

Open Floor Plan Office [opinions] - zoowar

I've been in cubicles since joining my first company out of college as a software engineer. Recently, I discussed an opportunity with a company that has an open floor plan office. I'm uncomfortable with the idea. I feel I can focus more in a cubicle. Also, I like that I can partition my focus and social time by entering and leaving the cubicle.<p>What are your thoughts and experiences with open floor plan office space and how they compare with cubicles?
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hga
Assuming the work is of any difficultly, your ability to get anything done in
an open floor plan office will depend on your ability to focus despite the
vastly increased distractions. And heaven help you if you aren't facing a
wall.

You can possibly do the music with headphones thing (although that tends to
result in higher error rates) and using noise canceling ones can make a small
but significant difference.

One question: does this company do this because they don't have much money or
because they think it's a good idea. If the latter, I'd pass unless desperate,
they don't understand what they're doing (again assuming the work is at all
difficult).

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mgkimsal
I'd prefer a room with a door, personally, for the partitioning you speak of.
Even in cubicle situations, you still have a lot of spillover from adjoining
areas. That said, for the control over environment, cubes are a step in the
right direction if you're concerned about focus (imo). "Open floor" plans are
generally championed by people who don't have to work in them.

Now... having an open collaboration space where team members can work on
something, then go off to private cubes/offices to work separately - having
_both_ options - would rock, but I've seen desperately few places that offer
that sort of setup (none personally).

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wallflower
The best open floor plan offices I have seen seem to cluster the workstations
to three of the walls (or windows). When people need to collaborate, they
wheel their chairs into the center of the room where there is a big table and
a big whiteboard on the fourth wall.

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zoowar
That does sound like a good approach.

