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Comment by ziddoap | Hacker News Reader

This is what I really am having trouble understanding.

How disconnected from reality do you need to be to think surveillance and converting to an open office is going to somehow increase retention of employees?

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A surprising number of people in management seem to think "Oh, that'll make us very silicon valley and signal how cool & hip we are!"

And a surprising number of people who haven't had to work in open offices before think "Oh, that'll be cool: social, innovative, and collaborative!"

In the UK almost all offices are open offices. I am not sure of the benefits of a cubicle as i never worked in one.

Mostly sound suppressing, but does guarantee privacy (I've had to tell someone to fuck off as I'm doing managerial work)

Thats a good point re managerial stuff. So did i and i always had to sit in a corner or somewhere secluded.

I worked in a cubicle when I did U.S. government IT. I can't tell any difference from the open plan offices I work in now that I'm in the private sector.

I've never worked in an open office precisely because I am certain that I'd hate it.

I'm guessing some salesmen sold them on this idea.

Sometimes, Hanlon's razor works in reverse: don't attribute to stupidity what can be adequately explained by m̵a̵l̵i̵c̵e̵ marketing.

In this case, I think that's especially true, but maybe not from the perspective you intended: they were sold on the idea of reduced costs, and they're marketing the changes to their employees (and the public) as retention-improving changes, despite the bald-faced absurdity of such a statement.

You get a bunch of "yes men" together and group think takes over and you end up with this. Rationality goes out the window. It has to because you have to say, "yes".

In my experience working, my theory is the over emphasis of goal setting. Everyone has to be doing something, even if it is counterproductive. No one ever says, maybe take some time to sit back to take some time to think about the best way to approach something, it's always just do do do.

I totally agree. I wonder to myself sometimes, "where did this person's empathy go?".

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