Ask HN: Ideal startup office environment? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Ideal startup office environment?

3 pointswensing11 comments

Please give me your list of must-have office features.

I have the ear of a VP at my company concerning the layout and use of a whole new area of space in our building. He wants it to be "startup-like", and I believe he's sincere. I've already suggested a nap room, a reading area, ping-pong, and walls made of whiteboard. :)

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I personally disagree with a bunch of the stuff you are recommending. I work from home, so take this with a grain of salt, but two IT companies I worked for had fooseball tables, and i always hated those things. Work isn't getting done/discussed over ping-pong. Ideas aren't getting shared while reading or naping, though I do agree that enabling napping at work isn't a bad idea, and having employees who are well read is also a good idea, I think doing this IN the office is a mistake.

Walls made of whiteboard, or painted with chalkboard, and don't forget to always have pens or chalk EVERYWHERE is a good idea.

Instead of spending money on reading rooms and ping-pong, why not focus on a culture of free-responsibility. The number of good things that have come out of meeting at a bar or over a coffee is of much more value than what you are getting over ping-pong. Napping/reading are non-interactive, so I think that is a double loss. Get your employees out for a bike ride or jog. I would rather have people that get out of the office while keeping their head in the game, than people who spend time in the office, but aren't getting any real work done.

Make the office the place for work, and enable your workers to leave the space and do other things but if you can, make sure that they understand the priority of these things is to refresh them for work, or to still get work done.

i agree with most of what your saying, including the reading/nap room.

however, i think there's something to be said about having a break room and such, when its done correctly. having infrequent, somewhat short but active breaks definitely do increase productivity.

I always said that if I would start up a company I would paint every wall with chalkboard, especially the bathroom walls. I would also make a ball pit and have 'flexible' desks. That means everyone gets a desk and a laptop but are free to move as they want. Meetings should not be held in some room, but in the open. PM's should sit next to the developers and managers should know people's names. But as you might notice, most of those things are not something you should buy, you should create an atmosphere of innovation. And that is something that is only possible with open-minded people, freedom, flexability and happyness!

agreed, and particularly love the idea of the chalkboard bathroom walls.

We're building a big new office at the moment and this is the ideas we like so far.

* go for the BEST chairs you can. Buy them first and buy plenty (I'd say the number you want plus 10% more :)).

* lots and lots and lots of desk space. encourage people to move about (laptops and plenty of desktops).

* white board walls are a must (we have one glass wall and the facing wall will be one huge WB)

* if you have servers and suchlike pop up some big screens with "monitors" of their status on them (this is stolen from last.fm :)). We are having 3 52" monitors with open casework and urgent notices etc. on them.

* coffeee bar are - is essential. A proper area not just a ktichen. Make it off to one side of the main space with comfy chairs and an actual bar to seperate it

* make a meeting space out of bean bags and a low japanese style table

* make a collaboration area. slightly closed in with a smart projector and surrounded in white boards. It does wonders for group work!

I agree with the others - nerfball and such like is neat (and if you have an outdoor area then you should put something in) but often has a reverse impact. One better option could be to install a gym of some description. Just a few bits and pieces. Gym is good exercise (which is always good for us programmers to get a break :D) and will help make your staff more active. But it is not something they can spend all day every day doing - and also somethign they would tend to do at the end (or start of the day). Oh and you'd need a shower too probably.

Outside of the whiteboard walls, which can be functional, most "start-up style" stuff is fluff. A nap room? Seriously? Are you employing pre-schoolers?

I'm quite a big fan of the Spolsky approach myself, especially for programmers. That is:

* everyone gets an office.

* high quality chairs (they don't have to be herman millers though, in fact, if you can afford it, let employees pick their own on the basis of comfort)

* external large format monitors, multiple if desired

* get everyone a laptop, it's nice to have a single computer, instead of 2-3

* an open area for collaboration (can in fact be a boardroom, but doesn't have to be)

* an open area for lunch/low intensity times (not the same as the collaborative space, and not filled with "cool things" like ping pong, but the spirit remains. Reading, eating and general socialization goes on here).

I'm not a big fan of putting non-work stuff like ping-pong and nerf guns into offices not because I don't want people to have a bit of fun, but because I think people should spend that time "the fun time" outside of the office with their colleagues, other friends or family.

It's a work environment, not a "life" environment.

I agree on the 'work environment, not a life environment', but I'm also trying to consider that a few minutes of diversion are inevitable, so people are either going to browse the web or get up and do something better. I could definitely see myself using a 15-minute break to play ping-pong with a co-worker, and then going back to work. What's the harm in that?

It's been my experience that ping-pong tables, foozball tables or TV's and such quickly devolve into two use cases:

1. A vast majority of people never use it (after the initial cool factor period), you lose the balls and it just collects dust.

2. You get a small subset of employees that spend all day playing ping-pong, and do nothing else.

I've never seen anyone play a quick 15min game then go back to work.

Again, I don't have an issue with them per se, but I think there are better places to spend money.

Fair enough. I appreciate the honest analysis.

look, lets not get too fancy here. these are the basics, in my opinion:

  * good chairs
  * big monitors, multiple monitors if necessary, and computers powerful enough to do your work smoothly
  * windows, greenery and open spaces
  * aesthetically interesting offices that are well designed and laid out
  * a fun, but not too fun break room, perhaps with a wii, darts, or ping-pong table.  the key is movement.
  * free snacks/drinks.
  * no helicopter management

edited to add:

  * casual dress code

there are some other "standards", but i don't know how much i agree with some of them. also, there's a lot to say about the structure of the company and management style/practices, but thats not really going to change with office space. i included helicopter management because it relates to the physicality and atmosphere of the space itself.

chk SO:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/96501/perks-for-new-progr...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/306708/must-haves-for-dev...

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