Comment by JoshTriplett | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JoshTriplett | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Someone needs to write an article "why no one office plan will make everyone happy". Discussions around office layouts always devolve into different groups vehemently defending how everyone should love their preferred choice, and very few people recognizing that different people work differently.

Some people thrive in an open office, while others can't function due to distraction, interruption, and an expectation of constant interaction. Some people thrive with private offices and doors, while others go stir-crazy and feel like they can't collaborate. And cubicles with proper separation end up as a satisficing solution that doesn't make anyone completely happy but doesn't drive people completely crazy.

Ideally some kind of hybrid could work, with doors available for people who want them, and common work areas available for people who want them. But perceptions matter too, and "private office" rightfully looks like a perk; many who might function better in a common area might resent not getting an office.

Agreed. I personally work well in an open office. Half way through the article, or really it was just citing other peoples research with no other analysis, I got mad.

It just comes back to -- if you want to prove a point there will be data out there to help you justify it. This article is trying to pretend to be objective, but really is just citing a slew of studies that, presumably, had really small sample sizes. /rant

There is no one answer. IMO an ideal office would have both options.

Is your open office very loud?

To me, the real problem is noise, not the lack of an office. I work very well in libraries, which are generally very quiet. I don't work at all well in open offices where people are constantly having phone conversations[1]. The "quiet room" that was provided at Sun Micro that I described in a post below also worked very well for me. Interestingly, I also work well in coffee shops, provided that there are no audible cell phone conversations (again, person to person conversations just aren't that distracting to me).

Overall, while I agree with you that it's not a one-size-fits-all situation, I think it's fair to say that loud noisy offices where developers are put next to a manager or marketing worker who is on the phone all day are generally harmful to a developer's productivity.

[1] These seem to be a worse distraction than person-to-person conversations. I've read that this is a common reaction, probably because people try to "fill in" the unspoken words, causing a greater cognitive impairment.

Yeah, that would be an important article to write. I think the compromise where everyone "wins" with the open office is more inter-team communication.

I've read that communication may be diminished as well, though, as some people don't want to make noise or cause distractions, or may be uncomfortable having personal conversations near coworkers. In short, the people most distracted by this sort of noise may be most reluctant to engage in it.

I don't have a cite here, and there's a lot of contradictory evidence anyway, but I can easily see how some kids of important inter-team communication might diminish, even if the overall amount of chatter greatly increases.

This is why I tend to agree with people that open offices are more about the appearance of productivity than actual productivity (appearance of communication rather than real communication, illusion of cost savings rather than real cost savings).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com