
Headphones are the new walls for people in open-plan offices - wyclif
http://www.zdnet.com/article/headphones-are-the-new-walls-for-people-in-open-plan-offices/
======
dcarmo
The fact that I HAVE to listen to something to be able to isolate myself from
my surroundings is pretty depressing to me, specially because I don't like
listening to music for long periods of time.

~~~
gusfoo
Try [http://asoftmurmur.com/](http://asoftmurmur.com/) \- it's meaningless
ambient noise that I find quite effective as audio wallpaper.

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mpg33
As an introvert 3 hours in a private office or even cubicle is probably
equivalent to working 6 hours working in an open office space in terms of
productivity.

~~~
eterm
Perhaps it makes economic sense to have you working less efficiently while
saving a large amount on rent.

Perhaps if giving an office to an introvert developer they'd have to also give
an office* to a large amount of other workers that work better with open
offices such as extroverts and people whose jobs require a lot of
communication and collaborative work* * .

* Because it is a status symbol.

* * Which actually covers developers, I sometimes wonder how much of the feedback here is wishful thinking "I'd be _so_ productive if left alone" rather than actual data.

~~~
falcolas
> Perhaps it makes economic sense to have you working less efficiently while
> saving a large amount on rent.

Open office vs. private office is about $4,000 a year for an employee. Doesn't
take much lost productivity to break that barrier.

~~~
dagw
Perhaps if you're in an office park with arbitrary amounts of office space
where costs simply scales linearly office size. Otherwise it tends to be far
more than that.

~~~
falcolas
Define "far more". I was basing that off of the numbers "110" and "160", which
are square feet per employee for open offices and executive offices,
respectively, and the yearly price of $100 per square foot. All of these
figures are on the high side of the range for those figures- you can easily
find office space for $20-$60 per square foot outside of SF and NY.

Now it's true that if you're dedicated to taking care of your employees, you
might have to split the office earlier than you would with open floor plans,
but to be frank you were looking at the need to do that anyways, just at a
slightly higher employee count.

~~~
eterm
You're missing the most important part, which is there is far less square feet
/ person in open plan than with individual offices.

The cost per _person_ is much cheaper open plan than with offices.

~~~
falcolas
EDIT: Mis-read your comment. Far less square footage is true, but the "far
less" is not that much less. In the best case, it's a few scant square feet.
In the worst (250 for a president-sized office, 60 for an exceptionally
cramped open office footprint), it's still only about 190 square feet - which
comes to around $19k a year. Still a pittance compared to the other costs of
the employee.

ORIGINAL: The cost per person scales directly with the cost per square footage
- that's the only practical difference between an employee in an open office
and in an individual office (well, discounting potential increase production
and fewer sick days).

There's going to be some additional up-front construction costs when you first
take over a space, but when amortized over the fifteen years (which is how the
accountants will book those costs), it's going to end up being pretty small.

What other costs do you feel that I'm missing?

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jrgifford
(I moved into a "private" fishbowl office after I raised a fuss about this)

I've worked in an open floorplan with 3,15 and 20 people. Each one brings its
own set of challenges. Team 3-person was easy. We were all introverts, didn't
talk to each other (Yay Hipchat). Team 20 was easy. There were actually
several different subgroups in there, so we didn't really talk past our small
(2-3 in my case) team, and it was a large enough space that conversations
carried, but weren't annoying (Most days).

It wasn't until I worked with the 15 that I legitimately wanted a private
office. What changed? The new place plays music in the entire office. Even
with the door closed, and my laptop playing some extremely loud white noise (I
can't stand headphones for more than 2-3 hours), I can still hear the music
that is playing outside my door. Also, phones. Desk phones. Everyone has one.
Constantly ringing. So annoying.

In my experience of 3 companies, the types of companies that are going to go
and have an open floorplan without talking to their team about it first, are
the kind that will play music and distract everyone.

Edit: Added desk phones + commentary on the other 2 companies.

~~~
jrgifford
Things I've been reprimanded for in this environment include...

\- leaving my phone on do-not-disturb for days at a time, but still checking
voicemail

\- leaving my phone unplugged. Nobody noticed for a week. Then the CEO called
it. Can't do that anymore.

\- Wearing headphones.

\- Duct taping headphones to my head in an attempt to tell people to leave me
alone.

