
Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick - michaelochurch
http://qz.com/85400/moving-to-open-plan-offices-makes-employees-less-productive-less-happy-and-more-likely-to-get-sick/#
======
jroseattle
Anyone who has worked in enough office environments for a while will recognize
that the "best" environment is a flexible one. Sometimes it's working in the
open, sometimes a quiet office with the door closed, sometimes at home or a
coffee shop.

When I took a mgmt role as VP/Engnring at a firm a few years ago, the first
thing I did was assess and address morale, which was not good. One of the
obvious things was that the staff didn't like the militaristic-layout of
desks, being on display to others in the organization who had cozy and private
retreats to use.

The CEO freaked out when I told him we were moving to the opposite side of the
office floor (we had a full floor in a standard big-city downtown office
building). When we moved over, we had our choice of cubes, open areas (not
desks, but full-on tables) and quiet corners. Product management hated it
because they "had to walk over to see what was going on". It didn't take a lot
to figure out the source of frustration with the office environment for the
engineering team. After that, I was able to take on the frustrations of the
product management group since they could no longer _easily_ impact the
engineering team.

As it turned out, the engineering team didn't mind working in any combination
of those situations, as long as they could kind of pick-and-choose over time.
And, wouldn't you know it, productivity went up -- considerably.

~~~
greghinch
Ultimately, in my experience, it always seems to come down to "how do we keep
the non-technical people from meddling with the engineers?" This is as much
about org structure as it is office layout

~~~
reeses
This is one of the lessons from Peopleware. It's not so much noise in the
background but noise unrelated to the job duties. Being in a room of
developers usually has less impact than having marketing, sales, etc.
collocated as well.

------
calpaterson
This topic is discussed at length in Peopleware:

<http://www.librarything.com/work/17188>

"If your organization is anything like those studied in our last three annual
surveys, the environmental trend is toward less privacy, less dedicated space
and more noise. Of course the obvious reason for this is cost. A penny saved
on the workspace is a penny earned on the bottom line, or so the logic goes.
Those who make such a judgement are guilty of performing a cost/benefit study
without the benefit of studying the benefit."

The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very
influential.

~~~
shaggyfrog
> The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very
> influential.

You think that's bad? Brooks first published The Mythical Man-Month in 1975
and I don't think those lessons have ever sunk in, either.

~~~
kamaal
99% of the managers probably haven't even heard if somebody called Fred Brooks
ever existed.

------
mcphilip
I really struggle to get in the 'zone' where I can do the creative aspects of
software engineering (e.g. researching graph databases like neo4j and
determining if our startup can benefit from it) when I'm in an open
environment. I have been diagnosed with ADD for the past 8 years, but am
working towards a medication free approach to dealing with it.

Open spaces really hurt my productivity because my mind naturally tries to
keep track of all the conversations going on around me. This ADD wired brain
helped make me a great waiter, but it's hard to explain to bosses/founders why
I prefer to work in a quiet environment with as few people around as possible
whenever I'm not simply cranking out code that takes no thought.

Most of my bosses have been very accommodating at first, but each time the
scenario ends up where management feels like my isolation is a sign of not
wanting to be a team player and is harming the morale of those programmers
that look up to me.

I really don't know what the right answer is to this dilemma, but for me, at
least, the trend towards an open plan offices is stifling my ability to
perform at a consistently high level.

Edit: to those replying below, thanks for the suggestion. Thankfully my
employer has no policy against headphone usage, so I do get some help from
that. One thing many people don't realize about ADD is that a loss of focus
can be triggered through other senses such as seeing movement out of the
corner of my eyes. Sound is definitely the most distracting element, but an
environment with a lot of movement can be almost as bad in my case.

~~~
endianswap
I hate to sound like I'm trivializing your disorder, but have you tried a good
pair of closed-ear headphones? I sit in a room of 40 or 50 chatty computer
folks, and everything is silent when I put on my Sennheiser headphones. It
lets be effectively choose whether or not I want to be distracted by sound,
which I do sometimes (hearing conversations I want to be a part of it quite
important to me).

~~~
ghotli
[http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-
Earphone/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-
Earphone/dp/B0013JT3XC)

Those effectively eliminate auditory ADD in an open environment. Nothing has
been more effective than these for me.

~~~
bdcravens
I have a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 15's, supposedly one of the best noise
canceling headphones you can buy. While it eliminates alot of the noise, noise
still gets in.

~~~
driverdan
Earphones that actually block sound are far superior to noise canceling
headphones that degrade the sound quality of whatever you're listening to.

------
DanielBMarkham
I've worked in every possible configuration, and I've watched teams work in
every possible configuration.

I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for
organizations as a whole. Some initial conclusions:

\- We'd be wise to distinguish what we'd all _like_ to have as an office from
what actually functions best in a larger system. It is erroneous to think that
simply because you like something means it's always the best policy for
everybody. Sometimes local non-optimizations need to be made to optimize the
system as a whole.

\- Open-plan environments are nowhere near being a _determining_ factor in
team performance, but they can be an important add-on. So sure, if your
company is too cheap for offices, treat teams like slaves, and just wants to
cram as many people possible into the smallest space? Then that's going to
suck. But that's going to suck anyway. I'd just be really careful about
confusing "stuff I think is cool" from "stuff that works the best for
everybody concerned" I'd also be careful about over-generalizing. A big hunk
of this is team, project, company, technology, and building specific.

