
Our Open-Plan Office Failed, So We’re Moving to a Towering Panopticon - smacktoward
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-open-plan-office-failed-so-were-moving-to-a-towering-panopticon
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Animats
There are probably jobs where there's someone watching a split-screen display
showing the webcam images of all their subordinates.

(IoT idea: Desktop USB activated food reward dispenser. Boss-controlled.)

(Just checked. It's available. Pavlov Treat Dispenser $69.95 [1])

[1] [http://pavlovdogmonitor.com/treat-dispenser/pavlov-treat-
dis...](http://pavlovdogmonitor.com/treat-dispenser/pavlov-treat-dispenser))

~~~
protomyth
_There are probably jobs where there 's someone watching a split-screen
display showing the webcam images of all their subordinates._

A whole lot of daycares do this. A proper security system will keep the
footage for a month.

At least the treat dispenser is advertised for use with the dog, but I bet if
someone handed you this document cold with actual letterhead, it might take a
bit of reading to realize the parody.

~~~
Animats
If someone handed you the device, you'd think it was for humans. It looks more
like a desktop device than a dog feeder.

Maybe it was originally designed for the education market.

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WhatIsDukkha
You know what is worse then the open office plan?

The fact that large numbers of people loathe it and yet do nothing about it
except moan on the internet.

People don't organize themselves and their coworkers to even ask for better
things.

~~~
watwut
Open office is bad for general productivity of all, but organizing against it
is bad specifically for your own career and salary. Good negotiators tend to
go for their own salaries, interesting projects, better positions etc etc etc
while pushing against open office (or other popular corporate must have) makes
their position for the above weaker. Anonymous venting is safer and feels
good.

Now you know.

~~~
jimbo999
"Good negotiators tend to go for their own salaries, interesting projects" is
a general rule in life too right?

I can work in an open office plan when i set my own hours and work remotely or
in a private space (i'll be using this space for 4 hours every day seems to
work for me)

As long as you establish this upfront and it is written down into your
contract.

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protomyth
This one would be pretty vile, but I bet we have folks who seen just as bad.

I once worked at a place that once powered their campus by an oil burning
generator. They stored the oil in a large underground bunker. The bunker was a
concrete affair. Eventually the oil plant was decommissioned and the bunker
was cleaned up.

Some [censored] person decided they needed more office space and this bunker
would be great. They completed the tunnel from a nearby building (they had a
large underground) and proceeded to build a false floor and put in a box for
offices. Now, concrete will "bleed" oil for a while even if sealed, so the
solution to that was install fans that would push fresh air between the office
area wall and the concrete wall. Inside their new space, they put a cube farm.
Sadly, cellphones and radios didn't work in the new space as it was
underground with a nice reinforced (rebar) concrete roof. Having a constant
wind noise in a cube underground is a bit surreal.

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michaelbuckbee
Honestly, I think I'd prefer the physical structure of a Panopticon to the
"Warehouse" style open offices that exist today (it would certainly be
quieter).

Some of these were actually built - here's a neat overview of some in Cuba -
[http://weburbanist.com/2014/05/15/real-life-panopticons-
dese...](http://weburbanist.com/2014/05/15/real-life-panopticons-deserted-
dystopian-prisons-in-cuba/)

~~~
nerfhammer
Weirdly it feels like it would be more embarrassing sitting in the tower
rather than one of the cells.

The person in the tower can only look at a few cells at a time but hundreds of
people in the cells will be staring at the tower all the time.

~~~
jaclaz
>The person in the tower can only look at a few cells at a time but hundreds
of people in the cells will be staring at the tower all the time.

Naah, it was taken care of, of course in the new project, and it's not a tower
anymore, it's the Nest:

>Will I be able to see you in Nest, watching me work? No. Nest will be coated
in one-way mirrored glass. And we are not “watching you,” we are
compassionately evaluating your flow state. Mr. Bentham was very clear that,
for objectivity, team members shouldn’t know when they are being evaluated by
“the all-seeing, hundred-eyed giant.”

~~~
aries1980
> Will I be able to see you in Nest, watching me work? > No. Nest will be
> coated in one-way mirrored glass.

With polarised filters you can see through such glasses. How do you make it
polarfilter-proof?

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otakucode
Probably would actually be marginally less destructive to productivity than
open floor plan offices. But still a childish fit to throw just to avoid
saving mountains of money by cancelling the office lease and having everyone
work from home.

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chriskanan
What's a good way to make an open office more tolerable? My lab is a large
rectangular room filled with desks and computers. I don't really have enough
space to make cubicles, and I can't get more space. I'd love to improve the
work space for my researchers.

Right now my lab is basically 3 rows of desks in an open office plan, with
probably 6 people there on average, but closer to 10 during summers.

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mcguire
Poor Daniel Finch.

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gozur88
>So Synergon is really better than the current open-plan office?

Sadly, it really is.

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bhhaskin
Thanks for posting this! What a great and fun read!

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yarrel
Our Incredibly Self-Regarding Smugness Is Also Available In Dead Tree Format
In A Way That Looks Like An Inheritance Being Burned.

