
Introverts at Work: Designing Spaces for People Who Hate Open-Plan Offices - loisaidasam
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-16/open-plan-offices-for-people-who-hate-open-plan-offices
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maxxxxx
What does this have to do with introverts? It has mainly to do with rank. You
never see VPs sitting elbow by elbow in an open space office. It's just a
matter of treating everybody as an adult.

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eyeJam
100% with you on this point. I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that
even means) and I can't stand open plan offices. When I get home from a
workday in an open-plan I'm much more stressed and mentally exhausted. Whereas
if I'm working in peace and quiet all day in a mini-partition in the bullpen I
come home feeling refreshed and satisfied with my workday.

The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more
willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy. After complaining to
my boss many times I eventually started wearing earmuffs and turned my
workstation towards the corner so that I couldn't see people. Of course being
the control-freak psychopath that he was he mocked me in front of everyone
else for wearing earmuffs and when that didn't work he started calling me into
his office every 5 minutes and would get angry at me if I didn't hear him
calling. Wow what a shitty boss and so glad I got out of there.

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p4wnc6
Are you sure you are extraverted?

You say,

> I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that means)

But then you also say

> The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more
> willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy.

And that's pretty close to the definition of introversion.

You know introversion / extraversion is not about being shy vs outgoing. That
is a very common misconception.

Introversion means that social interactions and situations lacking privacy
cause you to become tired and experience mental energy drain.

You might _love_ hanging out with friends and being around people, it just
makes you tired. Extraverts on the other hand experience an energy boost from
social situations, even if they don't prefer being in some specific social
situation (e.g. an extravert may hate going to work, but still feel that "buzz
of activity" just from being around everyone).

It's about how your cognitive fatigue is triggered: is your fatigue triggered
by social situations, or is your fatigue lessened by those situations.

The effect you describe about the fatigue your open plan space causes for you
makes me strongly suspect you're much closer to the introvert side of the
spectrum than you believe.

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eyeJam
Well i'm extroverted around people. I get a huge burst of energy. I get too
excited and can't focus. I just want to keep talking to people and moving
around. When it's time to dig into a rats nest of JS code I need serenity and
quiet. The reason I don't really buy the whole introvert/extrovert thing is
that its way too broad of a distinction and presents this binary of
personalities when it's really more of a continuum. I think you just made my
point.

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p4wnc6
Most of the research on the introversion / extraversion workplace effects very
strongly focuses on the spectrum aspect, and decidedly eschews the binarism
that has held us back from correctly accommodating human beings at work.

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p4wnc6
Hilarious that Bloomberg published this -- a company famous for no offices and
a leader who is insistent that if _he_ can work without an office, so can
everyone else, with zero consideration for legitimate physiological
differences between workers, like introversion vs extraversion.

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mcculley
Why would they think that only introverts need quiet to get serious work done?