\- As long as you're adapting, you could end up with any kind of office space.
But just as an informed guess, co-located open plan is where I'd start, then
adapt from there.

\- The worse thing you can do is start with a pre-conceived notion of what
works and didn't and then try to force reality to conform to it.

~~~
davesims
Couldn't agree more. What people _complain_ about is not necessarily an
indication of what's _not working_.

My last two gigs have been open-plan, and I prefer it much more than closed-
cube spaces. If your team is working as it should, and is in close proximity
to project/product management, with a good process and a healthy level of
trust between the stakeholders and between the various engineers, then in my
experience open-plan is far better, because the quality of communication is
high, the general focus of the team is high, and there's less background noise
"distraction", because the cross-talk is usually relevant and on-task, and has
a higher likelihood of being pertinent to the job at hand. Open plan offices
work well when the team is already working well.

However, if there's broken processes, unfocussed coworkers, and a general
level of distrust between team members or across teams, then the background
chatter becomes exponentially more distracting and frustrating. Unfortunately
most teams tend towards the latter and not the former.

In other words -- in my limited, anecdotal experience (last 5 years, two large
open-plan teams; 10 years before that in closed or hybrid), high-functioning
teams tend to thrive on the cross-talk and constant communication that open
plan creates organically. Lower-functioning teams on the other hand have done
better when the natural barriers of walls and closed doors limit unnecessary
distractions and create healthier boundaries.

So it's not surprising to me that the study shows more instances of teams
unhappy with open plans; it's certainly not for everybody. But the best teams
I've been on have absolutely _thrived_ in that environment.

~~~
geoka9
> high-functioning teams tend to thrive on the cross-talk and constant
> communication that open plan creates organically.

I wonder how programmers in such environments can get in the "zone" and stay
in it for extended periods of time, if they are being "constantly communicated
with".

~~~
davesims
I'm ADD to the core, and I find it actually easier to zone out and _code_ with
a low-level background noise, "coffee-shop" style. Large spikes in noise are a
problem, and also non-relevant conversations that pull _everyone's_ attention
off-task, but on the open teams I've been on, in general this has been the
exception not the rule.

My experience at large tables has been that good coders and PMs will actually
_IM_ a developer when they need to ask a question -- I do this all the time
even when I'm sitting 2 feet from the guy I need to talk to: "let me know when
you have a sec to talk about X", etc.

Again, that's evidence of a team that's generally on-task and communicating
well -- a cultural quality that is itself harder to find than not.

~~~
dyno12345
I prefer instant messaging to start a conversation... it's asynchronous. You
can ignore it for a little while if you need just a couple minutes more of
flow state

------
doktrin
While I don't prefer open office plans, I think it needs to be emphasized that
not all open office plans are equal.

There are compartmentalized open plans, where a specific team or division is
grouped together in close proximity, and then you have some form of the
"kitchen sink", where any number of teams (if not the whole company) is just
thrown into a room.

The latter is _extremely_ unpleasant, IMHO. Being constantly disrupted by the
loud side chatter that inevitably comes out of another group (e.g. marketing,
finance, sales, etc.) is infinitely more distracting than ancillary chatter
that is relevant to a specific team / department. In addition, obviously, the
more open a plan is the more physical distractions are present which doesn't
help matters either.

~~~
Symmetry
You also have to consider how closely packed everyone is. At my last job we
had an open plan office for the four people in my group but we were all about
20 feet apart and it was great. It was easy to communicate, but it wasn't
distracting. Having lots of tiny conference rooms for talking to people or
taking phone calls is also very important for open plan offices.

------
altero
Thanks to open-plan office I developed anxiety, high-blood pressure and
stress. I could not concentrate in the office and I had to finish most of my
work at home over evenings. I nearly divorced thanks to open-plan office.

I already quit 3 long term jobs a few weeks after company moved to open-plan.
At end I just had to start my own business. Now I am single-handily competing
with multi-billion companies (and I dare to say with good success).

Open-plan comes with lot of bullsh*t. But at end it is just about a few bucks
which company moves from operating cost to management bonuses.

Many developers care about stuff like free soda. I would strongly recommend to
care about your working environment and mental health. It takes about 10 years
of stress-free work to develop and reach your full technical potential.
Working for peanuts and burning-out after 15 years is really bad carier plan.

~~~
vpeters25
As an Agile evangelist I thought open-plan was the way to go but now I realize
collaboration tools such as IM, Campfire, Hipchat, etc can provide such social
benefits while allowing the developer to isolate themselves and focus when
needed.

I personally can work in any kind of environment, but I prefer it quiet.
Headphones help when in open-plan places but I noticed it takes me longer to
get focused in such places. I now reject job offers were I would get anything
less than a private cubicle.

------
steven2012
In the span of 4 years, I went from a cube farm, to an office, to taking
almost a year off and being by myself at home, to an entirely open-plan. It
took a couple of weeks to get used to but I really like the open-plan. I
enjoyed being by myself at home alone tremendously and didn't miss the social
interaction at all, since I IM with most of my friends anyway, but I have to
say I do like the open-plan now. My team is very social, I very much like
everyone on the team, and I get to interact with my teammates a lot more, and
if I need some solitude I can move to a smaller room (we're all laptop-based).

