Hacker News Reader

Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

If this result is replicated a few times it really puts to bed the idea that open office environments are about "increasing collaboration". Hopefully, at that point management can at least be honest and say: "We need to cut costs, so we're not buying any cubes."

View on HN

Do people really like cube farms? Honest question.

Cube farms (with high walls) are probably 100x to 1000x better than a fully open plan office.

I would say they are maybe 1.5x better. I work in a cube with high walls and it's still really noisy and it;s really awkward to yell over walls so there is almost no direct conversation even with neighbors. In addition I hate staring at a grey wall the whole day. It feels like prison.

What does staring across your paired desks at your tea-slurping coworker feel like?

We shouldn't limit ourselves only to either staring at a wall or a tea slurping coworker. They both suck. There are other ways to set up an office like having a window for example.

For some reason the people higher up the chain don't work in cubes or open space. So they shouldn't tell us that these are the only options.

> They both suck.

:-)

"In addition I hate staring at a grey wall the whole day. It feels like prison."

You can cover that up with stuff. One of the benefits of a fabric covered cube wall is that you can use pins to stick things up. I went to a fabric shop, got a bunch of the remnants that they sell cheaply, and put them all up over the gray.

Beats sitting at a bench with zero walls between you and your neighbors.

"Gosh can anything be worse than a cube?" Management: "hold my beer"

One of the rare moments that I miss Slashdot's "+1 Funny" rating.

I just took a job in a long established financial company specifically because they had cube farms. I can confirm it’s a thousand times better than the open offices I’ve worked at previously.

I won’t take any job with an open office floor plan for the rest of my career. The stress of environmental oppression (noise, people cramped together, close quarters, etc) is just not worth it.

I am much happier now.

I remember decades ago when I went from having an office with a door to having a high wall cubicle, and I thought it was a disgrace and a sign of office working conditions having finally gone down the drain. None of us thought it could get worse!

I think "like" is a strong word, but cube farms are still better than the high-school cafeteria environment most of us are stuck trying to work in these days.

In comparison to open offices, yes.

I've worked in some big, comfortable cubes next to windows, and they were quite nice. Even going to a smaller cube with no view would be a luxury compared to open concept hell.

Heh, I remember one gig where they had cubes, and one guy was right next to the window. But they still had to put the back of the cube up, so he couldn't enjoy the window.

I really liked them.

Having worked in wework, open floorplans with 'pods', and the cube farm setup, I prefer the farm. The problem is that most cubes don't actually cancel out noise too well so you are constantly overhearing things causing distraction. There really is no substitute for uninterrupted silence which is probably not achievable in any office where the company is not willing to invest in individual rooms for each person.

I suspect people here that like them have worked in them prior to open office. In contrast I started my career about seven years ago and have only worked in open office environments.

So to me the idea of being in a cube farm seems more uncomfortable.

I think as more people start with open workspaces it'll become normalized even further.

Why? Do you like having everyone see everything you do?

I don't know why this was downvoted. I do my job really well, but I hate having people look over what I am doing... It might be an introvert thing or something, but I'm surprised when others view this as "what do you have to hide?".

Why does it have to be black & white?

When I was first installed in one many years ago, I thought things couldn't be worse. Then came open office and I longed for the days of carpet-walled cages. Then came standing desks (for our health!) and I longed for the days when I was issued a chair. I can't say for sure how things will evolve in the future, but I suspect it involves being chained shoulder to shoulder in 4 man rows with an oar in front me.

I liked them much better than the open office zoo the bay area subjects us to.

When they have the tall walls, I like them a lot better than open plans.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com