
Some Apple employees may quit over new 'open' office floor plan - concede_pluto
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Some-Apple-employees-may-quit-over-new-open-11824152.php
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throwaway26960
Although all open offices aren't necessarily circular in shape, the design
theory behind the Panopticon[1] and open offices are eerily similar.

 _" The building circular—A cage, glazed—a glass lantern about the Size of
Ranelagh—The prisoners in their cells, occupying the circumference—The
officers in the centre. By blinds and other contrivances, the inspectors
concealed […] from the observation of the prisoners: hence the sentiment of a
sort of omnipresence—The whole circuit reviewable with little, or if necessary
without any, change of place. One station in the inspection part affording the
most perfect view of every cell."

"The architecture incorporates a tower central to a circular building that is
divided into cells, each cell extending the entire thickness of the building
to allow inner and outer windows. The occupants of the cells are thus backlit,
isolated from one another by walls, and subject to scrutiny both collectively
and individually by an observer in the tower who remains unseen. Toward this
end, Bentham envisioned not only venetian blinds on the tower observation
ports but also maze-like connections among tower rooms to avoid glints of
light or noise that might betray the presence of an observer."_

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon)

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wdb
Executives somehow never seem to join the open office plan. They normally seem
to have their offices or just book up a meeting room week after week. If you
go open office I think everyone needs go open office including the executives.

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Clubber
In all fairness, when I interviewed with Intel many years ago, they had a cube
farm, and Andy Grove had a cube; they showed it to me. This was 20+ years ago,
so things might have changed since.

But to your point, yes, managers typically have offices. They know open floor
plans suck. It's amazing that Apple got duped into thinking it wasn't
bullshit.

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trapperkeeper74
Interruptions and distractions are productivity genocide.

Another subtle problem with open/unassigned layout is wasting time tracking
people down.

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ilaksh
It's about money and space. Offices take up much more space and are more
expensive. And don't adjust to variable size workforces. Cubicles are the same
problem to a lesser degree, but also suck because they are not really a
substitute for an office.

Basically it's just much easier to suggest open is somehow more modern or
something than to give everyone an office or pick who gets one.

My solution would actually be to try something kind of crazy with micro-
offices, built in video conferencing, noise absorbing panels and advanced
ventilation.

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valuearb
Many years ago I was VP Development of a 100 person software company moving
into new space. I demanded private offices for all engineers, so the best CFO
ever sat down with me and we quantified the additional costs it would impose
on us. We came up with less than $500 per year per engineer, who on average
cost us close to $100k a year, including benefits/payroll tax/etc.

After that I never had an ounce of pushback.

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trapperkeeper74
Exactly. Penny-wise _and pound-wise._ Too often, it's _pound-foolish._

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wyck
> Executives believe that an environment without cubicles fosters
> collaboration, innovation and creativity. Research has backed up some of
> these claims.

Pretty much all the research I've read into this actually says the exact
opposite.

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Bartweiss
There seems to be some data suggesting that open offices do promote
collaboration. Specifically, higher 'contact' rates with other people in the
company tends to produce lots of useful informal communication.

Of course, what's missing from that result is all the data saying that open
offices also lower productivity, increase distraction frequency, raise stress,
and increase sick leave.

Notably, the good results are _indirect_ benefits of open offices, while the
downsides are mostly direct. There have been efforts to derive those benefits
without actually using open plans - for instance by adopting radial building
designs and centralizing shared spaces (conference rooms, cafeterias, etc).
That lets you increase 'hallway collaboration' without actually bothering
people while they try to work.

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solatic
> There seems to be some data suggesting that open offices do promote
> collaboration. Specifically, higher 'contact' rates with other people in the
> company tends to produce lots of useful informal communication.

Verbal communication is unrecorded communication. Unrecorded communication is
communication which must be repeated to any stakeholder who wasn't present.
Repetition is inefficient.

Of course, sometimes that's unavoidable. Employees aren't perfect readers and
writers - some people have difficulty expressing themselves in prose, others
don't have the ability to quickly parse dozens of pages of written
communication to pull out the snippets which are personally relevant, and
practically speaking they can't all be replaced overnight. Sometimes,
emotional appeals need to be privately, unrecorded.

But the long-term benefits of prefer-written communication are so incredibly
high. New employees on-board faster and less disruptively. Employees can work
from home, commute less, and procure higher-quality housing in less-expensive
areas as a result, making them happier with a higher discretionary income.

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joezydeco
Previous discussion, last week:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14962663](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14962663)

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Crontab
At my job, we recently changed to this, and I dislike it. I like to refer to
it as Office Design by Orwell.

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locust101
No they won't.

