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Comment by synu | Hacker News Reader

Having been around for cubicles, its surprising to see them described by a new generation as some kind of utopian ideal. Even if they are round now, instead of square. Roundicles?

Best not think too much about what we will call the ones for the test team.

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I remember in the 90s, when I was a teenager, my Dad's work at Allergan (in Irvine, Orange County, California, not far from Blizzard's office) had a cubicle layout. Sometimes he took me inside, and it was just terrible. This was also one of the themes of Office Space, an excellent movie making fun of workplace culture (starring Jennifer Aniston and Ron Livingston). In one memorable scene of the movie, after Livingston's character has had enough of the toxic workplace culture and stops giving a fuck, he unscrews the cubicle walls so he can see out the window from his desk.

I would definitely prefer to work in an open-office environment vs cubicles. I also don't want an office, because I don't even want to go to work regularly anymore.

The best option for me would be: (i) go to work 2-3 times a week to get out of the house (ii) hot desk open office layout with (iii) lots of meeting rooms.

> I would definitely prefer to work in an open-office environment vs cubicles.

That's fine as long as you understand that for certain types of people and/or certain types of work - open plan can be a disaster. This discussion has been bouncing back and forth for decades.

Personally speaking my coding productivity drops something like 80% in an open plan office.

It's so true. 80% gets lost but you feel like you've done so much more just getting to the office by the time you arrive your job is to kill time. You can now bother others all day and look productive.

I think it would be “sphericles”.

The issue isn't that cubicles are good, they aren't. The issue is that open office plans are worse. If your work is calls and emails that can be chopped up in 10 minute increments then an open office is great because that how long you can concentrate between distractions, if you need to think they are productivity killers that would give mandatory shots every 10 minutes a run for their money.

We have oscillated back and forth with each being the exciting new solution for what sucks about the other for decades, though. This is just the latest swing of the pendulum to one or the other.

I guess they are round now, maybe that was the one missing ingredient that means we will be on cubicles forever and everyone will finally understand why they are better?

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