We do respect each other's space though, so most times it gets as quiet as a
library, and even though my teammate is just on the other side of the table
from me, he will IM me instead of just looking past the monitor and talk to
me. It's usually quiet, but closer to lunch or near the end of the day, we
play StarCraft 2, start chattering a bit more, and it's generally a bit
looser.

For the most part, we don't work remotely, but the VP of Engineering insists
that if one of us is even possibly sick, to stay at home and not infect
others.

It's definitely a different set of "rules", but I really do enjoy it.

------
mgkimsal
Was just having a discussion on this topic with a friend a couple nights ago.
Seems that "management" and "HR" always seem to have traditional desks and
offices with closable doors. Always. For software developers, they often get
lumped with the same desk/working environments that people doing call center
or phone support work get.

It got me thinking _why_ that might be, and I had a thought I hadn't had
before. Management types typically have their days broken up in to short 30-60
minute blocks - that's their standard work process - meeting, meeting,
meeting, planning, etc. I don't think they can really understand people
focusing for 2-3 hours at a stretch, and that there's often a big increase in
productivity for some people working under those conditions.

Thought-workers are somewhat alone in this, and because the people who make
office seating decisions don't work that way, they can not fathom anyone else
might _need_ to work that way (except, of course, they still need their doors
to be closed for quiet/private work conditions).

~~~
tsotha
There's more to it than that. Management and HR people need to have
conversations that not everyone else is privy to. Having everyone listening to
a coworker being asked by her boss to wear more appropriate clothing to the
office is just asking for a lawsuit, as is a conversation between HR and an
employee discussing leave for an embarrassing medical problem.

Of course you can have small conference rooms for those kinds of
conversations, but if it's a significant part of the job an office just makes
sense.

~~~
YZF
The thing is that I think healthy teams need to have those conversations as
well. I.e. ones that not everyone is privy too. Team cohesion requires trust
and I found the inability to have private conversations easily is a problem.

------
MikeTLive
Six years ago I designed a mixed-mode alcove based office plan. Long
conference table with 12 chairs. On opposite sides are four to six offices
just large enough for pair programming, doors facing the conference table.

For heads down go to your office and close the door. 1:1 collaboration go join
your partner. Max3 cram on in.

Passive collaboration open your door. Larger team meet at conf table. Active
teamwork move with laptop out to table.

Large screen on wall at end of table. This neighborhood is repeated over and
over again.

Collocate teams in alcoves. Go visit other alcoves when you need to. Touchdown
or camp at whatever teams space you need to be at.

This design was rejected at my local office rebuild. But a year later was
taken up at another facility. It won someone architectural awards.

Me? I get to enjoy its productivity multiplier every time I visit that
facility. Anyone who experiences it comments on it being the best arrangement
they have ever seen.

Any other time? When i need to work from the local office I am in low wall
cubicle hell from thanks to our expert architects.

~~~
jlangenauer
Have you written a blog post or something more about this setup? I'd certainly
like to know more about it.

------
bsg75
Open plans benefit only two categories:

1) Lazy managers or PMs, who either won't expend the effort to use ascertain
on their own how things are progressing (code review, ticket / task lists,
reports), or don't have the discipline to actually manage without continuously
interrupting with questions about things they should already know.

2) Bean counting finance or facilities types, who foolishly look at cost as
the primary design factor largely ahead of productivity and work _quality_
(not quantity).

Giving people an environment where they can focus when needed (an "office")
along with areas where collaboration can occur when desired ("war rooms") is
the only approach that gives people the opportunity to excel.

I am extremely doubtful that the time and effort to go find someone in their
workspace is more time consuming than the cumulative impact of constant
distraction, be it visual or auditory. If it is the case, then these people
can team up in a single office or work room.

Especially in tech, where more and more companies proclaim they provide choice
and flexibility in tools, workstations, and even nutrition, forcing everyone
to work in one, unfiltered common area is equivalent to putting them in a
henhouse.

TL;DR - open plan offices are trendy bullshit to avoid spending enough for a
comfortable workspace.

------
dreamdu5t
Agreed. I find it very odd that software engineers make $100k+ yet aren't even
given an office or private work space.

The cost is not the reason because open floor plan offices in downtown SF
aren't exactly "cheaper" than renting in an already established office suite.
The reason is the insecurities of management, combined with the
fashion/groupthink aspect of silicon valley startup CEOs (herp derp, facebook
does it! Startup X does it! It's the thing to do!)

------
vog
I'm wondering why people even considered that kind of office layout.

Didn't anyone of them read the famous books of Tom DeMarco, such as
"Peopleware"? Decades ago, DeMarco argued (IMHO very convincingly) for closed
rooms to cut distractions - at least for thought workers. DeMarco even
concluded that telephones are bad, especially if in the company's culture it's
not socially accepted that people are free to ignore a phone call.

------
akurilin
As an interesting example, the people in charge at Facebook seem to be well
aware of the downsides of open plan offices. They however consciously choose
to lower engineer productivity in exchange for higher openness and visibility.
It's actually refreshing how they don't try to pass it as "much better for the
developer". It's better for the company as a whole, not so much for the
individual: <http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3119>
(starts around 11:35)

~~~
michaelochurch
Open plan is all about the brogrammer macho bullshit. The idea is that if you
can't deal with 10+ hours of being on edge due to vertigo-inducing noise and
open-back visibility, you're too old/lazy/weak to write code. It's total
nonsense and the sooner that attitude dies, the better.

~~~
pvnick
I agree with this. It carries with it a bit of a sense of youthful
superiority, and leads countless kids to waste away their twenties all to make
someone else rich.

------
crazygringo
Is there any conclusive evidence of causation, as opposed to just correlation?

Could it be, for example, that companies with worse management practices tend
to adopt open-plan offices, but that it's actually the bad management
practices causing stress, sickness, less productivity -- and that the open-
plan offices have very little to do with it?

In environments as incredibly complex as office settings, it is particularly
important to realize that correlation != causation.

