
Death To The Open Offices Floor Plan - bernatfp
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3024697/death-to-the-open-offices-floorplan
======
stygiansonic
Every time an article like this gets posted, a huge discussion ignites over
the "better communication" of open office plans vs. the "less distraction,
more focus" of offices. (A microcosm of this is "wear headphones if you need
quiet" vs. "Why should I need headphones?")

Anecdotally, the open-office haters seem to outnumber the others.

Personally, (and this has been said before), I think an arrangement where you
have private spaces, and a common central space, like a large/long table,
would be best. The common space would be great for times when the team needs a
lot of communication (i.e. bootstrapping a project) while the private spaces
are good for more mundane tasks.

Allow teams to move between the two. Just my speculation, but the real culprit
behind the productivity killing seems to be forcing people to work in an
environment they don't like.

~~~
the_watcher
Exactly. I love working in a collaborative space sometimes, and it's really
helpful for me sometimes. It's also basically necessary for me to spend at
least one day a week entirely in a private room. Luckily that's an option
where I work.

------
YZF
Some of these open offices are like factory chicken farms. You can just
imagine those chickens going: cluck, this is better than cubicles, cluck,
cluck, cluck...

To the people who prefer open offices I have two words. Cognitive. Dissonance.

:-) More seriously: It is somewhat a matter of personal preferrence but I
think all/most people need some space and are not comfortable by others being
constantly inside their personal space. You can do this experiment. Go to an
empty meeting room and work there. Then ask your coworker to sit exactly
behind you while you work. How does that feel?

I've had some of my best team and communication in an environment with
offices. Need to talk, get into someone's office. On most days we had the
entire team in someone's office talking for hours about architecture, code
reviews, etc. We weren't disturbing anyone else and it was just the right
space for our small team. Most of the time though we were able to focus on
what we were trying to do without distractions. I contrast this with open
offices where people never talk to each other and seem unable to do work that
requires any concentration.

Not everyone can wear headphones all day. Those that do I recommend that you
get your hearing checked. Visual distractions are also a prolem.

To conclude again on a slightly humorous note, is Oculus VR the next step in
open space? Get an office while we cram you one on top of another? Your very
own virtual personal space? I just need my man-cave, sorry.

Edit: It's also very much a question of how much space per person is available
in whatever scheme is used and how many people per open area. It's not a
problem for me to share one large office. I once visited one large known tech
company where they built a new space and offered people the option of going
two per office or one in the open. All the offices were full.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
Business, as a whole, seems fixated on eliminating every facet of
introversion:

"Individual analysis is bad! Collaboration is good!"

"Thinking hard takes too much time! Instead, keep shipping!"

It seems to reflect a culture that prefers ambient noise to quiet reflection,
focus, and productivity. It's almost as if people would prefer to _see_ me
typing over having the results of what I make. It is this notion that makes
open offices a bit worrisome. I've been productive in both private and open
office environments, but I'm very much an introvert. I need a certain amount
of physical space that feels private; this manifests itself mentally as
breathing space to explore whatever problem domain I'm working in.

Aside: it's amusing that SV prides itself on being progressive while not
trusting their workers with a modicum of privacy. Guess it fits the whole
'privacy is not for plebes' notion that powers it, eh?

------
seiji
Open offices are great if you have a bunch of weird computer people who don't
know how to talk to each other. It's easier to reach over and physically walk
into someone's space to make them acknowledge you than it is to just walk into
a closed office (or, worse, schedule a "meeting" to talk to someone).

Open offices also require trust on all levels. Management layers must
recognize the reality of an 8 hour work day involves many breaks of non-work
browsing. If you have an open office plan with management demanding you be on-
task for 8 hours a day, that's a recipe for nervous breakdowns (or a recipe
for people fighting over desks where monitors face windows instead of the open
hallway areas).

Another endless plus for open offices: If you sit with your team, you have
open-air information sharing. "Oh, X is walking over to talk to al of us about
problem Y. We can collectively address their problem in 5 minutes instead of
three days of emails back and forth."

You're probably not as important as you think you are. You only need an office
if you're dealing with sensitive HR materials. (Or: if you have an annoying
laugh. Or if you have flatulence problems. Or if you talk on the phone all day
and have an annoying voice. Or if you bring your loud kids to work. Or if you
video chat over speakerphone all day long.)

------
lightblade
Can we give each employee their own office cube like these? They're not very
roomie, but they do provide noise isolation and also save space. If we can
just arrange them in a line in a warehouse or maybe even stack them
vertically.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=backyard+office+cube&client=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=backyard+office+cube&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VCzQUpRZydmgBI-
JgYgH&ved=0CHUQsAQ&biw=2560&bih=1320)

~~~
nilkn
Probably not, because cubicles and open-floor plans are really about saving
money, not about providing workers with the best environment.

