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Comment by vtlynch | Hacker News Reader

Interesting question: How many companies who use open offices style floorplans have executives who still have their own offices?

Maybe this is just another permutation of the out of touch boss problem. Nothing makes it harder to understand the downfalls of an open office than not working in one yourself.

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There is another problem here. Most executives are extroverts, so for them being in the environment like that feels right and good. Does not really help with understanding in my experience.

Also might matter that open floor plans make interacting with people convenient, and it's a large part of their job to interact with people. I really only need interaction with people for well under 10% of a normal work day.

What makes perfect sense for their kind of works does not make as much sense for my kind of work.

For me it makes interacting with people even more inconvenient. Now instead of having a conversation with one person, I'm effectively having one with a dozen or more. So everyone's booking entire conference rooms just to talk 1:1—even if the topic is fairly benign or banal, nobody likes eavesdroppers.

Just love it when people comment on phone calls you just had.

I found myself having conversations with family members where I never mentioned words that would give away what I was talking about.

What drive me even crazier is co workers that took an almost insane interest in what I was eating for lunch.

Yeah, it's a fucking big mac... have you never seen one before?

Why would you even pick up your phone without leaving the room or trying to find some quiet space? I'm trying to keep my private conversetations outside of my work environment, not because I don't want people to hear things, but because it can annoy/distract people around me.

I couldn't always predict when a call would come in over something and the only "quiet" space available is out in my car. It wasn't always a good option but I would go out there if I had to call someplace about a bill.

I was mostly surrounded by customer phone support people so I doubt I was distracting them.

I can't take a personal call (at all) in my open office workspace. Thankfully the stairwell is like 10 feet away.

I also have nervous kidneys. Hmm.

Yeah but they choose when to be extroverted. They still want a status signifying office for when they don't want to be bothered. Meanwhile, open plan employees are always being bothered.

My last employer was like that. The guy had an office half the size of the open office and he barely used it because he was out doing business and CEO things. It always upset me.

In many cases where the executives don't have their own office, there's a conference room that serves as their de facto office.

A private office is also an important symbol of status and power for many. And this has little or nothing to do with what the office layout for others (as long as the pecking order is not affected).

Yep, seconding this.

We just moved into a new space with a six-person desk (rather nice) in a big bullpen, with two executive offices off the side. One exec gets the corner office, but his door is always open and he's always poking his head out to talk to us. He (like us) has mostly glass walls, and feels like he's in a fishbowl. He used to share his office with an intern, though, and I can hang out in there when I want.

The other two execs (CEO, CFO) hole up in the other office, and close the door, and don't really talk, and basically are just aloof. They also covered up all their glass with random posters and things, presumably because they didn't want people looking at them through the glass. Hey, suits! Developers don't like being in an aquarium either! >:-|

sigh.

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