
Defending our open-plan office - zackbloom
http://dev.hubspot.com/blog/open-plan-offices
======
jdbernard
Have you polled your employees to see if they really like the digs? And did
you do it anonymously? Maybe they are not comfortable telling you what they
really think.

My longest experience with an open plan office fit all of your bullet points:
we all wore headphones, we used IM before starting conversation (or in place
of vocal conversation as often as not), we had a private meeting room we could
grab just across the hall, and everyone got alone with each other really well.
Still none of us liked the arrangement.

We all felt that we were less productive, more distracted, and that there was
always someone looking over our shoulder. Management actually went out of
their way to stay out of our room, but the feeling persisted. Management knew
we didn't like it, but I don't know if they knew how much it hurt
productivity. We didn't talk about it. Nothing was going to change. They
decided long ago that we didn't have room for private offices. Why complain
and get on bad terms with the boss when it won't change anything?

~~~
zackbloom
We do a company-wide survey every quarter. I took a look at the raw responses
for Q2 of this year. I found a single request for more meeting spaces, but no
one requested a private office or the like.

~~~
cschmidt
I'm pretty sure that if you asked your developers point blank if they'd like a
nice office with a door, they would.

If you asked any developer who has _actually had an office_ at a previous job,
and I'm 100% sure they'd be in favor.

Young devs that have never dreamed such a dream might think they don't care.
But they'd be hugely more productive in an office.

It is the same thing as having a big monitor for your laptop. Once you have
it, you'll just feel so unproductive without it. With an office you can just
get in the zone and stay there as long as you like.

With pair programming or discussions, you just pick one of your offices and
shut the door. I found myself collaborating more in offices, because there is
less worry about disturbing others. (Or the cognitive overhead of getting a
conference room.)

By being in the open plan yourself, you're sending a strong message that there
is no way offices will be tolerated, so there isn't any point in asking.

~~~
owenmarshall
>If you asked any developer who has _actually had an office_ at a previous
job, and I'm 100% sure they'd be in favor.

After having a private office, I've discovered that I now view it as non-
negotiable.

I'll consider different salary levels, benefits, but I simply would not
consider working somewhere that I'm not provided a private office, to the
point that it's become my third or fourth question on phone screens.

------
RogerL
So you've self selected for people that thrive in noisy, distracting
environments (and plenty of such people exist), then conclude that open
offices are the right way to go?

You conclude that because somebody likes something, in the absence of any
study, (or in this case, contradictory to every study done!) that it is in
fact better? No.

We fool ourselves all the time. The classic mouse study comes to mind. Most
programmers prefer typing to the mouse - "it's faster" we say. Except, it's
not. It's just that typing engages our brains in a way that the mouse doesn't,
so we don't perceive the passage of time as much when tab typing out a
directory, and we do perceive it while navigating the mouse. Mouse is faster
(generally), we think typing is faster.

So, I don't take it for granted that just because somebody says they are more
productive in an open office that they are. They might just perceive it that
way because they are having so much fun hanging with the fellow brogrammers,
or the constant interaction gives the illusion of progress, or....

I can't take continual noise - it drives me bonkers. And yes, to me headphones
count as noise. So, I would not accept a job at that place, most likely, and
thus they do not have the data point of someone going quietly mad in their
midst. See, open plans are better!

"Ignore these scientific studies, my selection bias says it's fine" is usually
a pretty poor path to the truth.

~~~
MetaCosm
You nailed exactly what I was going to say -- goes against studies.

I honestly wonder if he did a valid, anonymous questionnaire to his own
employees what the result would be, I am guessing he would learn people HATE
it.

------
dsr_
Not everyone is alike. Not everyone works best in the same environment. Not
everyone knows what environment works best for them. Not everyone feels secure
enough to tell you what they actually think about your open-plan office.

600 people? How many of them work from home every chance they get? How many
would rather have a private office if it were available to them?

Have these questions even been asked of the workforce?

~~~
owenmarshall
To me this entire argument smacks of emacs or vim, Windows vs Mac, ... just
another holy war on something that doesn't have one right answer.

I think the best approach would be for companies to stop forcing people to
pick. Some days I come in to my office & need to shut the door and grind
through a problem. Some days I'd rather go sit in a bullpen to talk through
some sticky issues.

So rather than forcing people into (or out of) boxes, give everyone their own
space but have plenty of places for people to have informal meetings and
collaboration.

The problem, as always, is cost.