I interviewed at Fog Creek once and probably the coolest thing about the
company is every developer gets a private office. Notably, these offices (as
best as I can remember) are not particularly big. They may not be much bigger
than a cubicle. The main distinction is they have glass walls extending all
the way to the ceiling together with a door that closes.

Do they take up extra space compared to normal cubicles? Probably, but not
significantly more space--certainly not nearly as much space as traditional
"this is 5x as much space as I actually need" offices, with unused couches
sitting around just to fill the room.

But this sort of construction is expensive, so it's almost never done.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
> _cubicles and open-floor plans are really about saving money, not about
> providing workers with the best environment._

It's staggering how I had to wade half-way through piles of double-think
comments until someone finally spoke the truth.

------
shijie
A cursory glance at current office floor plans brings only a few options:

1) Cubicle Farm. In the article, this was voted as "even worse" than an open
floor plan.

2) The Open Floor Plan, which is getting a pretty bad rap on HN as of late.

3) Everyone gets their own private offices yay! If you're not working at
Sterling Cooper & Partners (where there are private offices for pretty much
everyone but "creative" and the secretaries), this might be unfeasible.

4) Some sort of hybrid pseudo-open-but-still-private layout that engenders the
best of both worlds. There are a few silicon valley companies that hit this
one on the head, and that's awesome.

To get to the point, I think I'd rate each option I've outlined above (using
their numeric value) as 3 > 4 > 2 > 1\. But it ultimately comes down to a
comfort/feasibility ratio. Cubicles are the most feasible, but also the most
hated. Private offices for all(TM) is the most desired, and the least
feasible. Option 4 is somewhere in the middle, leaning toward less feasible
(need a lot of space, etc...). It would seem that the open office is
(currently) the most feasible option for companies with little creativity and
a tight budget. This is the way I see it. Love them or hate them, in my
opinion, open offices have the highest comfort/feasibility ratio.

Thoughts? I'd love other people's opinion on this.

 _Edit: formatting_

~~~
falcolas
I'd personally rather have option 1 over option 2. The fabric walls absorb
sound, block visuals, and give you at least some privacy. Of course, I'd
prefer option 3 more, but I think the problem with cubicles is more of a
perception problem than actual problems with the cubicles themselves.

------
keithpeter
I'm a teacher. We have open plan offices. When I need quiet (marking complex
pieces of work or thinking up new ideas) I go to the quiet study area in the
College library. Wifi (good speed) and staff to enforce the no talking rule.

So how about a library? Corporate space with study carrels and dead tree of a
vaguely useful nature (books in mass on shelves absorb a lot of sound).

------
dangero
Peopleware has some good information on quantitative value of private offices
vs alternatives: [http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-
Teams-3...](http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-
Teams-3rd/dp/0321934113)

Their discovery was that people who had closed door offices were more
productive. In general people with less interruptions got more done.

The book is somewhat dated, so this may have changed since, but one of the
interesting things they found was that there weren't really any studies
showing that open offices helped productivity for software teams. It was
purely a cost saving measure by execs wrapped up in wrapping of "being
collaborative".

~~~
rattray
The individuals may have been more productive; did they measure the output of
the teams?

I don't think anyone disputes that people are more productive without
distraction. That's not what open plans are for though: collaboration helps
everyone orient around the _right_ thing, so all that individual productivity
isn't wasted pursuing the wrong stuff.

~~~
dangero
That's a good point and I'd definitely like to see some quantitative studies
on that.

------
samstave
heh - wait until Zuck moves his 3,800 engineers into that one, giant, single
room at the MPK-West campus building.

Only his circle of 5 get private offices.

That building will be amazing - but it is the pinnacle of the open office
idea... that's OK for them though because everyone at FB drinks the kool-aid.

~~~
varelse
Not to mention young people are just smarter so just ignore all these old
fogies telling you there's something wrong with open offices (except for
yourself because, ya know, you're special).

