
From Cubicles, Cry for Quiet Pierces Office Buzz - kanamekun
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/science/when-buzz-at-your-cubicle-is-too-loud-for-work.html?pagewanted=all
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mindcrime
"Open Plan" offices are more evil than Satan, The Beach Boys, Pop-under Ads,
Politicians, and Slashdot Trolls all rolled up into one. I would never
knowingly subject anybody to that crap.

Which is why, if/when the day comes that Fogbeam Labs can acquire office space
and hire employees, I intend to make sure that everyone gets a private office,
with a door. Knowledge workers need the opportunity for privacy and way to
avoid countless, unnecessary context switches. Open Plan is practically
designed to generate the maximum possible number of interruptions and
distractions during the course of a day. It's disrespectful to people to put
them in a situation like that, and it's less productive. That's just the wrong
way to do things, as far as I'm concerned.

~~~
opminion
The interesting question for us who agree with you is why do other people
think otherwise. Two reasons come to mind: some co-workers don't mind the
disruptions themselves (e.g. if they do a different kind of work), and some
managers simply just like the view.

~~~
andrew93101
I think the successfulness of open space plans depends greatly on the work
you're doing.

If you're working primarily alone on difficult engineering problems, with
well-defined specifications and a clear division of who owns what part of the
code, then (from my experience) solitary offices are more productive.
Communication doesn't need to be as high-bandwidth, and concentration needs to
be deep.

On the other hand, there are many environments that are different. If your
organization intentionally has low-fidelity product requirements, the cost of
communicating with business stakeholders needs to be low. If you intentionally
eschew code ownership, engineers will frequently be working in areas of the
codebase they haven't worked in before and need to talk to colleagues who know
it better.

Open plans make concentration harder and communication easier. Closed office
plans are the reverse. I think no office plan is "better" than the other, but
rather our office plan should fit the work style of your organization.

~~~
nessus42
I've always had an office until the last few years. Now I work in a cubicle.
My feeling is that communication was much easier for me in an environment with
offices. The reason for this is that I could have in-depth conversation with
others in an office. In a cubicle, I feel that having a conversation with
someone else is antisocial because it will annoy everyone else.

The real reason for cubicles and open floor plans is that it makes the bean
counters happier. Everything else is rationalization, IMHO.

~~~
icebraining
Are the two really opposed? At my job, we have an open floor plan and a couple
of closed rooms where people go for conversations, talking on the phone, etc.
Seems to work fine, although I don't have much of a gauge to measure by.

~~~
ericras
What if two people need to work together on a computer and they only have
desktops. The commom-area closed room doesn't do them any good.

~~~
grannyg00se
The common-area closed room should have a desktop computer in it.

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jasonkolb
I think it's ridiculous that people try to put programmers in this
environment. Coding is one activity that requires a tremendous amount of focus
and concentration, you shouldn't even think about this for programmers. And I,
for one, find headphones to be irritating and distracting, so that doesn't
work out very well either.

For programming there are times where collaboration and group innovation is
great--it's before you start coding. Yes, by all means hang out in bullpens
and shoot darts at each other, cool. But once you start building, you take
your piece of the structure and go build it in solitude. If you need to confer
with someone else you figure out how to make it happen, whether it's walking
up and interrupting them or even if you have to schedule a meeting. It's the
nature of the beast, there is no magic pill to make that part go faster.

~~~
Drbble
I hated headphones with passion until I found a pair of earbud plug style
phones with small plugs. And they are under 20 bucks. They don't isolated aot
of noise, just low background chatter. Anything louder is completely
ridiculous (yet common).

------
Swizec
Noisy environment are _awesome_ to work in. But it does need to be noise, as
soon as there is any signal mixed in with the noise it throws you off because
you start focusing on that instead of whatever you're doing.

That's what makes coffee shops such a great place to work. There's a bunch of
people who don't care about you - so nobody will say anything _to_ you - even
the music is taken care of so you don't have to worry about that either.

Quiet environments are the worst. I find myself completely incapable of
thinking when it's quiet because my brain just starts playing music to run
away from the quietness.

~~~
mhink
I disagree. I detest coffee shops for trying to get any work done for a couple
reasons. First, no matter how hard I try, noise always seems to seep in
through my headphones, and second, it's too dynamic of an environment for me-
people walking around and moving is distracting for me.

The best working environment I ever had was when I was in college- the top
floor of our library was a big study room with individual cubicles, and it was
absolutely silent. It was the one place I could really zone out and get work
done because once I was firmly planted in a cubicle, I could focus solely on
the task in front of me.