~~~
troygoode
You're right that we shouldn't force people to pick, but I disagree with your
conclusion. If you need to shut your door and grind through the problem, why
come into the office at all? I like how GitHub has structured it: come to the
office to collaborate, stay at home to have your "private office experience."

~~~
owenmarshall
See, I'm comfortable with that _as a choice_ as well.

Some days I'd be perfectly content working on my couch, but there are other
days where I'd probably end up doing nothing but playing FIFA!

Not only that but I can move from "grind away" time to "oh crap I need to
collaborate" time very quickly, and I find it personally easier to collaborate
in person. Again though, just a choice.

And choice at work is a funny thing -- I've been asked if I want a Macbook or
an HP laptop, if I need any software licenses for tools, if I want to get my
reference books in ebook format or as actual books, but no one has ever asked
me if I want an office or a cube or a desk in the middle of a room.

------
baggachipz
The last bullet is the biggest tripping point:

> You have to like the people you work with to like an open-plan office.

Most places adopt an "open" plan for two reasons: 1) it costs less, and 2) to
keep an eye on the minions. Most "open" floors conveniently have large, closed
offices for the execs. That's to establish dominance. They always have windows
facing the open floor, so that everyone knows they're being watched. These are
the kind of "open" offices that are way more common. It's tough to like
everyone when somebody feels like they're under constant surveillance.

It's no coincidence that I get my best work done at home, when I am free to
think clearly without interruption, or the paranoia of being observed.

~~~
apricot13
> It's no coincidence that I get my best work done at home, when I am free to
> think clearly without interruption, or the paranoia of being observed.

exactly this. I'm 10 times more productive in my pajamas in bed than any
office I've ever worked in!

I've worked in a giant purpose built open plan office where each team had a
'island' of desks and the managers were all along side us, it was good in that
noone could sneak off for lunch without inviting you but thats where the good
parts ended.

We moved desks regularly so everyone had a chance to have their screens
overlooked but I found the whole idea very stressful. Not only sitting but
walking around open plan offices and feeling like I'm being watched or someone
monitoring how long I was away from my desk for. It really affected my
productivity.

No amount of headphone listening helps. Plus they hurt your ears after a while
and I find them very disorienting.

~~~
thejosh
Also, do you want to wear headphones for 8+ hours? Doesn't that make you feel
compressed also disconnected in a room full of noisy people?

~~~
baggachipz
It sucks, I had to do that for a long time. My train of thought derails when I
hear music with words, so I had the same classical/ambient tracks playing on a
loop all day. It was very annoying, and even the most comfortable earphones
don't feel great after a whole day. Dead silence would have been much better
for me, and "noise-canceling" headphones give me a headache.

------
scott_s
_Are our employees lying to us when they claim that the open offices lead to
more collaboration and create a more communal atmosphere?_

That's probably supposed to be rhetorical, but it shouldn't be. _Are_ they
lying to you? Or maybe they're telling you _a_ truth, but leaving off a "but"
clause. ("... but sometimes I have difficulty focusing.")

You're the boss. You can't answer this question. If you really want to know,
do an anonymous survey of your employees - and try to work with someone
experienced with writing surveys to avoid leading questions.

~~~
baggachipz
+1; They're telling you what you want to hear, OP.

------
zhte415
No headphones please.

Seriously.

If someone really wants to listen to music, cool, headphones. If someone wants
to text their friends 80% of the day that is also cool (connections bring
support and inspiration).

Headphones are an escape from discomfort.

Open plan offices are great. When they're split into discrete environments.
Teams and individuals feel comfortable and where results happen. Have an open
plan office, and have a whole load of 8 foot plants and wheel based
whiteboards on order for no cost / requisition approval so people make their
own space.

It is neither expensive nor rocket science, but misses the main point: have a
structure where 1-1s are conducted daily between whatever people management
scheme is in place.

~~~
shubb
One place I worked used noise cancelling tech (some white noise, along with
what appeared actual noise cancelling) to the effect that you couldn't hear a
conversation ten foot away.

I'm constantly surprised we don't see this more.