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6171235-7.html](http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6171235-7.html)

------
coldcode
If your WiFi actually works (unlike at my office where it sucks and often is
home grown supported) there isn't any reason for people to be stuck in one
place. We had open office where I had like 10 sq feet of space, then moved to
a cube farm (7x8 ft) which was much better. But I like the idea of random
areas with lots of good places to sit and a mix of quiet/collaborative as
needed. But if you had both offices and open seating, how many people would
like which one?

------
dkhenry
I like my open office floor plan. I think it does a good job fostering
communication, and I go crazy when I am isolated in my office ( yes I have
both and I like the open part of the office _way_ more ).

Also in all these articles they say "its too noisy..." Has no one ever heard
of headphones. They let each individual employee get the best level of noise
they need. Want it quiet get a set of sound isolating headphones and put on
quiet background noise. Do you like music to work to go ahead and put that on.
Do you like the organic background of distant communication and the peaceful
methodical hum of the ventilation system. Leave the headphones off and enjoy
it. What I have found as the big turning point is you need to have an entire
office that is respectful of others no matter what floor plan you have. If one
worker insists on playing loud music or having conference calls all day no
matter what set up you have chances are he will be annoying his direct
neighbors.

As an aside as much as I like my open office I would trade it for a botanical
garden. I love gardens and would gladly set up shop in a nice greenhouse maybe
with some birds in it, and a nice central waterfall and river running down the
middle.

~~~
res0nat0r
> Also in all these articles they say "its too noisy..." Has no one ever heard
> of headphones. They let each individual employee get the best level of noise
> they need. Want it quiet get a set of sound isolating headphones and put on
> quiet background noise. Do you like music to work to go ahead and put that
> on. Do you like the organic background of distant communication and the
> peaceful methodical hum of the ventilation system. Leave the headphones off
> and enjoy it. What I have found as the big turning point is you need to have
> an entire office that is respectful of others no matter what floor plan you
> have. If one worker insists on playing loud music or having conference calls
> all day no matter what set up you have chances are he will be annoying his
> direct neighbors.

All of these items are fixed by giving me an office with a door. If I want
interaction and noise, then I'll open the door, head out to the shared
conference floor space and work from there. I'm not sure why more offices
don't do this by default these days.

~~~
jaredmcateer
I prefer my brother in law's set up, it's an inverse of what you want, open
office but with isolation caves assigned to no one that can be used when you
need silence. I think making isolation an opt-in rather than opt-out makes for
a much more inclusive environment.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
Inclusive? I'm not at the office to socialize, I'm there to focus and do work.

~~~
jaredmcateer
I think that's a false dichotomy. Without socialization it's very difficult to
understand the people you're working with and this, in my experience, is often
the root of friction between teams and departments.

~~~
res0nat0r
I've been working from home with my distributed team all over the USA (and
world) for over a year now. I haven't met a few of them ever in person yet.
Our company and team are doing fine just socializing over Skype and conference
calls / Google Hangout (occasionally) when needed.

Someone doesn't need to be sitting right next to me able to interrupt me
whenever they like to "promote synergy"

------
fennecfoxen
How about this? If you don't want to work in an [open office|cube farm|closed
office|home office|etc], don't. You're a software developer. You have career
options. Then companies can weigh the costs and benefits of these approaches
(including financial costs like rent in busy cities like NY and SF, employee-
retention issues, ability to call the layout a perk when recruiting, impacts
of collaboration or lack thereof) and choose one that seems to fit their needs
and the needs of their workforce (which presumably is something that will vary
from employer to employer).

Oh sure, it's all well and good to whine about offices not being the way you
like. While we're at it, I'd also like shorter work weeks and higher pay.

------
thehme
Whether you program or not, sometimes you just need to sit back, maybe close
your eyes and think. It's weird to do it in a open office plan where your desk
is across someone else! Let's not mention the coughing person a couple desk
away or the open-mouth-eater next to you! A cubicle may not be cool and in
some offices, it may seem too dull, but in the right conditions, it not only
gives privacy, but also a little protection from those little annoyances. The
only way I know an open floor plan works is when it is help by a SINGLE and
SMALL company, where all desks are against nice tall windows and everyone
respects each other enough to not be loud across the room in "their own
space".