~~~
greenyoda
You make a good point; an office is a complex system with many factors
affecting workers. However, I do think the findings about increased sickness
in open plan offices are very plausible. Communicable diseases, like colds or
flu, would be a whole lot easier to spread when there's someone coughing or
sneezing in your immediate vicinity over an extended period of time.

------
city41
I have worked in just about every office configuration imaginable: open office
(my current job), everyone gets their own office, and cubicles.

Despite everyone hating them, I actually think cubicles are the best
arrangement. The cubicle walls offer separation and let people focus and get
more work done, but not so much that they stifle collaboration and
communication (which everyone having their own office does).

Open office is by far the worst, I actually really hate it. So distracting,
noisy, and for sure the least productive.

------
31reasons
Why do we need offices ? office-less is the new paper-less! with tools like
google hangout and google glasses, it makes less and less sense everyday. Why
come to the same physical space everyday and stare at the computer screens to
do the work you can do from anywhere.

Offices were invented to reduce the transaction cost of communication between
employees, which was true 20 years ago but not anymore. I guess we have to
wait till the net generation moves in to management to be truly comfortable
with the mobile workforce. The time of long tail of work environment is upon
us.

~~~
notatoad
I like my office. It's a place I go to do work. I love my job, but I also love
to get away from my job, completely, when I step out the door of my office.

I've tried the work-from-anywhere thing and it sucks. It really just turns
into work-all-the-time for me.

~~~
31reasons
Its okay to like office and work there just don't force or enforce your co-
workers and employees to do the same by assuming that they love their offices
as much as you do. For example, May be you are that loud or annoying co-worker
or extrovert who keep interrupting them from their work.

------
ChuckMcM
One of the challenges I face is on temperature. The HVAC unit on our building
was not really designed to do even temperature control of an open 60 x 100'
space. So we get warm and cold spots, and adjusting one can screw up the
others. I've done a bit of research on it and their are two challenges for our
particular system, one the number of mixers in the ceiling which can change
air temperature and the way in which thermostats feed back into the system.

I suspect if you sat down with Lennox or Crane and said "we want to design an
HVAC system that will work in this environment." they would come up with
something very different than what we currently have. Sadly its going to take
a bit to convince the landlord to rip out the old system and put in a new one.

~~~
swah
Even worse in when you seem to be the only one that notices/cares about the
problem - making you look like a whiny bitch or perfectionist that can't
adapt.

------
AlisdairO
I actually like open plan, generally, with one caveat - I work from home one
day a week. I like being generally available to help my colleagues with
problems (and be helped by them), and I'm mostly-interruptible. This workflow
does rely entirely on me having at least one day a week for which I can save
up my really hard problems and just think uninterrupted.

Working from home is not a requirement - I'd also be happy with an open-plan
arrangement where you could book an office for one day a week. The important
factor is that every now and then I need some peace and quiet.

------
pragone
At my last job we had a huge open-office floor plan. I was so uncomfortable in
that situation I ended up in at a gastroenterologist multiple times before
realizing I needed to change jobs. Haven't had a single GI issue since I left.

------
drstewart
I feel like I'm the only one that feels this way, but I far prefer open plan.
I used to work at somewhere that had offices for everyone and I hated it.
Maybe it's more productive, but it makes going to work hell since you don't
see anyone the entire day. I much prefer having a more social environment
where you can actually talk to people.

And good open plan offices will give you nooks and crannies to get away from
the noise when you want to.

~~~
zwily
Yeah, we're definitely the minority. I used to be an office fan, and after
having one for several years, am enjoying being back in an open plan.

There are definitely downsides to both.

------
lifeisstillgood
Water wet, sky blue, Pope Catholic, Bear excrement in forested areas

Knowledge workers of the past who have had money and power work in quiet
campus colleges or oasis of calm like Londons Lincoln's Inn or Temple.

No power or influence - and work in chicken farms.

There is an advantage - for companies willing to put in the effort to make a
sane work environment, to grow and support honesty and team support - well
it's like being give. A free extra lap on the business marathon.

~~~
keithpeter
_"Knowledge workers of the past who have had money and power work in quiet
campus colleges or oasis of calm like London's Lincoln's Inn or Temple."_

The average Oxford JCR isn't that calm, and both the Inns of Court support
people who are performing in the open shout mosh pit that was the Georgian
courtroom.

I take your well-made point, but somehow we need to _balance_ calm reflection
with connection.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
That kind of seems to be my point - raucous connection is great fun, as long
as there is some area one controls to retreat to and capitalise on the
connections made, and prepare.

Pixar has an open central area I believe (where the toilets are) deliberately
to encourage people to connect when they leave their offices (where they can
concentrate)

Campuses almost always have a central coffee / open area where "everyone meets
up". All the Inns of court that I remember we're built around grassy
courtyards, all encouraging an easy mixing without compromising office work

It is is suspect the real advantage of yammer or those web-IRC 37signal things
- there is a "room" to go to that is social more than work.

------
qwerta
I wonder what is the next evolutionary step in sequence: private office ->
cubicle farm -> open plan office.

I think it will be empty tank inside retired oil tanker. It could dock a few
miles of the coast, so no problems with property taxes and imigration
permits.Thousands of developers would fit into single tanker. Also steel hull
absorbs radio waves, so no unauthorized tweeting or surfing during working
hours :-)

------
ladzoppelin
The noise would drive me crazy. Earplugs would not even work with so many
phones so close together. How can people program in that environment?