I was interested to learn that pink noise specifically blocks speech. I use
one all the time, and I'd really like to see the difference in an office
environment with one on and off.

~~~
keithpeter
"The best working environment I ever had was when I was in college- the top
floor of our library was a big study room with individual cubicles, and it was
absolutely silent. It was the one place I could really zone out and get work
done because once I was firmly planted in a cubicle, I could focus solely on
the task in front of me."

I also found the presence of others and absence of my own stuff kept me from
task avoidance strategies.

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xbryanx
We just need more multi-modal offices. Sometimes you need singular,
uninterrupted, quiet spaces and then sometimes you need the constant
collaboration of the bullpen space. Leaders need to define the values of the
organization and intentionally decide which layout will be the default.

~~~
jaaron
My favorite workspace had proper offices surrounding open working spaces. Most
everyone worked in an office, sometimes doubled up with an officemate. When
you needed to blow off some steam, talk to a coworker or collaborate, you
moved out into the open space. Also, the default behavior was an open door
policy, making it much easier to pop in on someone.

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VLM
This template seems to work for all workplace architecture discussions:

I find that my work style is the only work style that works for me, therefore
it works for everyone because HR ensures we're all identical cogs in the
machine. Therefore I feel the best idea is to enforce hyper conformity on
everyone. If they don't like it they can not work, or I can relate how other
employers are more extreme so they should be happy.

As far as my own preferences go, as a guy who has to work at home a lot, its
always hilarious to substitute in "home" for "work" and re-read articles about
the supposed advantages of open plan offices. Yes, I do my best coding at home
when my toddler kids are no more than 3 feet from my ears and arguing
continuously with each other over meaningless stuff I don't care about. Yes, I
do my best coding when Barney the Dinosaur music is blasting loudly (unless
you're the guy picking the music, the music the team has to listen to probably
sucks). Yes, when I'm deep into debugging something, the correct next step is
always to have last nights American Idol monday morning quarterbacking babbled
into my ears. Sure, the best way to stay on task is to listen to others in the
area talk about their own work, what could be distracting about that.

My only question is who is paying people to write this kind of stuff? None of
it is logical, so they're obviously not figuring it out on their own. Is it a
Stockholm Syndrome thing or kiss up to the boss thing based on their own work
environment? Or just the old classic follow the money, where someone, somehow,
is making money off this? Personally I think is one of those "I strongly
encourage my competitors to implement this solution" type of near-industrial
counter-espionage. I heard google makes their rock star architects work next
to the jet engine test area at the airport, I strongly encourage my
competition to implement that plan.

------
droithomme
I really can not concentrate with constant noise and distractions around me
and it is not because I am stupid, a bad person, or anti-social as "open plan"
and "bull pen" advocates like to claim.

Last week I went to the local library. I hadn't been in a while.

The card catalogs of course went away years ago and were replaced with
computers. Computers are all now tied up by people playing video games,
looking at porn, and doing web shopping.

There are meetings going on, people drinking coffee, loud talking and debates,
and some sort of classes.

It's as loud as a gymnasium. By the time I found the book stacks which had
been moved to the basement since no one was interested in them, I couldn't
remember what I came to look for.

There is a reason why libraries used to maintain protocols of silence, and the
same reason applies to doing engineering design work.

~~~
jes5199
some libraries are still quiet, and those are where I've done some of my best
work! Try a library on a college campus - they're often open to non-students,
and usually still have a culture of serious study, so they haven't been
entirely converted into internet cafes.

------
ef4
I find cubicles hugely motivating.

I work my ass off every day to make sure I'll never need to sit in a cubicle
again.

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kabdib
How I cope:

I work for a company large enough to have little areas I can retreat to and
get work done in isolation: A stall in the library, a corner of the cafeteria.
I can get a solid hour or so of work done on a laptop (coding, writing,
whatever) before I need to connect with my cow-orkers.

I also try to stay off the network during this time; I turn off wireless and
shut down the browser and email client. This does wonders for concentration.

[I should add: Most of the rest of our company does have offices. Our
particular division does not, and most people hate it.

I'm ambivalent; the open space plan works pretty well on teams, but if you get
/two/ teams in the same open area, it's a misery of cross-talk and extraneous
noise. Perhaps extreme mobility would help, a-la Valve, where people can
dynamically choose their neighbors]

