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Comment by kuharich | Hacker News Reader

Old Microsoft: it was a BillG ethic: anyone touching software got an office: software design engineers, PM's, QA, even admins ... it allowed one to be quiet and focus. And signaled to co-workers - do not disturb ...

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I was a contractor at MS many moons ago, I got an entire office to myself. Later when we had a crunch, we had to double up, but it was both perm and contract, not contractor specific. There was no lack of collab due to offices, close your door when in the zone. Open in it when accepting visitors. Absolutely loved it.

Most new buildings at Microsoft now have open office plans.

This is mostly due to employee demand (although some employees are very angry about it).

Microsoftie here. I haven't seen any indication for it to be due to employee demand. The vast majority of engineers on my team, and my last N teams, have agreed it was top down from leadership; and even those that preferred open offices agreed that cost cutting and space utilization are likely driving factors.

To contribute to the broader discussion; SOME teams here still have offices, but it's a dying breed. I consider myself very lucky that I found one that did, and it was certainly a factor in my choice.

Former Apple employee here. That sounds exactly like what I witnessed. The new Apple HQ is very much open office and the design was definitely top-down from execs - I just know that I had no input at all even though it was my workplace. Always got my best work done at home.

If companies can't afford to give programmers their own offices, then they should just let them work remotely from their own private offices in their homes.

Also work for MS I have an office, but wouldn't care if we went open. I worked for wall street for a while and was used to it.

Speaking to someone there: they were planning to remodel the whole campus. However they stopped after a few conversions due to feedback. Converted buildings are staying open, but other buildings are reportedly staying as individual offices.

This is second hand, could be wrong.

Microsoft intern here. Got my own office for the summer.

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