~~~
pdenya
Coding from starbucks at the moment. It's definitely doable. Our office has an
open floor plan and once in a while there are conversations I wish I could
block out a little more effectively but it's not a daily frustration.

~~~
zerr
Yes, commenting on HN from starbucks is quite doable.

------
jonwingfield
I tend to enjoy the open plan. Our team has currently voluntarily moved to an
open space within an otherwise cubicle-dominated workplace to facilitate
better communication within the team. I can see issues with this layout when
multiple teams are involved or team sizes are large, but I really like it for
our small team (and I'd like to think the rest of the team would agree). I
also feel like there definitely needs to be "individual spaces" where you can
go and be not interrupted for a while, which we currently do not have. A
flexible work schedule would probably do just as well.

Maybe it depends on the team and the personality types in it?

~~~
greenyoda
_"Maybe it depends on the team and the personality types in it?"_

That's exactly the case. Different people have different preferences. And if
you have an inflexible work environment of a particular type, your company is
losing access to all the talented people who hate that particular environment
-- you're, in effect, making something like the ability to work in a noisy
space a more important hiring criterion than the ability to write good code.
(Maybe this is one of the reasons that companies feel there's a shortage of
developers?)

The best approach might be to offer a choice to employees rather than having
rigid policies like "everybody has to collaborate on a minute-by-minute basis
in an open space", or "managers get offices and everyone else gets cubicles".
Giving employees control over their individual working environments would go a
long way toward making them feel valued by the company, even more than giving
them free food.

------
suman_nandan
I believe it is very difficult to get works done in an open plan office. That
seems too distraction prone. Noise cancellation headphones can get useful only
if accompanied by an extended hood to guard vision to the screen. So that the
programmer does not get distracted by any human movement nearby.

------
alan_cx
Personally, in the past, an open office speeds up the rate at which I begun to
dislike my co-workers, which lead to a dislike of my employment, and hence
reduced how long I would stay in a job.

That image in the article of the women (could be men) all lined up like
battery hens looks like my worst office night mare. You almost couldn't
stretch your arms/wings with out assaulting your co-workers. Its considered
bad form for animals to just exist like that, why is it OK for humans engaged
in work?

------
kfcm
After nearly 25 years, I've worked in almost every known office layout. My
opinions, based solely on my subjective experience:

\--open-plan offices can work great for small teams of maybe 4-6 max. Beyond
five or six people though, productivity starts to drop significantly. Also,
the people on the team have to like each other, be working on the same
problem/goal, and have a comfortable environment (whiteboards, comfy
armchairs/sofa, big table and comfy chairs, natural lighting through large
windows). For a small, driven team, this is great.

\--private offices are my preferred choice for a larger, established
organization. I want to be able to shut my door and work without the
distractions of everyday office life invading my consciousness. I can focus
when needed, be social when I want. More important, I can have my own private
whiteboard.

\--cubicles are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea in that you get the
illusion of privacy (but not really) along with the illusion of an open-plan
(but not really).

\--work from home/home office. For the past 5 years, this is how I've worked
with my own business. I like the privacy and the ability to get stuff done.
But I miss socializing and brainstorming with others, and am finding myself in
coffee shops more and more often, just for the social aspects.

One concept I'd like to experiment with is a hybrid "enclave" model, where
larger private offices/rooms are set up for teams working on projects, or just
people who like to work together. Maybe an external wall could open or close
instead of a door if the team decides to be more social or focused.

~~~
rdl
Yeah, I'd really like to try offices in "pods" of 4-8 with a roll-up wall
(like a garage door) on one side of each, opening into a private "team space".
And maybe a roll-up wall on the public side, too.

------
jstalin
Like so many things, it seems as though people are looking for "the one" best
way of doing things. Obviously some people like cubicles. Some like offices.
Some like open space. How about letting people choose?

~~~
keithpeter
And possibly change their choice from day to day depending on task. Could be
expensive?

~~~
greenyoda
If it increases the productivity of a $100,000 per year employee by 10% (i.e.,
you could get the equivalent of an additional $100,000 employee for free for
every ten employees you had), it could actually be very cost effective.

------
jon_black
I wrote an article on my blog in January to the same effect:
[http://jonblack.org/2013/01/29/open-plan-offices-are-a-
night...](http://jonblack.org/2013/01/29/open-plan-offices-are-a-nightmare/).

The funny thing is, in spite of all the signs, our office are knocking walls
down to make rooms bigger!

~~~
greenyoda
Thanks, that five-minute TED talk in your article was very interesting.

------
pbiggar
I gave a talk on this topic [1], and about 60% of the audience was cheering
and totally for this. But I got a small number of people coming up afterwards
and saying they much preferred open plan. So I think there's definitely a
downside: developers enjoy work less because it's less social, and less
collaborate. I think overall the benefit is there though.

