We do a company-wide survey every quarter. I took a look at the raw responses for Q2 of this year. I found a single request for more meeting spaces, but no one requested a private office or the like.
If you asked any developer who has actually had an office at a previous job, and I'm 100% sure they'd be in favor.
Young devs that have never dreamed such a dream might think they don't care. But they'd be hugely more productive in an office.
It is the same thing as having a big monitor for your laptop. Once you have it, you'll just feel so unproductive without it. With an office you can just get in the zone and stay there as long as you like.
With pair programming or discussions, you just pick one of your offices and shut the door. I found myself collaborating more in offices, because there is less worry about disturbing others. (Or the cognitive overhead of getting a conference room.)
By being in the open plan yourself, you're sending a strong message that there is no way offices will be tolerated, so there isn't any point in asking.
After having a private office, I've discovered that I now view it as non-negotiable.
I'll consider different salary levels, benefits, but I simply would not consider working somewhere that I'm not provided a private office, to the point that it's become my third or fourth question on phone screens.
We just had a company wide survey. They said it was anonymous, but there's no way to be 100% sure of that as an employee. My company is paying another company to do this. And something tells me if they really wanted to find out who gave a specific response, they could. Point is, I'm still going to be reserved in my answers.
And ultimately, the fact remains that almost every bit of research contradicts you. I know you desperately want to think your company is different. But maybe this is a good opportunity to give yourself an honest assessment of the situation.
Sorry, Zack. When I read your post, I took you to be the CEO, like Joel, speaking on behalf of your 600 employees. I see now that you're a tech lead. So this last sentence should have been directed to management.
You have a valid point that collaboration is important, but open plan offices are not the best way to get that. Dev work is divided into talking and coding. Private offices are by far the best way to do the former without interrupting the latter. Shutting the door is a signal: don't bother me unless it is very important. The less heads down work you have, the more you keep your door open.