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Comment by 7thaccount | Hacker News Reader

Open floor plans make concentration nearly impossible. Headphones and music is a must. It's also deeply unsettling to have people walking behind you 24/7. I think human evolution makes you not happy about this.

A coworker of mine left for a company where all employees have offices and according to him the gain in productivity was wild.

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There's also health effects. There is subconscious anxiety from being observed and from having someone walking behind you. There is stress from trying to listen--or not to listen--to other conversations. There is stress from needing to maintain a facade for management's panopticon. It all takes a toll on cube farm crops.

Cube farm is nowadays a premium. We are just sitting in rows. Like school class. No walls, nothing. Managers sit in corners, so they can observe others. Upper management has private offices. With increasing pay office quality drops dramatically.

Dilbert strips are now an utopia with proper cubicles. How ironic ...

If you would have asked me 15 years ago if having your own cubicle would be a positive, I'd have laughed at you. It's sad how this has turned out.

About 8 years ago I changed jobs and went from a big semi-open office space to my own cubicle in a small department of a smaller building. I was so happy about that, I had to take a picture and send it to some people.

Having intentional collaborative workspaces, while maintaining private space for concentration or just personal retreat, is optimal. Forced collaboration is suboptimal.

Private officies are perfect for collaboration. There is no need to schedule meeting rooms. Just talk in your office.

Yes. I worked at a company for many years that was offices (mostly for managers) and cubicles. Collaboration was fine. Culture was open door unless you specifically didn't want to be disturbed/overheard for some reason. I imagine it's different at other places but private office shouldn't be equated to private office with always shut door.

This.

Scheduling meetings is a pain despite good Outlook tools, because they're always booked. A decent sized office would make this a non issue.

You shouldn't have to retreat to personal space. You should retreat to collaborative space. If personal privacy is not the default, then social expectations will have you rarely able to take advantage of it.

We do not have enough collaborative spaces to accommodate this, so we end up having crucial conversations and impromptu problem-solving meetings out in open space, wrecking the productivity of everyone else who is trying to meet a deadline.

I want to concentrate for at least 3/4 of my working time, but 2006 was the last time I had semi-private space for it.

I see it less as forced collaboration and more as a vehicle for high frequency interruption, which is a core tool of what I call panic or chaos management.

At most places I've been, team management and inter-team cooperation are both so poor that it's pure chaos. Every day there's panic - necessary or otherwise - and the fastest way to put out the current fire is to to storm across the floor and presume to interrupt everyone who might help.

Open plan offices work to make this the norm rather than the exception. They're a cover for no improvement to organization or management.

I hate them too.

When someone does an overhaul and introduces role-based areas, the library (where you really are allowed to tell people to shut up) are immediately more popular than the few stand-up desks on the floor.

At one place I worked (big bus. w/ offices all over) my floor was full of fake alphas who were always talking to their laptops on video conferencing. I'd take the internal stairs up a floor where it was crickets and productivity bliss.

And I'm guilty of being the annoying person in the area (ok, one of the annoying people). Sorry everyone! I've learnt and promise not to be that guy again.

The human element of some open office spaces is also (IMHO) a little dehumanizing when you're required to carry your headset and any personal effects from a locker to your desk in a plastic tub and then login to your phone.

Although if those who are predicting a lot more WFH (but with companies still maintaining some level of physical offices), I would expect hoteling to become much more common whatever the physical space looks like. If many/most people are only coming in a couple days a week, it doesn't make sense for employees to have a dedicated space in general.

Thankfully I've never had to do that. It sounds pretty awful. I spend 8 hours a day in my cube, so it is basically my home like it or not.

I'm not a fan of open office either, but then what's the point of having an office if employees are isolated and it's the same as working from home anyway.

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