Ask HN: How would you build a night owl-friendly office? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How would you build a night owl-friendly office?

I am currently working in a night owl friendly environment (in research) and started taking notes about what features offices should have to make the prevalent night owls in science & IT take advantage of their most focused hours. (Before I had been working at a place which locked doors at 9:45pm..)

Which office features enhance the focus of us night owls? Any suggestions welcome.

- 24 hrs access

- blackening window blinds, or cellar location

- low grade lighting

- monitors with reduced blue light

- healthy late night food supply

- …

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Other than the obvious physical improvements mentioned here, consistently the most helpful things to me as a night owl have been:

  1. A non-judgemental culture around waking & working hours
  2. No synchronous meetings in the morning

I can put up with a lot if I don't have to talk to anyone before 11 AM.

I used to work in an office building that would turn off the HVAC after a certain time of night. If you're in a managed building, make sure to ask that it's left on

(Edit, I'd also suggest taxis or car service home if you don't have that)

This is a big one. The office I used to work in turned off HVAC at 7 and the building would start to heat up from all the electronic equipment. Nothing adds insult to injury like working at 9PM to push a fix and sweating while you're at it.

I once had a peculiar issue whereby render jobs would complete fine when I was sitting at my desk, but every time I tried to do an overnight run I'd come in in the morning and find the machines had rebooted a mere hour after I left. Of course it turned out they were overheating as soon as the HVAC was turned off after office hours.

San Francisco code (maybe CA?) requires that office lighting be tied to motion detectors. In my experience, if you're in the only one in late, you have to dance around the room every 15 minutes unless you want to sit in darkness. At some desks you could stay sitting and wave your arms about.

As someone who used to work graveyards in an environment like this: buy yourself a desk lamp and save your sanity.

I do remember my first week at a WeWork space in SF when the lights suddenly turned off. It was definitely a jarring experience when you are so focused on the code, etc in front of you.

I dint know if there are similar solutions in professional setups, but in the Smart Home world there are UWB presence sensors like the Aquara FP1. They are much better at detecting minor movements than traditional motion sensors are, so they could probably help with office spaces with low occupancy.

Time to make robots that walk around and wave.

- Espresso machine that can make coffee at any time of day (vs. needing to brew an entire pot)

I disagree with black-out curtains; rather, I think you should provide options for good lighting at night. I don't see why you'd want to block out the sun during the day, unless people are sleeping there too, and even then, only in "nap rooms."

Unless you're hiring literal vampires, your devs should get some sun exposure.

On-site bathing facilities, some reasonably quiet and comfortable spots to nap without raising eyebrows helps too.

India has a well developed system of 24/7 offices used for offshore support/development. Companies like TATA, Infosys, and many others have entire campuses which include not only office space but food distribution, various utilities on-site (e.g. dry cleaning), transportation to trains/buses (since shifts are on fixed schedule).

The biggest concern in my opinion is safety. Check crime stats and crime reports where you live, might be a bit of a wake up call.

While I work during the day, I am very much a night owl. Some things I have noticed. I have also served aboard submarines.

Your post makes it sound like people working at night want it dark. This should not be the case where they are working. They should have blackout blinds in their house for sleeping during the day.

- Most building light and home light is not actually bright enough and should be brighter.

- healthy food / snack options. Not a lot of places are open at night

- Keep the building open (HVAC, ability to open doors after hours, etc)

- Have a pass down log for the people coming in at night and work with more asynchronous communications

- Give people on the night shift the power to accomplish their mission. If the authority to do something requires waking up someone on the day shift to approval, it will probably not get done on time and just be passed to the day shift

- Well lit parking lot. You want your people to feel safe, even at night. If you have the funds, a security guard at night on watch would be a good addition

Here is what I would add:

1. nice speakers for playing music.

2. a soft leather couch for relaxing.

3. digital thermostat and a good HVAC system.

4. access to a sink / fridge close by the area.

What is specific about night time for any of these suggestions?

Nothing other than you need comfort for a night time situation where you want to stay focused.

The culture is the big thing. Keep meetings to an absolute minimum. I’ve worked late nights every chance I had but some people get irate that they don’t see you in the morning but see you leave when they do (a guy has gotta eat)! Don’t hire (or at least educate) those people.

Having a view, especially at night, to just stand at the window and see the city bustling about helps too. It’s also a great indication of how late it is (no cars on the roads, probably time to go soon…)

Also get some good napping furniture, because that is super important. If for whatever reason I have to stay up until 8am to have a meeting, I’m not even going to bother going home. Also, back to that culture thing: don’t wake me up unless there is an alien invasion, or my life is literally in danger. Hmm, actually, even then, just let me sleep through it.

I think this is most important: a safe parking lot.

Indoor parking which requires identification to enter.

do ya'll not have Indian continent coworkers your team requires to have a meeting with in the morning? drives me nuts

A place to move: gym or indoor basketball / racquetball court

Let employees work from home / work remotely

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