------
Jormundir
This article annoys me to no end.

This is my job, I should not have to fight for some peace and quiet in order
to get some solid work done! Having to wear headphones is a pain in the ass.
Often listening to music is a distraction in and of itself, so you haven't
solved the problem of noise at all.

There's also a huge unaddressed problem of visual distraction. You can see
people moving around, going to meetings, or having conversations even if you
can't hear them! This is often more distracting than sound.

You defend and have an open office plan so you can make the claim that you're
doing everything you can to increase "collaboration" on the product, but I
think you've completely covered up for yourself, the extreme downsides to the
open office plan, and don't realize that the open office is probably hugely
slowing down the development of your company's mission.

~~~
wpietri
Totally agreed. 600 people aren't meaningfully collaborating on anything.

I've really loved open-plan spaces for 5-10. But at the point where a lot of
the people you see are effective strangers, it's no better than just setting
your desks out on the sidewalk

------
RandallBrown
I used to work in an open office and I really liked it. The team was always on
the same page because of how easy it was to talk to eachother and show
everyone what we were working on.

Now I have my own office and I hate it. Everyone sits in their little office,
works on their work, and only gets help when they _really_ need it. Getting
up, walking down the hall, knocking on someone's door, seeing if they're even
in the office, and then talking to them is a pretty huge barrier to fast easy
collaboration.

Discussions that would happen naturally and take 5 minutes end up happening in
hour long meetings. Code reviews can take days because it's way easier to
ignore someone you can't see.

Obviously every company is going to be different, but I just liked the open
plan better. I felt like part of the team, not just a person working on
similar stuff.

~~~
darkarmani
> Getting up, walking down the hall, knocking on someone's door, seeing if
> they're even in the office, and then talking to them is a pretty huge
> barrier to fast easy collaboration.

What? Why can't you collaborate in their office? This sounds like you don't
get immediate fulfillment when you want to ask someone a question, but there
isn't anything stopping you from collaborating when needed.

------
pivo
As someone who doesn't work well in open office plans it's incredibly
frustrating to hear, over and over again, some guy defending their open office
when he obviously doesn't understand the simple fact that not everyone is
exactly like him.

How can someone in charge of employees not understand this basic fact?

Edit: grammar

------
kylec
A few months ago a colleague on my team left and went to HubSpot. From what
little I heard it sounded like a cool company, but seeing as I'm both easily
distracted and get anxious wearing headphones (it makes me nervous when I'm
not able to perceive my surroundings) the revelation that they have open
offices (and shared desks, lockers, etc) makes me realize I could never work
there.

I'm sure there are lots of people that can thrive in this environment, but I'm
not one of them. And I suspect I'm not alone.

------
oflordal
The problem is that there is less communication because people afraid to
disturb their neighbours. Of the 3 variations I have tries (single office, 2-3
people in a room, 8+ in the same room) I have found 2-3 people in a room is
the best. You have someone to bounce ideas on and since everyone in the room
tend to work on the same thing it is usually of interest to everyone.

------
altero
I am fine with open-plan office as soon as I can book private room when I need
it (hint: almost always).

------
specialist
It's about distractions. People you like are less distracting, because you're
more comfortable in their presence.

Does everyone get along fabulously? Then sure, do open / shared space.

One of my teams started with five of us stuffed into a closet. We rocked. That
bon homme didn't survive growing to 25 people and transplanting to an open
office. Two bad apples ruined the vibe for everyone.

I currently work in the middle of a cube farm. My office nemesis is several
cubes over. Dozens of voices, and that's the one that sticks out. Like a
barbed ice pick in the ear. Because I despise 'em. Very, very disruptive.

600 people in an open office? They're kidding themselves. Just build a
cafeteria and make the bench seating a free for all.

------
edderly
Since the original article was posted, it occurred to me that an issue that is
rarely raised is that most office spaces are far too small to make any
imaginative decisions when it comes to workspaces.

The best office environments I worked in was in a different industry, where I
worked part of the time in a laboratory because we were dealing with hazardous
chemicals and specialist machinery. However, even as a junior employee I also
had an office, only because the building itself was relatively under-occupied.

Stints in the lab varied, sometimes I was in their part of the day and at
other times we were in their for several weeks pretty much full-time.

