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"On my way in and out of this office, just one of several Bytedance spaces all across the city, I gawked at hundreds of workers sitting side by side in row after row in the open floorplan. It resembled what I’d seen at tech giants like Facebook in the U.S., but even denser."

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As much as US devs whine about open offices, it could be worse.

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Found photos of Bytedance's open office:

empty: https://officesnapshots.com/2016/07/13/bytedance-offices-bei...

full of staff: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-04-22/bytedance-drops-payw...

with a faux ceiling: https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/tiktok-parent-e...

What's the purpose of the faux ceiling? I would have hoped the large expansive space and glass ceiling would be used to help alleviate feelings of claustrophobia.

I run Office Snapshots (first link) and hadn't seen the faux ceiling you linked to -- definitely interesting.

@kakkun My guess is that it would be limit direct sunlight, though if that were the case, a shade higher up might look better.

I do remember someone telling me that if you go into a Costco food court people often gravitate to the tables with an umbrella on them even though they are indoors. Their theory was that people do like to have something over their heads in such a big warehouse-size space.

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