I was taking Hudak’s algorithmic computer music class this semester. Just yesterday the stand-in professor was taking pictures of our final projects to show to him at the next opportunity. RIP Paul Hudak, you will be sorely missed.
That third picture gives me the shakes. I had more privacy and personal space than that at the minimum-wage telephone survey job at which I lasted one day when I was a teenager. It makes a cube farm look downright utopian. Thank god for remote work–without it I don’t know if I could have managed to stay in this industry.
Having worked in a cube farm, literally anything is better than a cube farm. They have the worst aspects of an office (cut off from your team) combined with the worst aspects of an open layout (noise). The teams I’ve worked on with the highest cohesion have been open layout. The teams I’ve worked on with cube farms have always had the lowest job satisfaction and the worst team cohesion. So from my perspective, open layout has been great and I’d highly recommend it. Are there better layouts? Possibly, and sure, I’d be willing to try them. But in my experience cube farms simply don’t work in any regard.
Having worked in a cube farm, literally anything is better than a cube farm.
Research tends to back this up - overall dissatisfaction is highest in workers with low-walled cubicles. But having said that, the open layout office comes in almost immediately behind.
Are there better layouts?
Research also confirms what we all knew - private offices are king!
It’s interesting to note that what you identify as the worst aspect of having a private office - interaction - isn’t reflected in the article I linked. And that mirrors my experiences as well. I’ve worked at a company with low cubes, companies with open floor plans, and currently work at a company that provides everyone with private offices.
The reality I’ve experienced is that interaction with a team is improved with offices: we’re more likely to communicate in ways that preserves records for later (chat/Wiki) and when we do communicate face to face, it’s always done with respect to the other person’s availability. In other words, I’d never crash into a coworkers office if their IM was set to DND, but can’t count the number of interruptions I experienced when the only real cue to leave me alone was my wearing headphones.
Not to mention that at some (most?) companies arranged into cubes, it is assumed that if you’re not at your cube you’re not being productive- hence having to conceal breaks in awkwardly frequent trips to the bathroom and vending machines. Private offices give you the space to do what you want! Which, contrary to the claims of cube-purists, ends up being work a lot of the time.
This. My preferred means of focus is a quiet environment. While I certainly could wear noise-cancelling headphones without any music playing to achieve that, it’s also a pretty big hint that something has gone very, very wrong.
Agreed 100%. I find listening to music very distracting, so I only use headphones when working to block people out if they’re being super annoying. And even then I’d normally just listen to white noise, rain on a car roof, or the sounds of heavy rain to block them out.
Music is always a distraction, but probably less of a distraction than the discussion taking place at the desk next to you.
In my opinion, low cubicles are the absolute worst. They provide a slight illusion of privacy and personal space, but everyone else is always encroaching on your personal space by walking by and looking in or polluting your personal space with noise.
A completely open office seems equally terrible in terms of distractions, but you have no expectation of privacy, so you aren’t as annoyed by people peeking at your screen as they walk by.
Awesome post that every graduating college kid with a CS degree should read. Thanks for the brutally honest insight into your past, Mediremi!
I was taking Hudak’s algorithmic computer music class this semester. Just yesterday the stand-in professor was taking pictures of our final projects to show to him at the next opportunity. RIP Paul Hudak, you will be sorely missed.
pictures? of music?
final project presentations*
I wish it supported markdown…
Atom has an awesome markdown preview package that makes it great for note taking IMO.
Check out Mou! Been using it for a few months to take notes for technical classes and even for writing papers!
http://25.io/mou/
Watch out for markdown :) Awesome idea, I’ll implement it soon!
That third picture gives me the shakes. I had more privacy and personal space than that at the minimum-wage telephone survey job at which I lasted one day when I was a teenager. It makes a cube farm look downright utopian. Thank god for remote work–without it I don’t know if I could have managed to stay in this industry.
Having worked in a cube farm, literally anything is better than a cube farm. They have the worst aspects of an office (cut off from your team) combined with the worst aspects of an open layout (noise). The teams I’ve worked on with the highest cohesion have been open layout. The teams I’ve worked on with cube farms have always had the lowest job satisfaction and the worst team cohesion. So from my perspective, open layout has been great and I’d highly recommend it. Are there better layouts? Possibly, and sure, I’d be willing to try them. But in my experience cube farms simply don’t work in any regard.
Research tends to back this up - overall dissatisfaction is highest in workers with low-walled cubicles. But having said that, the open layout office comes in almost immediately behind.
Research also confirms what we all knew - private offices are king!
It’s interesting to note that what you identify as the worst aspect of having a private office - interaction - isn’t reflected in the article I linked. And that mirrors my experiences as well. I’ve worked at a company with low cubes, companies with open floor plans, and currently work at a company that provides everyone with private offices.
The reality I’ve experienced is that interaction with a team is improved with offices: we’re more likely to communicate in ways that preserves records for later (chat/Wiki) and when we do communicate face to face, it’s always done with respect to the other person’s availability. In other words, I’d never crash into a coworkers office if their IM was set to DND, but can’t count the number of interruptions I experienced when the only real cue to leave me alone was my wearing headphones.
Not to mention that at some (most?) companies arranged into cubes, it is assumed that if you’re not at your cube you’re not being productive- hence having to conceal breaks in awkwardly frequent trips to the bathroom and vending machines. Private offices give you the space to do what you want! Which, contrary to the claims of cube-purists, ends up being work a lot of the time.
Don’t they just wear headphones all day?
Headphones don’t provide privacy or freedom from visual distractions. (And sometimes music can be a distraction of its own.)
This. My preferred means of focus is a quiet environment. While I certainly could wear noise-cancelling headphones without any music playing to achieve that, it’s also a pretty big hint that something has gone very, very wrong.
Agreed 100%. I find listening to music very distracting, so I only use headphones when working to block people out if they’re being super annoying. And even then I’d normally just listen to white noise, rain on a car roof, or the sounds of heavy rain to block them out.
Music is always a distraction, but probably less of a distraction than the discussion taking place at the desk next to you.
In my opinion, low cubicles are the absolute worst. They provide a slight illusion of privacy and personal space, but everyone else is always encroaching on your personal space by walking by and looking in or polluting your personal space with noise.
A completely open office seems equally terrible in terms of distractions, but you have no expectation of privacy, so you aren’t as annoyed by people peeking at your screen as they walk by.
Thanks for this!