In my experience in the tech industry I've worked occasionally in full time
lab conditions too for a stretch of a few weeks. Generally I've found these
periods enjoyable as well, but after a long stint in "the lab" I've been glad
to go back to a more isolated environment.

Given this experience I find weaknesses in all the arguments about whether
dedicated offices or cubes or open-planned work environment are the best.
Personal offices are obviously the least worse, cubes are a ghastly compromise
in my opinion, and open plan has obvious problems.

If we're talking about ideal working environments, it would be one that allows
focussed rather than forced collaboration. Labs allow for this but are rarely
thought about because of the phyical constraints of most office spaces. *Oh,
and it requires imagination and effort from management too.

------
vampirechicken
The effects of "collaborative office spaces" on the companies accounting
system are well understood. It is cheaper to buy or lease cubicles or (heaven
help up) put plywood on saw horses, then it is to get enough space then
subdivide and construct offices. One is written off as furniture, the other is
physical plant, and depreciates at a far slower rate.

Sometimes it's about the ability to see if you're at your sewing machine
making garments, but the motives are nearly always financial.

------
wpietri
I'm unable to see how to reconcile "I want to work closely with others" with
"to get anything done we all must wear headphones all the time" and "IM is a
must".

The most productive places I have ever worked have been at single-team-size,
open-plan startups. But that worked for us because we were very disciplined
about noise. When you heard somebody talking, it was something relevant to the
work. Non-relevant stuff happened elsewhere, or during breaks where we were
all not trying to focus. That was awesome, because the ambient information
kept us all in sync.

But right now I'm visiting somebody else's open-plan space, and it's
infuriating. Noise levels often get up to the "busy street" marker on my
decibel meter. All of the developers I've talked to feel their productivity is
significantly impacted by the noise. Ad-hoc collaboration is low, because
everybody's in their own little headphone bubble.

The model I'm most intrigued by now is Spotify's. There, each team has a
shared team space that's closed off from other team spaces. Plus they have
lounge space directly outside, so that the team room is really for working.
That seems to be to get the benefits of open-plan spaces (easy collaboration)
in a way that supports productivity (minimum noise and distraction).

------
joekrill
> Are our employees lying to us when they claim that the open offices lead to
> more collaboration and create a more communal atmosphere?

No, probably not. But I think you're asking the wrong questions. While these
things may be true, it doesn't in any way mean your employees are more
productive or happier. And it certainly doesn't mean that, given the choice,
they would take a distracting, collaborative, communal, noisy atmosphere over
their own private quiet office.

------
chollida1
I've been fortunate enough to work in both environments. I'll be the first to
admit there are pros and cons to both.

I've had an office and in my opinion, for focused work there is just no
comparison. Being able to close the door means no corner of the eye people
walking by distractions. People can talk about headphones all they want but if
you can't put 4 walls around you then there are just too many distractions for
me to get "into the zone".

On the other hand I currently work at a hedge fund with an open office and it
probably needs to be open. Every one needs to know what the others are doing
but design. The number of good ideas that come out of open discussion is just
amazing.

The other up side to an open office that some people may not be aware of is
the inclusiveness of it. with doors its easy for 3 people to have an impromptu
meeting and not realize there are excluding others. With an open office
everyone hears the conversation and can know if they want to participate or
not.

or put another way, shy people are more likely to listen in and participate in
meetings in open offices than they are to enter a closed door office to
participate in the same meeting.

Many companies try to combat this by using irc. google hangouts, style chats
which I feel really helps.

~~~
ktsmith
> With an open office everyone hears the conversation and can know if they
> want to participate or not.

That's only true if no one is wearing headphones. Both the OP and many of the
commenters here state headphones are necessary for these environments. My own
experience in an open office was the same way, headphones all day every day.
The people with headphones are excluded in exactly the same way as if the
conversation had happened behind closed doors.

~~~
chollida1
True, but the key point is that alteast here if they are excluded its because
they want to be.

The key take away point is: An open office lets the introverts have more say
than when everyone is in offices.

------
mattzito
I find the most useful office layout is a blend of spaces. I think you should
have:

\- hotelling rooms for phone calls, thinking time, etc.