Does anyone know how much it costs to have private offices all round? My
estimate was that a 1sqft/yr is $55 in SF right now, so the 100-150sqft for 1
open plan desk is $700, and you might need twice as much space to give people
(small) private offices. Would love something more accurate though.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYk1YkCRuKQ&t=43m17s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYk1YkCRuKQ&t=43m17s)

~~~
codeonfire
There are people that want to collaborate with other people of the same skill
level. But the majority of people that want to collaborate just don't know
what they are doing and can't do their jobs. If people want a more social and
collaborative job, maybe they shouldn't choose software developer as a career.

------
yekko
This is true, I've never been to an office more sick than and open-plan
office. HALF the office was off sick during 1 week in a flu season. It was
unreal.

------
KVFinn
I'm certainly an open-office hater, it drives me absolutely batty. Open office
with frequent phone calls throughout the day by your neighbors? I'd quit.

I do like small open offices when working closely with people on a team. But
everyone in that office has to be working on the same project. This is the
scenario where it can be great. Even in this case, though, there are some
periods where you need to step away to a silo to do your own thing for awhile
in my experience.

I have heard of some mythical working environments with both public and
private working areas that allow people to move as they will. I guess this
would be the optimal solution.

------
shortstuffsushi
I tend to agree with this article. My office went from a "bullpen" arrangement
(team size cubicle areas) to and entirely open floor. To me the feeling is
almost like a sweat-shop -- row after row of programmers working away.

While my team specifically tends to be pretty social, I've found other areas
of the floor seem to be utterly silent, and in these the above feeling is even
more solidified. We've been able to kind of avoid the feeling by finding a
natural corner of the building that almost puts us back into that 'bullpen'
environment.

------
Zigurd
Microsoft got this right, and I expect they have the metrics to show it's
true.

Some things have changed, though. Coders don't need a bookshelf when they can
get a Safari subscription. Nobody needs a fixed-line phone. For 90% of coding
a laptop is fast enough. So I would think that a "hotelling" style arrangement
would work now, before, a coder might be holed up with a pile of books, big,
heavy CRTs, and desktop computers. Now that Drive has a "scan" command, even
the whiteboard can come along with an engineer between work and home.

~~~
city41
I disagree that Microsoft got this right. I assume you're referring to giving
everyone their own office. I worked for MS for 3 years on a team that did
that. For sure, having your own office is really nice. But it really stifles
communication and creativity.

Even worse, when space is low, the solution is to double people up in offices.
That can create really uncomfortable situations that can harm productivity as
well, much like suddenly getting a new, unexpected roommate.

------
novaleaf
the header picture in the article is terrible. of course that kind of "open
office" is awful.

1) looking at your (single) monitor, you have 4 to 5 people inside your field
of vision. talk about distraction city.

2) no desk space. bad for ergonomics, and no "thinking space" either.

3) no personal space. stretch our arms to your sides, and you'll whack your
coworker's head.

talk about cramming them in like sardines. i run my office as an "open plan"
but we have a good 1.5 meters separating people, and people are either facing
wall, or window. (not facing each-other)

------
septerr
After working in a cube partitioned off from everyone else on the team for 7
years, I will disagree with the title of this post. I long for a more
interactive workspace. I find myself depressed, not motivated and alone. My
instincts tell me it would be nice to have a little more human contact. At
present I can go days without speaking to others on the team. And without much
of a social circle, I think the scenario is quite a big contributor to my
depression and lack of motivation.

