
Engineering offices - makwarth
https://medium.com/@makwarth/engineering-offices-f931b77c57bd#.f71rfs3iy
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Grishnakh
You're the boss, so you're the only one who can answer that question. The fact
that you're asking and don't seem to know why really makes me wonder.

From the PoV of an engineer, the assumptions we have as to why most companies
are now choosing these inhuman workspaces are:

\- money: it costs more to have separate cubicles or worse, offices with
doors. It costs more both in actual hardware and construction costs, but also
in square footage: you can pack more people into little 4x4 desk quads by
giving them less personal space. Full-size cubicles need more space. This is
probably the #1 reason, though managers will never admit it.

\- "collaboration": this is the reason typically given by managers. It's true:
having low or no walls between employees makes it easy for them to chatter
with each other. If their job needs a lot of chatter, this can be a good
thing. If their job doesn't, and needs a lot of intense concentration, then
it's a bad thing. So stockbrokers for instance would be well-suited to open-
office environments. Engineers and programmers, not so much. But managers are
"people people" who spend all their time flapping their lips and not doing any
real work, so they don't understand this, and think everyone likes to talk all
day. Strangely, a lot of them seem to have walled offices with doors, while
they tout the benefits of "collaboration" and open offices.

Finally, it doesn't help that a LOT of the younger generation of programmers
seem to just _love_ these open-offices. You might think it's a version of
Stockholm Syndrome, but I think it's because the personality type attracted to
programming jobs has completely changed in the last 15 years. Instead of
attracting introverts, now it's attracting the "brogrammer" crowd.

~~~
nevon
As a younger programmer, it has nothing to do with being "programmers". It's
just that we've never had the opportunity to experience working in a private
office with a door that closes. If you have nothing to compare it to, working
in an open environment seems fine.

~~~
Grishnakh
You never did any programming at home, in your room, with the door closed? You
always had noisy siblings in your room with you? You always did your studying
and homework in school in college with people in the same room as you? You've
never actually had any privacy?

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chrisbennet
I _love_ the open office concept. As someone who has a distraction free
private office, it gives me a competitive advantage. :-)

~~~
makwarth
;-)

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OrionSeven
Currently we're in an open space and the moment I can convince the CEO we'll
do away with it. Collaboration that matters for my team happens in two places:
our morning meetings and in HipChat. Otherwise lots of distractions, sure it
can be fun at times, but at what cost?