\- commandeering the sound system to play white noise.

\- having signs like this up behind my desk:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BH6waT2CAAIyS2H.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BH6waT2CAAIyS2H.jpg)

most of my coworkers thought it was hilarious. Some others did not, and now I
can't do these things. :(

~~~
deelowe
Maybe the issue is with the tactfulness of the communication as opposed to the
message itself?

~~~
jrgifford
This was after an extended discussion (about an hour) about why this
environment sucked for programmers. Got told I was imagining things. Talking
with my other technical coworkers, we decided that we would carry on with
this. As of when I left, still hadn't changed.

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memborg
It not only the audible noise you have to deal with it is also the visible
noise of people walking past you making gesture to other in the room.

It is hoorible.

~~~
chaostheory
Yes this is super distracting, seeing people constantly walking by. It's hard
to get any good chain of concentration.

------
shawnps
Unfortunately headphones will not prevent people from tapping you on your
shoulder and interrupting your flow.

I'm recently working remotely and I find that I'm a lot more productive in
this environment than I was in open-plan offices. I do however miss the social
aspect of easily being able to grab lunch with a couple of coworkers.

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Zigurd
The thing it all hinges on is containing noise. Nobody complains about
studying in a library. Because it's quiet. If you want an open workspace to
work, you have to make it quiet. Provide "phone booths" for phone calls and
conference rooms or team rooms for groups talking.

~~~
gambiting
>>Nobody complains about studying in a library. Because it's quiet.

I actually always did. When I was at uni I would avoid the library like a
plague. The problem with an ultra-quiet environment is that literally
EVERYTHING is annoying. Someone coughing. Moving papers. Quiet laughter.
Clicking pens. It was seriously million times more distracting than working in
open space office is.

~~~
marssaxman
Yeah, I can't work very well in a dead quiet environment, because every little
thing distracts me - even the sound of my own breathing, sometimes.
Distraction is always a problem. Blotting everything out by listening to music
helps a lot, particularly music free of vocals.

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nkurz
Why do companies choose to have an open office plan when it clearly hurts the
productivity of some significant percentage of employees? I think there has to
be some benefit that offsets the disadvantages. Noting that it doesn't have to
be true benefit for the company, only a perceived benefit for the people
making the decisions on office plans, what could this be? I don't know, but
here are some ideas that seem at least plausible.

Perhaps the harm to the noise sensitive individuals is offset by the
improvement to others. Is it better to have one individual at 100% and the
other browsing the web all day, or to have both individuals at 60%? It depends
on the work being done. Is it better to prevent 1 employee out of 100 from
embezzling a hundred million dollars? Yes, but I'd suspect the risk isn't
actually that high.

I'd guess that many managers (correctly or not) find it easier to supervise
(micromanage) workers when they can see them constantly. If they are being
judged (and promoted) by how "in control" they appear rather than the actual
productivity of their department, I can see they'd push for large "panopticon"
work spaces. It also seems likely that a manager would feel more secure in
their position if they can monitor those who might seek to take it from them.

Maybe it's a combination of social status and cost? Such that providing tiny
private offices for the lower level workers would be affordable, but the
"obligation" to provide larger and more luxurious offices all the way up the
chain would be prohibitive? It's possible that the possibility of being
promoted to have an office is an significant incentive for some.

What else?

~~~
chaostheory
The main benefit that companies, pushing for open office plans, espouse is
that it makes it easier for people to communicate face to face.

I'm pretty sure a big factor in the rationale for an open office is that it's
even cheaper than having cubicles and (initially) the idea is sexier. For the
companies in this mindset, they're probably ignoring the costs associated with
decreased productivity.

There probably wasn't enough research on it at the time the open office
started to become fashionable.

~~~
chrismcb
I find it much more difficult to communicate face to face in an open office. I
don't want to bother everyone else so I communicate in a whisper and I don't
really like that.

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jgoewert
I could never work at a dump like these places again.

My day would consist of:

Alright lets get some work done. Oh, crap, Kevin is here and he is getting his
coffee. Yep, slurp slurp slurp burp slurp slurp. Thank god that is over. Oh
wait, he is eating one of those huge carrots again. Where the hell does he buy
those? I doubt a horse could bite through one. EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH
SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH
SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH
SHATTERING CRUNCH! Even noise cancelling headphones can't dampen this noise.
EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH! EARTH SHATTERING CRUNCH!

Finally, he is done. Oh, wait, another cup of coffee. SLuuuuuuuuURP! And now
he is on the phone talking to his cousin about sportsball again at loud levels
and laughing every 10 seconds.

Well, I now have a massive headache, no way I will be able to concentrate hard
enough to do anything.

------
pjc50
Incoming ban on office headphones to improve "communication" ...