------
acgourley
I've always felt that space preference varies by person and task. Given that
nearly all knowledge can or do use laptops, it seems curious everyone has an
assigned daily seat.

~~~
falcolas
Speaking only for myself, I can't work on a laptop for long periods of time.
The downward tilt of my head to see the screen, the tight keyboards & mice,
and small screens make it very uncomfortable for more than a few hours.

For this reason, I have a dedicated screen, full sized keyboard and separate
mouse. All configured and arranged to be most comfortable to me, so not
exactly interchangeable.

Thus, a dedicated "assigned" seat. I wouldn't want it any other way.

------
akurilin
I wonder if shared office spaces with hundreds of teams in them, a very
popular startup location these days, is perhaps the worst of the breed. Half a
dozen teams talking to each other, multiple people on the phone, people having
lunch behind you, dogs running around the office, phones ringing, skype
sessions, car alarm outside the window etc etc.

On the plus side at some point it gets dense and chaotic enough to become pure
white noise.

------
rayiner
I hate open plan. Hell I hate open door policies. My door is closed till noon
and closed again at 5:30 sharp. If you need to collaborate pick up the phone!

------
anentropic
It's not a dichotomy between open-plan and individual cubicles

I've never worked in a cubicle office but it doesn't appeal, however I hate
open plan offices too... for the reasons in the article - too much extraneous
noise

Favourite office was more like a house, about half a dozen people to each
room. The rooms were open to each other, doorways but no doors, no barriers to
wandering through to the next room for a chat.

------
dschiptsov
What a finding! People knows for ages that open space is beneficial for a
manual, drone work, while for tasks in which so-called intellect must be
involved, quietness or even solitude is absolutely necessary. This is why a
workshop or a Mc. Donald's kitchen is a tightly packed open space, while
academics work productively in an isolated pairs or alone.

------
davidw
Here in Italy, open plan offices seem to be the default because you can cram
more people in them, and real estate/space are at a premium here, so it's
difficult to do otherwise.

I'd be curious how things are in other places where costs per square meter are
high and there is not a huge tech culture. In other words, San Francisco is
probably an outlier.

------
VLM
Nobody discussed on call?

Would I get away with "Sorry boss I can't fix the emergency this afternoon,
home is too quiet and comfortable and spacious, but thank god my kids are
coming home from school and once they start screaming at each other, playing
video games, and watching TV, I'm sure I'll be able to get right to work on
the problem."

------
wadetandy
I work for a large company with an open office plan. We have many different
types of employees, from software developers to sales folks to editors and
writers. While there is the occasional complaint about a loud coworker or
something, I generally very much enjoy the atmosphere, and I hear similar
comments from my colleagues.

One of the things that makes our implementation very effective is that
everyone from the CEO to the interns sit at the same desks and share the same
environment. The culture is very open and everyone is encouraged to walk up to
anyone and ask them a question or ten, of they have them. This collaborative
environment more than makes up for the occasional loss in individual employee
productivity, in my opinion.

It probably also helps that we are an instant message culture as opposed to a
phone conversation one, which cuts down on a lot of the noise distraction as
well.

------
tespun
I think the positive and negative effects of open floor plans vary per person
and the type of work being done. For example, I can find music disturbing when
I need to do work that requires a lot of thought and concentration but it's
perfectly fine if I'm doing something mundane.

The comfort of having a door to close is also nice so you can focus. Also it's
great to be able to every once in a while take a few minute break and do
something mindless and non-work related and not have people think you're
slacking.

Like some others that posted here I think you need to mix and match for a
semi-open floor plan that includes, conference rooms, lounges and private
offices that people can take turns in.

However, when I worked at companies with open floor plans I tended to hang out
with my coworkers more outside the office. It was good for team building and
for pulling some funny pranks on one another.

------
hkon
Someone upvote this past middle management!

------
coldcode
At work I am crammed into a corner with about 16 sq feet to live in including
my chair and table. At least I have a window but otherwise I am a sardine with
a view. Our parent company (which occupies the other 8 floors) hate us so we
are forced to live on one floor. I bet the density exceeds the fire code.

------
dsrguru
I'd imagine the effect of open-plan offices on productivity greatly depends on
the nature of the company and how the company operates. If a company mainly
produces software in a non-mission critical domain where, say, a 5x gain in
productivity is more valuable than a 1.5x gain in reliability, they're likely
to have very short release cycles à la agile development. That kind of
operation relies heavily on communication and collaboration within and across
teams, so an open-plan office is likely going to be much more productive. If
you don't have a collaboration-based development strategy, I'd buy that open-
plan offices might often make employees less productive, but even then there
will be multiple factors at play.

------
rdl
What's with qz.com? They seem to have come out of nowhere to be a pretty
awesome source of news, maybe better than TheVerge (who also seemed to come
out of nowhere last year).

Of the most interesting ~20 stories I've seen in the past week, 5 were qz.

------
parbo
At Spotify, we have a lot of team-rooms which seat 8-10 people. They all have
a lounge area with whiteboard walls as well as a small conference room for
design discussions, 1-1:s etc.

------
fizzbuzzd
Another very frustrating thing about open-office plans is that it makes me
seem like an asshole. There are many days where I'll be annoyed or frustrated
debugging something, and generally being a buzzkill while everyone else shoots
the shit. I have no problem with everyone else shooting the shit, but I can
sense people are afraid of the look I have on my face. Some days I just need
to be away from people.

------
dirtyaura
Does somebody has experience and tips how to effectively organize workspace in
a growing early stage startup. When your headcount is growing steadily,
flexibility of an open office space is a big plus, but are there good
solutions that combine open layouts with private workspace? Headphones,
moveable desks, working from home. Anything else? Share your experiences.

------
chris123
The employers with open-plan offices care more about their profits than their
employees. It's as simple as that.

------
snambi
Oh god! its obvious. Not sure why companies creating a noisy, chaotic
workplace instead of a calm serene one. One reason may be to cram more people
into a small space.

------
nekitamo
I don't know if anyone at Qz.com is reading this, but if you open the link in
internet explorer it redirects you to an article about programmers and autism.

------
rumcajz
Once I was renting an office of my own. Recently, I have moved to work from
local library. I consider it 100% improvement in working conditions.

------
enraged_camel
I'd like to provide a different perspective. This is anecdotal, but I have
"before and after" experiences that directly relate to the topic.

I work as a Presales Engineer for a software company. At the beginning of this
year, we switched from a 90s-style cubicle setup with dividers to an open-
office setup. When the change was announced last Fall, everyone on my team
voiced heavy skepticism. We thought that it would greatly reduce our
productivity as well as the already-limited privacy we had in an office
setting. We had systems in place to limit the interruptions coming from the
sales and marketing teams, and an open-office plan would practically nullify
them. But we were the minority, so our concerns were swept under the rug.
Fortunately, things ended up well.

For the sales and marketing folks, things have improved greatly since we made
the switch six months ago. They now sit with us in the same "pods," which are
collections of IKEA desks. Each pod has several sales and marketing people and
one or two Presales Engineers. They can ask us any question at any time. And
unlike with email, which we could previously put on a queue to answer later,
or instant message, which we could ignore or temporarily block (DND mode), we
now have to provide the answer right away. They can in turn relay that answer
to the sales channel or the customer with a much shorter turnaround, which
helps to advance and close sales faster.

As for us Presales Engineers, I cannot tell if the net result has been a
positive or a negative. On the one hand, we now have a lot more distractions.
We see people walking around and we hear their conversations. I personally
have memorized the phone scripts that my pod-mates use when they call
customers. Another negative has been team cohesion. In the previous setup, my
team used to sit together on one side of the floor and we could have
conversations much more easily. Now we're spread out all over the place, and
most of our interaction occurs via group chat (Google Hangout).

Collectively, everyone's morale has improved quite a bit. It's very refreshing
to be able to walk out of the elevator into an open space, as opposed to a
claustrophobic, never-ending group of cubicles. And all the pods are right in
front of the windows, which means everyone can now enjoy the Southern
California sun and the great view of mountains we have from our office. I
purchased a nice set of noise-canceling headphones (company paid for it) that
I put on whenever I need to get in "the zone" to work on things that need deep
concentration, and I trained my pod-mates to not interrupt me when I have them
on. It works really well. Other pods have also come up with systems that work
for them.

Another collective benefit has been social cohesion. When the teams were
separate last year, there was an "us vs. them" mentality. The sales folks saw
us engineers as unapproachable, and we saw the sales folks as needy and
disruptive. Now though, each pod has become a team, and people are much more
willing to help each other and collaborate. This has eliminated a lot of the
tension in the office.

It is worth noting that the above occurred within the context of a sales team
and the engineers that support that team. That said, I'm pretty sure it can
also apply to developers. We actually had one of the developer teams move to
our floor a couple of months ago (the A/C unit on their floor broke). At first
they had the same fears as my team of engineers had. But it ended up working
out really well. Sales people never interrupt them, and communication flows
from sales to Presales (my team), and from there to this group of developers.
Being able to walk over to their desks to show the problem we're having and
walking through it in person, as opposed to trying to do it over email or IM,
has been a great boon for both parties.

Bottom line: open-offices have their pros and cons. The vast majority of
Hacker News users are technical people and it seems most of them are adamantly
against open-office plans. But as someone who has a bigger picture view (since
I work with everyone in the company), I can tell you that there is a chance
the net result can be a positive if the plan is implemented well.

------
onemorepassword
I'm tired of these kind of generalizations. Our open plan office is geared
towards developers and quiet and peaceful 95% of the time. Standing rule is,
you wanna talk, you take it outside into the kitchen or the meeting room.
Simple.

Also, people can work from home whenever they want. Most prefer to be in the
office _because it's nice and quiet_.

The problem isn't open spaces, the problem is the people in it.

