Smart Working at Credit Suisse - 2000 workspaces for 2500 employees
officesnapshots.com
officesnapshots.com
But not for those of us who can't shove our dual- or giant-monitor quad-core computers and sprawled testing platforms into a briefcase. Nor for those who settle in 8-12 hours a day, 5-8 days a week, to the same chair and no desire to hunt around for a different one because someone moved into "yours". Nor for those who don't take irrelevant noise/distractions well (as I sit across the hall from a factory).
Ya know, I'd like to see a slick photo layout/montage of developer's offices, ya know those things with walls that go to the ceiling, doors that close, opaque walls, and windows that reveal a view that's inspirational to creativity & productivity.
(Scroll to the bottom of the page for a slideshow of Fog Creek's setup with individual private offices for developers)
...but why is such a space, respectful of a balance between personal and communal, such anathema to those authorizing office design?
"I remember coming back from a presentation and being unable to find my creative department for two days."
We have stuff. We need stuff to work. It doesn't all fit in a briefcase. We need a home base where we can dump our stuff. If there isn't personal space, then we have to waste time hauling all our stuff around - which can get pretty ugly.
Using it as an excuse to save on 'seats', trying to get everyone to hotdesk (meaning staff feeling undervalued and resentful, storage problems, not knowing where people will be found, many other time issues, and probably heaps more money on laptops, support staff, etc.) - Bad idea!
Hotdesking by itself definately doesn't work - some employees will value the safety of their own desk. Just hotdesking leads to things like "That's my hotdesk", or people leaving their stuff about. The trick is to combine it with the notion of working where you want when you want. Sales people may be better off with hotdesking at (for instance) Regus facilities. Traffic jams and congestion are huge issues here: compensate employees with public transport passes instead or let them work 10-18. It's a culture change - not a perfect fit for all companies, will be met by resistance, but it is the future I think.
Its headlines like 'x fewer desks' which really annoy me though. This is putting the focus on changing your workplace as a way to save money, which is bad. Far more important is showing employees a good environment and keeping them happy. Building and land costs are actually fairly low compared to the damage that trying to penny-pinch (or just not thinking it through) can do...
(disclaimer: I design buildings for a living, though workspace design like this is not my field)
Work hard - Play hard (2011)
This looks to be quite a different approach. Lots of little corners that you can tuck yourself away in. I'm not sure I'd like to work in that environment though. A big desktop monitor is useful, and working with a laptop actually on your lap is really uncomfortable. I'd imagine that if I was in that environment I'd either stick to a proper desk all the time or find that I wasn't really getting much actual work done while I lounged on a sofa.
For some people, like programmers, they "run on quiet time". This is our effective work, we do meetings, sure, but it's an exception. To work we need a quiet environment (or good headphones - I absolutely don't regret buying my latest pair)
For managers, their work is that: meetings, talking to people, etc. So it makes sense that you have meeting rooms, it's what they need for their work.
I got turned on to the joy of earplugs when doing construction work. The foam ones that you scrunch up with your fingers and expand in your ear, and throw away after.
It's a very different feeling. I feel like I'm underwater when I'm wearing them.
I worked at a wonderful agency with an open-plan office last time. I used earplugs the whole time and loooved it. You get all of the benefits of an open-plan office, minus the distractions of music or chatter, and for me at least, less of the ear-sweat I associate with all headphones.
Also, anecdotal evidence -- people seem somewhat more hesitant to interrupt someone wearing earplugs than someone who's listening to music. I might be wrong there.
Especially when you're in "hostile space" (read: customer) they're great and no one will bother you.
In-ear headphones work almost as good if you mute the sound.
This is of course by no means universal. My desk at work is in a room full of very quiet types. I could sit there all morning and nobody would say a word.
It drives me mad. After 10 minutes I find myself browsing HN or reddit. The only way I can really get work done is to go to one of the other buildings with a coffee shop and sit down at a table where I can see the whole room.
I thrive on the buzz of activity. It makes me feel like I should be getting something accomplished. Quiet offices make me feel like I should take a nap.
As to other financial firms using F#, Don Syme (the F# lead) posts F# job listings on his blog, and many of them are at finance companies:
You have to know where to look, but there certainly exists many very interesting cutting edge technical positions in finance, both traditional banks and hedge funds.
I think the idea is nice but people should have the ability to have some territory if that choose to
We have one of these on the 18th floor in London too, it's so out of place with the rest of the building but it's super awesome, we sneak up there for lunches etc.
I don't think any devs would be able to use this as just getting permissions + your box in order would be a nightmare here, unless you were logging into a vm or your usual machine.
Most devs have pretty good setups here, here's mine http://i.imgur.com/QoK8F.jpg (I am aware of KVMs, I just think this looks cooler ^_^)
But if you look around any traditional office, you see personalization. People tend to merge with their environments. People tie themselves to their environment. They make their work part of their lives.
If you can't personalize, you're less tied and more prone to leave. In any case, I would probably leave, because I'm non-assertive and it would be stressful to me to compete with everyone every day for work space. I don't want to think about work space, I just want to work. If I have to, I'll work somewhere else.
I like spaces with a lived-in feeling, you should be able to change the places of chairs, tables etc. and not totally screw up the feng shui aesthetic chic of the environment. Also, I hate those cool chairs with flimsy legs, for some reason I tend to break those legs when I fidget on them.
If I ever have a chance to lead a company, I would give a fixed (small) amount of money (e.g. $500) for furniture (except chair, that costs too much) to each new hire, show them an empty space and let them design it. I think a good programmer/hacker would do a great job with this.
By the way, these people are traders. Developers generally don't work on that floor.
with regard to the Enron thing: The very few ones that - in the moment - are taking in new people in the "Greater" City area are the commodity guys - all the others, as it seems, are getting ready to "letting go" in multiples of that trading floor.
People often on the go don't really need a permanent desk, whereas more sedentary jobs benefit from having their space.
Especially in contrast to CS's NYC office, which is a very old fashioned investment banking/trading floor type office