
How to Make an Open Plan Office Suck Less - strangetimes
http://www.mattblodgett.com/2015/05/open-plan-office-suck-less.html
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LaurensBER
Not working in an open office was an important factor in picking my current
job. I really don't get why employers keep insisting on this terrible setup.
It's impossible to work for 9-10 hours in such an environment.

The EU actually has strict rules about office space but companies seem keen to
ignore them. My last employer had an office where it was always to cold or to
warm, it stunk and was always noisy. Terrible place to work and I feel that
this was reflected in the output of work.

All famous management books about managing programmers seem to agree with me
on this yet it's still a trend. Terrible.

~~~
themartorana
It is not impossible. Maybe we can stop talking in absolutes about this issue.

We have an open office setup because a) we're small enough that it's not an
issue (6 people) and b) we can't afford the alternative. Offices are
expensive, compared to the alternative.

I agree with the article about placement, but I strongly disagree with this
constant sentiment that open offices suck. I agree that as we grow we'll need
to be able to put space between people, and maybe the cost will become easier
to tackle. But for a small company like ours, I find space division is just as
often an annoyance as an issue.

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derefr
> we're small enough that it's not an issue (6 people)

That's not an open office. In the discussion of alternatives to open offices,
having _each team_ (3-8 people all doing the same thing) in their own office
is frequently brought up. This isn't considered an open plan; it's just a
sensible design for collaboration.

Let me boil down what people are really talking about when they talk about an
open office: picture a space where the people doing creative work, the people
talking on phones, and the people taking a coffee break are stuck being
physically proximate for eight hours per day. Picture all their desks faced so
a manager (also sat in the same room) can see their screens, though they can't
see his.

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the_bear
I read a lot of hate for open offices on Hacker News, but I don't think it's
as simple as "open offices are bad." Last year my startup moved into our first
office and I did an informal survey of the team (who had previously been
working from their respective homes) about whether they'd prefer their main
desks to be in private offices or an open room, and the winner was the open
office.

My point isn't that open offices are better. But some people clearly prefer
them, and I think this community would benefit from a more nuanced discussion
about when an open office is better vs. when private rooms are better.

This article takes a step in that direction by pointing out that some open
layouts are better than others, but the author also makes it pretty clear that
he never thinks an open office is a good thing. The world is rarely so black
and white.

~~~
analog31
Unfortunately, while we talk about nuances and shades of gray, management has
taken a clear black-and-white stance, which that we will have open offices,
period, with no consideration for the issues mentioned in the article.

At my workplace, management is in love with open offices. The HR director
spoke in glowing terms about another division of the company, where the entire
workplace is one great big open office from end to end. The managers all agree
that the open office improves "collaboration."

A danger to watch out for is that all management initiatives are successful by
default. The open offices have been declared to be a success.

My desk is a face-to-face next to a hallway. I get interrupted every few
minutes by people looking for my colleagues: "Is Alice in today? What time
does she usually come in?" "Do you know where Bob hides?" "Is Cathy still in
her meeting?" If somebody comes to ask me a question, my face-to-face
colleague joins the conversation and dominates it.

Something that's helped me a lot is Portable Apps. I can have all of my apps
and data on a pocket size hard drive, walk out of my office, plug it into any
computer anywhere, and get to work.

~~~
Menge
Portable Apps is an interesting idea, thanks!

On the matter of open offices being a pre-declared success, I think they are
also a bit of a j-curve or "google brain" phenomenon where leaving the open
office environment becomes a stressful proposition. Junior workers stay more
dependent and become afraid of not having a source of immediate answers that
really holds them back from proper growth and self confidence.

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megacode
Privacy is one of the most important - and yet overlooked - design elements in
the new SF coworking spaces.

During my last trip to Westfield mall in San Francisco I noticed the new
Bespoke coworking office space.

[https://www.bespokesf.co/](https://www.bespokesf.co/)

My inner thoughts trended on the same observations as the OP has stated. The
Bespoke designers created a coworking office space that shuffles 12 or more
folks at a single table, allocates window views that are accessible by mall
patrons, and limits soundproofing to user brought headphones.

The only upside is for the commercial investors: be trendy to attract startups
who are more than willing to spend big bucks on attractive, temporary office
space. Productivity be damned.

