
It's Official: Open Plan Offices Are Now the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time - eplanit
https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/its-official-open-plan-offices-are-now-dumbest-management-fad-of-all-time.html
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clavalle
My vote for dumbest fad would be using business tropes on rank and file
employees and, worse, clients.

No rank and file employee wants to be a 'brand ambassador' and clients don't
want to rate your 'sense of urgency'.

Keep the jargon with the specialists in the back room.

The trick is to do important things that might be described by cringeworthy
jargon without letting on that is what you are doing!

It's like announcing at a singles bar that you are there to get laid when you
walk in the door. Everybody knows but its a terrible thing to call direct
attention to.

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dvfjsdhgfv
It's terribly stupid but it's so omnipresent that even people who think it's
stupid choose to do it anyway because "everyone else is doing it."

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scblock
While we're pointing out dumb fads, how about the video player and other
pointless crap that popped up on the screen and blocked part of the article. A
purposely user-hostile fad in web design.

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gbear605
This was one of the slowest to load pages that I've seen in a while (no ad
block). I usually use a bookmarklet to kill dumb popups that scroll with
you[1], and I actually had to update it[2] for this page, since this page used
`position: sticky` instead of `position: fixed` for one thing.

[1]:

    
    
      javascript:(function(){(function () {var i, elements = document.querySelectorAll('body *');for (i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) {if (getComputedStyle(elements[i]).position === 'fixed') {elements[i].parentNode.removeChild(elements[i]);}}})()})()
    

[2]:

    
    
      javascript:(function(){(function () {var i, elements = document.querySelectorAll('body *');for (i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) {if (getComputedStyle(elements[i]).position === 'fixed' || getComputedStyle(elements[i]).position === 'sticky') {elements[i].parentNode.removeChild(elements[i]);}}})()})()

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taylodl
What teams need are ready access to dedicated collaboration spaces when
needed. My experience with open floor plans is developers need uninterrupted
"heads-down" time to work through complex tasks and open floor plans make that
difficult to obtain. Developers endure interruptions which in turn limit the
complexity of the tasks they're able to complete. I believe it's this desire
to get uninterrupted time that's causing the paradoxical result that they
actually collaborate less.

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al_ramich
Well, the noise and distractions caused by not being able to isolate yourself
for tasks that require concentration for longer periods should be enough to
have people dislike open-plan workspaces. For tasks that require
concentration, the only way seems to be noise canceling headphones. I wonder
if we will get to a point where VR/AR collaborative spaces will provide the
next phase of co-working. It certainly would open up options for working from
anywhere and for organizations to hire anywhere and still have teams to work
in a similar way to being in an office.

[https://uploadvr.com/virtual-office-commute-vr-
replacement/](https://uploadvr.com/virtual-office-commute-vr-replacement/)

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Alterlife
Along with the article, I get a video where "a top designer explains how to
plan the perfect open office".

Color me confused.

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tomatotomato37
Type open office into their search bar. Nearly every other article contradicts
the one adjacent to it.

It's actually pretty funny

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sxp62000
Open office plans suit small groups of people, maybe 5-6. Even then, I prefer
the open office plans where everybody is facing a wall or partition of some
sort. Being able to see the person on the other side of the table is terribly
distracting!