------
mahyarm
This is why I like the idea of shared private offices / team rooms. It strikes
a good balance between the two. I can handle sharing offices, but once it goes
beyond a certain amount of people it becomes distracting.

~~~
j_baker
It really depends on who you're sharing an office with though. If you get
trapped with one loudmouth, it's much worse than being in an open office
because they're more likely to be right next to you.

------
farmdawgnation
Every time I read complaints from people dissatisfied with open office
layouts, my first response is inevitably, "Have you ever had a roommate?" The
ability to isolate is great when you need it, but I can't help but get the
notion that at least some cases are people avoiding learning how to work in
close proximity to each other. Thereby using cubicles or offices as a crutch
for that. If I'm right, doesn't the company benefit from people having to hash
those differences out?

------
kirkthejerk
Traipsing around botanical gardens with my laptop sounds divine, but what if I
need (yes, need) a multi-monitor PC and wired network?

If adjustable sitting/standing desks are all the rage nowadays, how about
cubicle walls that raise/lower (all the way to the ceiling)? Scrum time? Lower
the walls. Need a bit of quiet contemplation? Shields up!

I'll bet that somebody with better
time/money/smarts/connections/looks/luck/location than me could get funding
for this invention ;)

~~~
jackmaney
"Traipsing around botanical gardens with my laptop sounds divine, but what if
I need (yes, need) a multi-monitor PC and wired network?"

That's what docking stations are for.

The vertically adjustable cubicle walls sound neat, though.

------
Killah911
The crappy part of the article is that it provides shallow criticism with no
real alternative or solution. There's a link at the bottom to "look" at the
most "innovative" workspaces and they're OPEN FLOORPLAN!

So, open floorplan sucks, cubicles suck even more, can't give everyone offices
(reduces collaborative work). WTF is one to do?

------
rattray
I've heard great things about Valve's system, of desks on wheels and no set
floor plan.

Idea: what about movable wall sections to complement this? Whenever you want
to go heads-down, move a few partitions to your desk and block everything else
out.

------
mbillie1
This open/closed office argument has rapidly become an Android/iOS, emacs/vim
sort of pointless opinion-stating circle jerk. Why are we upvoting this crap?

~~~
j_baker
No, I think it's pretty much a CVS/SVN "Why are people still using this crap?"
type of situation. I don't see much actual debate or argumentation happening
around this.

------
Nursie
No, no death to open plan. Cube farms are desolate places, offices isolate.
Open plan fosters good communication. Need solo time? Put your headphones on.

~~~
nostromo
Treat your employees like adults and provide options. The best employers
provide a mix of all three: open space, offices, and working remotely.

~~~
iamed2
This seems the only way to satisfy everyone. There are clearly those who
strongly prefer some degree of open office space, and some who strongly prefer
private space. However, few of the articles I've read give open+optional
private offices as an option.

Currently, some at my company use unused meeting rooms as quiet space but
generally prefer an open environment, with headphones on or off. A growing
number prefer a casual, social environment like couches and tables rather than
desks.

A strong influencing factor is the amount of collaborative work. Those who are
working alone on projects tend to be solitary, while those who make many
collaborative decisions want to be closer to others. This may reduce the need
for formal meetings, which allocate blocks of time for a whole group that may
not be necessary or efficient.

------
devandstuff
I like open offices. I grew up with cubicles -- no thank you. I'll take the
downsides to open offices to the downsides of being isolated. Just use
headphones. And for companies, have rooms where people can go for focused,
quiet work when they need that.

I was apprehensive moving from cubicles to open space, but I actually find
that I appreciate the social aspect of it. I'd rather not be alone all day in
my tiny enclosed corner of the world. There's a good reason movies like Office
Space exist.

~~~
ericd
I don't personally care, but the headphone argument doesn't take into account
that many people don't like working with music either.

~~~
rytis
Also, not everyone likes wearing headphones all day long either. It's like
saying "oh, you don't like the smell of cigaretes? wear a gas mask!"

~~~
devandstuff
True. But cubicles don't completely eliminate noise either. If you're working
in a space with people, some noise is inevitable. Unless you have your own
complete closed office, which is just really unrealistic in most cases.

~~~
devandstuff
@ericd If you're working for a small company, and that company can actually
find an office space setup like that, good for you. It will not work for
larger companies because the real estate footprint would be unwieldy. I have
yet to work at a company for which closed offices for everyone was even
remotely possible, given the fiscal and office space availability constraints.

~~~
ericd
The companies I'm describing range from fortune 500s to research organizations
to small startups. They didn't have it for 100% of people, but they did for
every dev/researcher that I could see. They don't have to be huge offices, and
two to an office was fine, it's really the full walls/lack of noise that
mattered.