\- team rooms - closed spaces for groups of people that often work together

\- conference rooms for larger get togethers

I think individual offices are too limiting for those that don't have frequent
private conversations. And I think purely open plan is insane, you're just
staring at your coworkers all day. Grouping people into "pods" or "team rooms"
lets each group come to their own system of working. Everyone in one team like
music playing out loud? great, they rotate responsibility for what plays.
Likes quiet time? Headphones and breakout rooms for conversations.

But if you give people some options as to how they can structure their own
work environment, they'll generally come to a consensus on what works for
them.

------
stevesearer
I don't really think it is necessary to 'defend' any particular office setup
whether it be open plan, private offices, or an activity-based office design.

What companies need to embrace is the ability to adapt and adjust their office
plan to their current situation they find themselves in.

From what I can tell, Hubspot has tried to modify their open plan office by
adding private spaces, conference rooms, and trying to use technology to
mitigate unnecessary distraction. That's a far cry from what most people
decry, which is a big room where desks are crammed in like sardines with
nowhere to hide.

Also, I run Office Snapshots and we've shown Hubspot's offices in the past -
[http://officesnapshots.com/companies/hubspot](http://officesnapshots.com/companies/hubspot)

------
Zigurd
As a consultant, I sometimes have to code or debug in all kinds of clients'
office environments. Just saying "open office" is not enough to characterize
an office. For example, at a design firm I saw project rooms where 4-10 people
work that are usually buzzing with collaborative conversations, but they also
have open "hotelling" space providing a quiet area. This is the opposite of
the quiet-room or "phone booth" approach.

Their designers and engineers can also work at home part of each week. This
combination seems to work well and their employees have a lot of say in how
the workspace works.

The variation among open offices is greater than among conventional walled-off
offices. In part I believe that's because it is more difficult to make an open
office work well for a mix of employees. It _can_ work well for coders, but I
think it's safer to put coders in offices, and almost certainly not the same
open space as business development

The most recent example I have seen of a failure in providing a good
engineering environment went beyond the banal cubicle veal farm and included
an insecure manager who needed to see all his engineers even though he wasn't
hands-on enough to evaluate their output closely. If you find clashing parts
of your engineering environment the furniture is probably just one factor
among many.

In China, crowded open office spaces are common, and use of headphones by
coders is rare, at least in my unscientific sample space. After-lunch naps at
one's desk are normal, and are sometimes accommodated by turning down the
lighting. I point that out mainly because napping in an open office in the US
would be horrifying to most people. So keep an open mind about what can help.

I seldom have to deal with adverse workspaces for very long, and I'm aware
that I'm paid to adapt to my clients' work-style. For Hubspot, making
headphones acceptable "work-wear" is probably important to making all offices
in the open for everyone work. I use IEMs if a workspace is very loud because
some people might look askance at a consultant wearing big Sennheiser closed
cans.

------
bluedino
What are the long-term effects of wearing headphones 8-10 hours a day, even at
moderate volume levels?

I try to wear them as little as possible, as if all the years of motorcycles
and loud bands in small bars isn't going to make me deaf on their own.

~~~
GFischer
For several years, I've been listening to music at a higher than recommended
volume, to drown out the ambience and try to work.

My hearing has noticeably dropped - a test a few years back showed I have a
hearing similar to a person in his 50s, and I'm 32.

The company I work for built a new building, and we're moving there next
month. Development's quarters? A 500 square foot room, for 18 developers :( .

------
jere
>In an open plan office, conversations happen in person. When everyone has a
separate office, more conversations happen over email or IRC.

Do you have evidence for this? Because Spolsky gives evidence for his claims.

>It's a good idea to begin an interaction over chat ("have a few minutes?"),
before walking over to someones desk.

So then what is the open layout giving you? This sounds like just like my
experience with cubes but without the privacy.

------
rocky1138
My workflow in an open office tends to go as follows:

\- come in and greet the team

\- go over some of the big tasks to do today

\- find a private spot in a cafe or booked room to get work done

------
pwpwp
What I really look forward to are the "Defending our office" posts in 5 years.

~~~
jere
Don't hold your breath. _Peopleware_ has been recommending private offices for
25+ years.
[http://www.amazon.com/review/RYVTUPDAUANZW](http://www.amazon.com/review/RYVTUPDAUANZW)