~~~
brandon272
But they have a Bocce ball court and rock climbing.

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brandon272
This delivers a key point that is often overlooked about open plan office
space vs private offices: regardless of whether or not you're an open plan
fan, the layout of an open plan office can make a huge difference in comfort
and productivity.

I work in a private office currently but am not opposed to working in an open
plan office. However, if you violate simple rules like seating me so close to
a co-worker that I can see every move, smell every smell and engage in
afternoon game of footsies, or if you seat me with my back to a high traffic
area, my productivity and satisfaction with my environment are going to suffer
greatly.

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scurvy
I would give up all the free lunches and massages in the world to not work in
an open office.

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imgabe
These are all great points, but unfortunately they detract from the main
reason employers choose open offices: cost. You can fit more employees in less
space.

Office leases are written in terms of dollars per square foot. Fewer square
feet = Fewer dollars. Yes there's all this nonsense about "increasing
communication" and so on. Bullshit. It's cheaper, end of story.

~~~
frostmatthew
> the main reason employers choose open offices: cost

True, but I don't think the ~$10K a year[1] they're saving (per dev) outweighs
the productivity loss.

[1] [http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-
flo...](http://nathanmarz.com/blog/the-inexplicable-rise-of-open-floor-plans-
in-tech-companies.html)

~~~
derefr
If companies actually thought in terms of optimizing for ROI per invested
employee-salary-dollar, there's so many things they could do. As it is, most
companies (big or small) work to a model that feels more like they want to
_have_ valuable highly-skilled employees (and so they go to a lot of trouble
to acquire them), but they don't actually need anything accomplished that
_requires_ 100% output (even for a short period) from said highly-skilled
employees. Instead, everyone gets stuck doing lowest-common-denominator tasks.

Really, I'm beginning to hold the belief that, for most companies, their
highest possible ROI savings would be to just replace their entire programmer
workforce with recent college grads, interns, low-bid contracts, or outsourced
labor. They don't _need_ anyone with higher skills than that for their junky
glue-FOSS-to-do-CRUD problems; they just think they do.

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Joeri
I have seen a ton of open plan offices, and the office where I work is in fact
an open plan office showroom, but I've never seen the layouts advocated here.
I suspect it's because the primary reason for open plan offices are related to
cost reduction, and putting desks in long rows is the most compact way to
arrange things (with clustered groups the closest proxy).

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
I think you can cover the deficiencies mentioned in the article with some
tasteful screens or curtains in almost any space. I'd make some tasteful 2"x2"
frame and canvas screens for less than $20 per station. Not even cubicles;
just enough to provide some visual privacy.

~~~
tjradcliffe
Visual privacy is great, but noise and the other senses are an issue too.

Employees with allergies, employees who use heavy scents (especially in
combination with employees with allergies) and various food smells can all be
problems even in cubicles.

Employees who sing, hum, and make other (often unconscious) sounds are
likewise problematic in full distraction office layouts.

The claim that there is a cost savings is irrelevant, as "costs less" is never
a justification for anything in business. What matters is productivity per
dollar spent, so if you can hire four developers with private offices to do
the work of five in an open plan, it's a wash.

People who run businesses based on cost savings and not productivity per
dollar aren't the kind of people you want to work for if you can help it.

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
The noise thing can easily even be a problem in places with proper offices. I
was at a site where taking conference calls on high volume speakerphone with
the door wide open struck everybody as natural. Open plan or not, you have to
make it OK to ask people to shut up.

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88e282102ae2e5b
It's nice that the article provides solutions other than "just get private
offices for everyone". I work in a small research lab and there are only two
tiny rooms for about 12 people, so strategies like these are about all we
have.

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davidjnelson
I had an idea about this some might enjoy. My boss was open to it. Setup a
conference room which cannot be used for meetings, which has several dual
monitor / keyboard / mouse / mousepads set up. This way, you can choose to be
in the open office when needed, but when it's a detriment and you need quiet
you can unplug your laptop and go in the "quiet room" to be productive. A
companies openness to this would signal they care about employee health and
productivity.

