual examples at $OLDJOB). Visual distractions, at least for me, are just as bad!
After years of sitting in an office by myself, I’ve come to prefer an open floor plan. I find ten floor mates preferable to the loneliness of an office, and less distracting than one or two office mates.
Is there any room for innovation in sound-reduction here? I’ve always imagine something like double-glazed glass panels rising up from the backs of desks, maybe all the way to the roof. With a good vacuum between the glass I thought maybe you’d cut down on some noise, especially if the sound travels through multiple of these screens. Certainly the windows in my house cut down the outside noise a bit. And you’d still let light through, which would make them less grim than gray panels.
Good acoustic design is a must in an open floor plan. If the room echoes, conversation volume gets amplified. Decorative acoustic foam is inexpensive and can be hung on the walls and ceiling to reduce echo. Dividers can be used in a large room to give separation to conversations and absorb some sound.
Glass is not what you want, because it will echo; if you have cubicle-shaped glass dividers, you’ll end up with an amphitheater effect. Glass would also separate people physically, but would still allow for visual distractions. Ideally we want to maximize collaboration opportunity and minimize distractions.
A good break room is also important, otherwise break time will happen at desks.
They will pry the carpet in our open space office from my cold, dead hands. We are the last place with it and we are not going to give it up. It softens the noise so much!
Ahh, good point about the glass reflecting sound - I suppose a lot of the sound blocking I experience in my house could be due to the window reflecting outside noise back, not the double-glazing.
Anybody with a brain knows that open plan offices are just plain bad in just about every way - except one - they’re dirt freaking cheap, which is why they’re everywhere, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
I’ve worked in this business long enough to remember when, even as a lowly sysadmin, I had either my own office or a shared office with one other person.
Those were the days :)
I’ve worked in this business for three weeks and I’m hacking away alone in what used to be the boss’ office.
The plan is to set up my very own remote office too.
The yet-another open-plan office blog post is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.
And it should be repeated over and over until pointy-haired management stops with the open plan office abuse, and people start demanding reasonable working conditions en masse.
Things won’t change until a very successful company or startup says their success was because of their not-open office plans. PHBs follow what the big, successful companies do.
We already have that. Microsoft always gave their employees offices. And they are somewhat successful. Yet no other company ever followed their lead. Go figure.
TBH if I had to tackle one of the management issues today, I’d choose overtime instead of open offices…
Yeah, is anyone ever arguing for those things? I don’t mind the one at my office, but we’re also a very small office with an average of six employees in it. I might like it better if we were even more isolated, but except for my coworkers’ typing, I hardly ever hear anything at all.
It’s not really a big problem until you’re surrounded by people who work on unrelated stuff who like to have loud conversations.
Yes, this is exactly the problem – not the open floor plan itself, but an open floor plan with lack of strategic desk placement.
The worse open-plan office I’ve been in is when developers were sharing the room with marketing. There was time it was literally impossible to work or concentrate. On busy day, marketing guys would spend all day talking loud on the phone. On quiet days, they’ll spend most of the time chatting loudly with each others. Even when I had urgent work, I had no choice but to give up and browse the web or go out, since I couldn’t do any work. Talk about productivity.
It’s not even a criticism of the marketing department - they enjoy their job and good for them, but it was absurd to put us all in the same room.
Having an open office is basically telling your employees that you see them as nothing more than cattle.
Well said, if it works with chickens or cows, surely it must work with humans. ¬¬
Isn’t that the plot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?
I think remote flexibility is a solution. I would hate my open office less if I wasn’t forced to be in it and could just come by a few times a week.
The fact that the option to work remotely is not a standard thing in 2018 is just shocking in my opinion. Vast majority of people working in tech end up commuting just to sit in front of a computer in a different place. The whole model of having people clock in and out is based around factory work. It makes absolutely no sense for creative activities like programming. You don’t have a steady output as a coder, and you’re not going to be productive for 8 contiguous hours a day.
I also think that remote work is one of the most practical ways to combat traffic congestion in big cities. If everybody who works with a computer would get off the road then we’d have drastically less traffic in cities.
It doesn’t even have to be all or nothing, as you point out a mix of coming to the office a few times a week and working from home when you don’t need to be there would be a huge improvement. There’s also benefit for the companies as they would need a lot less office space.
It says a lot about the business world that this idea is considered radical.
Agreed on all counts. I just think it’ll be hard to find a workplace that truly commits to abandoning work hours and trusting that the engineers will deliver better. I would even sign a piece of paper that says “if my work output decreases, I’ll stop”.
Would cubicles be better? That’s one cost efficient way to turn an office to a non-open office, I think 🤔
Cubes combine the distracting background noise of an open plan office with having to sit by yourself :/
Cubicles are far better than open offices in my opinion.
Agreed - while headphones can at least block out audible distractions in an open-office plan, there’s nothing to be done for people shooting hoops and reenacting last night’s Warriors game, or people trying to circumvent my “do not disturb” notice on Slack by waving their hands in front of my monitor (both actual examples at $OLDJOB). Visual distractions, at least for me, are just as bad!
Not really. Noise is way more disturbing if you can’t see it’s source, apparently.
After years of sitting in an office by myself, I’ve come to prefer an open floor plan. I find ten floor mates preferable to the loneliness of an office, and less distracting than one or two office mates.
Is there any room for innovation in sound-reduction here? I’ve always imagine something like double-glazed glass panels rising up from the backs of desks, maybe all the way to the roof. With a good vacuum between the glass I thought maybe you’d cut down on some noise, especially if the sound travels through multiple of these screens. Certainly the windows in my house cut down the outside noise a bit. And you’d still let light through, which would make them less grim than gray panels.
Good acoustic design is a must in an open floor plan. If the room echoes, conversation volume gets amplified. Decorative acoustic foam is inexpensive and can be hung on the walls and ceiling to reduce echo. Dividers can be used in a large room to give separation to conversations and absorb some sound.
Glass is not what you want, because it will echo; if you have cubicle-shaped glass dividers, you’ll end up with an amphitheater effect. Glass would also separate people physically, but would still allow for visual distractions. Ideally we want to maximize collaboration opportunity and minimize distractions.
A good break room is also important, otherwise break time will happen at desks.
They will pry the carpet in our open space office from my cold, dead hands. We are the last place with it and we are not going to give it up. It softens the noise so much!
Ahh, good point about the glass reflecting sound - I suppose a lot of the sound blocking I experience in my house could be due to the window reflecting outside noise back, not the double-glazing.
At this point you can’t easily lease non open-plan office space because landlords believe it’s undesirable.
The landlords believe its undesirable because they really appreciated everyone paying more for a less developed space.