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Comment by NhanH | Hacker News Reader

> The San Ramon complex, home to GE Digital, now employs 1,400 people. The buildings are designed to suit the free-range working ways of software developers: open-plan floors, bench seating, whiteboards, couches for impromptu meetings, balconies overlooking the grounds and kitchen areas with snacks.

It's official now, we're just chickens to the world.

So the meme finally sticks and now we're screwed for the next decade? Who do we blame for the idea that "impromptu meetings" and those baloney is the way of working for programmers?

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> the free-range working ways of software developers: open-plan floors

This couldn't be farther from the truth. See The Joel Test.

Also https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2015/01/why-we-still-believe-...

I've been there. They tried to make it look like all those startups in warehouses in SF, and for the most part succeeded. You see agile boards around, decent kitchens, people hanging out on couches talking work, and some people heads down coding.

The main difference is that they seem to be dressed in a bit more "business casual" than your typical SF startup in a warehouse.

GE went for a puff piece in the Times, and then tilted their hand and undermined their whole campaign. Just another hamfisted attempt to copy the visible trappings of successful software companies, which unfortunately are those companies own hamfisted attempts at trying to force re-create the startup success that they had in the past, before the early innovators departed.

Do you happen to have a link to the article?

Better to be a free range chicken than a caged chicken.

Actually, cubicles are a good thing.

Agreed, there is nothing as distracting to me as an open floor plan. I take every opportunity to work at home that I can get, because my productivity is so much higher when I am out of the office.

depends who you work with. I've been working with really immature loud new grads at my current company and the open floor plan is awful. I just want to work and they yell across the room to talk.

I really only have one coworker like this. It's more that I get easily distracted myself, so if I have nowhere to hide from distractions I will be affected by them. I don't usually do well listening to music and working at the same time, so headphones don't help either

better than open floor plan sure. I'd still prefer something that doesn't have my back out facing the open. I think there are multiple studies that show that sitting with your back facing away from people causes significant anxiety.

I'm torn. Cubicles lead to higher productivity, but lower quality of work-life (in my opinion). I really like my coworkers.

Cubicles for 4 people, with high partitions.

Sounds perfect (for me).

Well, small glass offices instead of cubicles, with million dollar views of course.

This is true.

I'd be interested whether they've adopted pair programming or not.

I've worked open plan solo and paired.

Solo: I have ADHD. It's a nightmare.

Paired: I have ADHD. I barely notice the background.

I wonder how strongly pair programming is correlated with open office plans. Depressing if true, but if pair programming offsets the distraction of open plans, there may be cases where it's more viable for a company to simply hire twice as many developers and save money on office space, just to get out of having to give people offices.

On the other hand, it seems like people doing pair programming in open plans would contribute to the overall noise and distraction- a warehouse full of pairs of people talking all the time would also be a bad scene. :(

Noise is definitely a problem if the space has poor acoustics. Some Pivotal offices have spent a lot of money on sound absorbing surfaces.

I can't speak for other companies. We don't do open plan for money, it's just that it's easier to work this way for the way that we work.

That said: for colocated teams of solo developers, or distributed teams, open plan is poison.

Office space isn't that expensive.

While cost IS a factor, the idea seems to be going round that open plan is genuinely superior. (Although rarely so superior that the executives partake...)

Right, startup companies do open-plan because it is cheap, not because any actual developers are more productive or happier that way. It's supposed to be something you put up with until the company can afford offices... Only that point got lost somewhere along the way.

Hell why doesn't GE just remodel their offices to look like garages, because obviously that's the reason that Apple was successful...

I think they've taken the Pivotal Labs (they even call them Predix Labs!) approach and do a LARGE amount of pairing.

You guys have had quite an influence :)

That's great!

For Labs, our best outcome is to put ourselves out of a job because the clients are teaching themselves.

They will do a corporate rollout of pair programming once they Six Sigma Black Belts are done doing their lean workouts ;).

Yep they pair or threesome. Theres actually alot of pressure to group up. We would pair all day most days when I worked there.

I take you disliked it? A lot of people do.

I prefer flow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

Have you never had an interesting conversation and then looked up, realising that 4 hours had passed?

In my experience, I find it easier to focus with someone next to me than by myself. To the point that I take half as much Ritalin on pairing days than when I work alone.

Maybe you're right? It has to be the right person/people. Also, combine pairing with an open office and now you have two people with double the chances of being interrupted. So it's circumstantial.

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