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Comment by kqr | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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