~~~
noer
I worked in a place that did that, it was terrible. When I started, it was
part of the culture to have small conversations throughout the day and the
team that I worked on had 3 people. The people that talked throughout the day
left and eventually the team grew to 8 or 9 with most people wearing
headphones. The manager decided that productivity had gone down because of
headphones and decided that nobody would be allowed wear them anymore.

~~~
nvader
No! How could anyone have such a colossal lack of common sense?!

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dnlbyl
I'm sure I'd love to have a private office but just how feasible is that? My
current company has 18 full-time "knowledge workers", where in the world is a
startup going to find them all private offices?

I'd really love to know what the alternative is that we're all missing out on?
I've worked in cubical farms, bullpens and open-plan offices and none of them
are ideal but headphones, IM and established boundaries mean I can work in
peace when I want to.

~~~
chaostheory
There's always a way if you want it bad enough.

Maybe there's a good alternative that's a cross between a real private office
and a traditional cubical?

I know at Pixar a lot of employees have their own huts.
[https://thedreamofpixar.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/who-ever-
sa...](https://thedreamofpixar.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/who-ever-said-office-
space-had-to-be-boring/) When you take a weekend or two to build it yourself,
it's not that expensive.

I believe Joel Spoelsky (I think) had something different too, where it wasn't
a real private office with a huge space and thick walls but something with
thinner walls that let light in but were opaque

I'm sure you can probably also work with a local university that has an
industrial design program. Maybe some of their students can design cheap
portable structures that are easy to assemble, cheap to build, aesthetically
pleasing, and yet offers a decent amount of both auditory and visual privacy?

~~~
webnrrd2k
The cynic in me thinks that, in most places, it would be like the Better Off
Ted episode where the bosses decided it was too risky to let people "just do
whatever the hell they wanted", but they could express their individuality
through one of four preselected and inoffensive themes: Green Bay Packers,
cats, space, and race cars.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWJ0NQuicE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWJ0NQuicE)

~~~
chaostheory
I think people who have the problem of open work spaces wouldn't mind
something as uniform and boring as a cubicle or a near equivalent since it's
seen as a lesser evil.

------
gdubs
Tough thing about headphones is I find they're only comfortable for so long.
That, and there are times where I can't really work with music and just need
quiet.

~~~
gh02t
I'm the same, I can't wear any kind of "on ear" headphones for more than an
hour or two before my ears hurt. Instead, I got some studio monitor style over
ear headphones (Sennheiser HD380P to be specific) that are super comfy and
have a huge noise reduction to boot. I can wear them all day no problem.

As for noise, I don't work in an office (mostly at home), but if I need to cut
out the noise but don't want music I still will put on my headphones. If I
_really_ need to cut out the world, some white noise will do the trick.

~~~
eventualhorizon
I also listen to noise instead of music to block outside sound. I use sox on
mac/linux/windows to generate brown noise which I find less tiresome than
white noise.

Sox is well documented but here is the command I use for 90 minutes of brown
noise (I try to get up and walk for a minute each time it finishes).

play -n synth 90:00 brownnoise brownnoise

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jmount
"Blocking noise" with more sound will make you deaf.

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mpg33
I think since the ideal solution is to have both open and closed type areas
available and let the employees pick. You probably get more productivity by
letting the employee choose their optimal working space.

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skatenerd
Someone please make an HN poll asking what type of office we all work in -
open, cubicle, small office, other...

I lack the karma

~~~
rickr
Not exactly what you're wanting but there was a poll a little while ago asking
what people prefer:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8815512](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8815512)

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brownhat
Impossible to pair up with someone, unless you both put on headsets and share
a channel like a tank crew.

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subsection1h
To the people recommending white noise, be careful. I developed tinnitus from
listening to white noise. Now whenever I hear white noise, including fans,
etc., there is a high-pitched ringing in my left ear. Not fun.