~~~
6d0debc071
I don't see how it can be quiet and peaceful if people are typing in close
quarters. That stuff's loud.

Not to mention that there's a psychological pressure just from being around
people who are in the same room all the time - difficult to give yourself
permission to relax and focus in on one thing when someone might come and
interrupt you at any point.

------
mosselman
Quartz not working in my Steam browser makes me less happy. What kind of high
tech is qz.com using?

------
ChrisAntaki
My last job had a pretty open office. It was great actually, really social.

------
kuchaguangjie
definitely ture, an environment which provide more freedom & privacy, will get
more feedback, and make the worker happier.

------
ninetenel
Personally I will never work in an open plan office again if I can avoid it ..
when I was interviewing for a new position a year or so ago I had to turndown
two offers from interesting companies due to their seating arrangements.

I do not want to spend the majority of my working day five feet from someone
else with no barrier having to deal with the distraction, noise, invasion of
personal space that comes with that

to me it shows a lack of respect towards your employees

------
zeroexzeroone
I can definitely see how this could make people more sick, though I work in an
open office and I rarely get sick, could be genetics or it could be that I eat
food grown locally, work out and run every day and generally have alot of fun
outside of work.

The human body NEEDS to get sick to build anti-bodies - without these then you
will get sick more often. The American way of "Take antibiotics or medicine as
soon as you get sick!" is one of the worst habits of my beloved American
people (and fast food).

~~~
digisign
Curious, do you get much sun? Vitamin D definciency commonly results in sickly
people too.

~~~
usea
You don't need much. National Institutes of Health recommends 5-30 minutes of
daytime exposure, twice a week. [1]

[http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-
HealthProfessional...](http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-
HealthProfessional/)

~~~
zeroexzeroone
Sorry but I don't trust anything with .gov to tell me what my body can already
tell me. We have to learn to listen to it.

~~~
artmageddon
> tell me what my body can already tell me

Your body doesn't always exhibit signs of something wrong, and there are many
instances in which that's it's true and it's too late to take action. I had to
get a birthmark removed from my back last summer because it could've been a
malignant type of skin cancer. I certainly didn't "feel" anything from it, and
wouldn't have known about it until a dermatologist pointed it out to me.

~~~
zeroexzeroone
Should have gotten a double mastectomy, that would have made more sense.

------
sultezdukes
I don't know about open plans making people more susceptible to sickness, but
on my exit interview on Friday, I mentioned that I thought the way we had done
open office was counterproductive.

I like the idea of pods though, where QA, BAs and developers are all together,
as opposed to 60 or so people all in this huge area, which is how we did it.

------
stackedmidgets
Thank God. Can this fad die yet?

------
damienkatz
Bl

------
mrleinad
Cubicle offices make people less happy, open-plan offices make people less
happy.. Maybe it's just working that makes people less happy.

~~~
6d0debc071
A cubicle is not a real office.

