It's interesting how bad trends persist even though most people say they are a problem. Open office is one, excessive meetings is one, E-mail overload, Slack and so on.<p>My theory is that the people in power (management) quickly get to the level where everything they do in their jobs requires talking to multiple people and coordinating and they apply that need to everybody's work so they think all work is about "Collaboration" and "Connecting".<p>At least for engineering I think there is not that much need for constant collaboration but there is a big need for focused work which is hard to do in an open office.<p>In addition open offices even fail for collaboration. I work in a cube farm with some open office space and I rarely see people actually collaborate there. Instead people have headsets and are desperately trying to focus. I used to work in team rooms before and there we talked to each other a lot in comparison.
I really like the team-room idea mentioned near the end. The noise from my immediate peers doesn't bother me. It really is useful to overhear others' conversations sometimes, or pull someone in on a moment's notice, and when there's a high level of social connection people can agree on when to be quiet. What really drives me nuts is constantly hearing the conversations of people two aisles over, talking about something that couldn't possibly be of interest to me. And the people walking through, because not everyone gets to be around the edges. (In one workspace I sometimes occupy, the edge is all taken up by conference rooms so <i>everyone</i> is in the middle with people walking past.) There's a reason that every desk in an open-office layout seems to have at least one pair of headphones on it. That's a poor solution where an obviously better one exists.
I have always been blessed (and cursed) with the ability to block out everything around me. It bothers people, actually, because they will come talk to me and I won’t realize they are standing at my desk talking.<p>I still don’t like open offices. I hate the lack of privacy.
Why are "open offices are bad" stories so popular on HN?<p>I've only ever worked in open plan offices, and can't say I've ever had a problem concentrating. I'm not sure what alternatives are popular, but if an employer forced me to work in a cubicle I'd immediately quit without hesitation. Having visited cubicle offices, they strike me as inhumane detention centres.
Can anyone chime in regarding the economics and cost savings of open floor plans vs. private per-team offices (or the like)?<p>As an employee working in an open space, their costs on subjective well being, quality of work & etc. are so obvious to me that I sometimes get upset that employers and I do not agree on the issue.
I had an office (in <i>the</i> company which pioneered individual offices for their dedicated building for creatives many decades ago), and I have worked in open office settings. There are times when you want to think on your own, but I don't think it is impossible to achieve if you have a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. In return, you get to interact with peers more openly. Not to mention the cost savings for the company. This is absolutely a win-win. Although, the devil is in the details, and they are neither easy nor cheap: Open office settings have to be implemented with the flexibility to occasionally work from home; ample amount of meeting rooms for impromptu huddles; well designed ergonomics; absolutely relaxing decor and setup.
These and some other trends are originated in Agile methodologies, are they not? Software engineering is being taken over by pseudo scientific ideology is what it is. Funny thing is, no proof/studies are needed to make sweeping changes like these.
It's interesting to me how quickly this trend has evolved. 5-6 years ago, every recruiting email and startup job posting I saw advertised open floor plans as if they were a top benefit. Now, lots of enterprises have copied the trend (expectedly since it's cheaper) and I'm getting recruiting messages from startups on LinkedIn bragging about how their office has "lots of quiet space" or "private offices."
Are there even "closed office" designs? I've never worked in one. I think I might have been in a couple maybe once or twice over the course of last 5 to 6 yrs while visiting someone. Everybody in my office, right up to senior VPs sit in open plan. I didn't even know the guy sitting next to me was one when I joined before someone pointed it out.<p>I really can't compare.