~~~
jes5199
your cafeteria is quiet? In my office, it's the largest source of noise, and
that noise carries throughout most of the (rather large, but rather open)
office space

~~~
kabdib
Off-hours, there are nooks where it's not bad.

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AznHisoka
At previous jobs, I complained it was too quiet - everyone was just a robot
staring at the computer screens. But then when people started chatting, I
complained it was too noisy.

I realize it has little to do with the noise. And more to do whether I
actually liked what I was doing.

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mpg33
I currently work in an open office environment doing software development and
absolutely hate it....I'm the type of person who needs complete quiet and
solitary in order to focus and stay focused. There are constant distractions.

Most of my coworkers are the opposite, they seem to enjoy the open
environment.

But i agree that it depends on the type of work your doing that makes this
better or worse.

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hammerdr
I just do not get it, I guess.

Colocation is one of the biggest things that make teams work. Putting any kind
of barrier creates nearly-instant havoc.

For example, my current team was working on a particular platform (web) until
we needed to start an iOS app. We split the team and the iOS team went to the
_next room over_ (we were too big for the room we were in anyway). The web
team was, in part, developing the API that the mobile team was consuming (bad
idea, but speed to market was of utmost importance).

There were arguments between the teams. An Us v. Them attitude started. It
became very agitated. And most of it can be attributed to the fact that they
sat 5 more feet away from us and were not in our line of sight. Crazy.

I love open space environments. There are challenges (picking the music, for
example). But, we get over them because we really do need to be able to yell
"Hey <Business Person>, can you clarify this feature a little for me?" and be
heard without having to track that person down from across the office.

So, personally, I am very confused. I guess I'm trained to ignore the noise
around me [1]? Maybe I'm just one of the "noise makers" mentioned. But it is
incredibly intriguing to me that I find _comfort_ and _productivity_ in open
spaces while others are ready to damn it.

[1] There was a blog post recently from a pair programming coach (can't find
it, sorry). But one of the things that he taught was actually how to ignore
the noises and be production. Your mind beings to hear things but you aren't
actively thinking about it. It's slowly processing in the back of your mind
until you hear something that clicks. E.g.

I'm writing code.

Dorothy says to Mike, "...API was" ==> you brain hears this

Then your mind rewinds.

"Joe said that the update part of the API was broken this morning. Do you know
what's up?"

You pipe up, "Hey! Dorothy, we changed the format of the json going into the
API. You should check the docs for the updated format."

Back to writing code.

Some other links from coworkers:

[http://bizvalu.blogspot.com/2007/10/open-space-
configuration...](http://bizvalu.blogspot.com/2007/10/open-space-
configuration-dawn-of-new.html) <http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TeamRoom.html>

~~~
grannyg00se
"we really do need to be able to yell "Hey <Business Person>, can you clarify
this feature a little for me?" and be heard without having to track that
person down from across the office"

Rather than yelling and disturbing the entire work area, what about some kind
of instant messaging for those cases?

.................

"I'm writing code.

Dorothy says to Mike, "...API was" ==> you brain hears this

Then your mind rewinds.

"Joe said that the update part of the API was broken this morning. Do you know
what's up?"

You pipe up, "Hey! Dorothy, we changed the format of the json going into the
API. You should check the docs for the updated format."

Back to writing code."

Except then Dorothy comes over and asks you about the updated format instead
of checking the docs because you decided to pipe up. Now she's in your face,
and you are talking to her about something completely different than what you
were focused on 20s ago. The consequences of losing focus and time to fully
regain momentum are well known and the disadvantage to you typically don't
warrant the advantage that Dorothy received by your presence.

~~~
hammerdr
That's very pessimistic and doesn't happen in practice. Basic politeness is
key to interacting with other humans.

If Dorothy happens to do this, give that person feedback and address it on a
_human level_ rather than putting walls between people (figuratively and
literally).

Edit: And, sorry, just reread and saw your first comment. And, apologies
because I laughed at the comment. You're talking about replacing a high
bandwidth, instant communication channel with a low bandwidth, asynchronous
communication channel? There are instances when firing off an email to the
person next to you is better than the alternative and you should be making
those decisions.

Also, I don't think anyone on our team would call it "disturbing the entire
workplace". It's how we work.

I'm not trying to pick a fight, really. I think people in these two camps just
cannot empathize with each other for some reason.

~~~
grannyg00se
"You're talking about replacing a high bandwidth, instant communication
channel with a low bandwidth, asynchronous communication channel?"

No, actually I'm talking about replacing yelling a question across an entire
office space with simply sending them an IM. The IM method also doesn't
require tracking them down, and as you mentioned basic politeness, I think
yelling for somebody when you have no idea where they are or what they may be
doing is rather impolite. You could be disrupting a conversation they may be
involved in elsewhere for example.

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stephengillie
I bring headphones. The ones like earplugs. Then I watch MST3K on youtube and
ignore anyone that doesn't ping me on chat.

~~~
keithpeter
Personally, I find Philip Jeck's multi-turntable trapped groove samples (NOT
club, more elegiac and nostalgia based) have the right kind of noise in the
right frequency bands, and are devoid of 'signal'. Plenty on YouTube
(official) if you want to try them.

I'm going to suggest the booths at work for when there is a furniture refresh
(new building, three years old). Nice idea and probably not _outrageously_
expensive, great for meetings and for mind mapping. I wanted to know about the
numbers; are the booths extra or do they assume some percentage of use to
calculate the seat numbers in the office?

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Fluxx
I'm a huge fan of office "suites" - smallish offices which comfortably hold
3-6 people. It's a good sweet spot between open spaces full of dozens of
people and individual offices. Usually suite-mates are people on the same
team/projet as you, so you still get that open collaboration, but aren't
distracted (or distract) the other people in the office whose daily work is
unrelated to yours.

