I've enjoyed working in an open-plan office until recently, mostly because of our growth.<p>As I write this the person next to me is on the phone having a distracting conversation (about one of our projects), someone is engaged in a dramatic battle with the nearby printer, two guys across the aisle are making jokes about a difficult vendor, some guests arrived, and it also sounds like someone is playing frisbee with plates in the kitchen, without much success.<p>At the moment my headphones can't help and serve only a symbolic function. Instead of fighting the waves of distraction I decide to roll with it an refresh HN...
Can't see the article - site is down. So what I write here is based solely on the premise of the headline and existing comments on HN.<p>I work for a co-working space in London, which is like an open plan office taken to the extreme. Before that I worked in a variety of environments (I'm in my 30s), including public sector 'one-office-per-person' through to agency '3-people-per-desk' type situations, and working from home as a freelancer.<p>Criticisms about working space often come down to 'the garden on the other side of the fence would be easier to work in'. If you work from home, you miss having people to have coffee with at lunch. If you work in a crowded office, you miss having 2 hours of unbroken flow. So the best offices try to combine a bit of everything - quiet space, play space, etc.<p>Some people talk about the 'email-only' office like the Holy Grail of Offices. But it's not - it's cold, impersonal and unfriendly. It often results in unnecessary arguments resulting from people misinterpreting something. So a culture of "speak, don't write" is definitely a good thing, as long as there are some rules about when it's OK to talk to someone.<p>The problem is whether people respect the rules. We try to follow the headphone rule - if I'm wearing headphones, don't interrupt me unless the building is about to burn down. The corollary - if I'm not wearing headphones, feel free to walk up and talk to me.<p>So it's as much about culture as it is architecture, and that's something that often gets overlooked.
I work at a company which has open areas capable of holding from 4 to perhaps 20 people. The desks are on wheels. You choose where to work, where to put your desk, who to put your desk next to.<p>There are offices available, and if you want to you can put your desk in one. Few people do; the social environment is _really_ important.<p>Mobility and choice make a huge difference. People are smart and know the difference between environments that are supportive of cooperative work, and simple cheap-ass accountancy coupled with power games.
I'm surprised that few people mention age discrimination when this topic comes up. To a large degree, that's what open-plan offices are really about. It's not explicitly presented that way, but the purpose of the brogrammer culture <i>is</i> to exclude people-- especially women and older men.<p>By the time people are in their 40s and 50s, work-related health problems aren't things people joke about during an annoying project. They're things that actually happen. Your typical competent 45-year-old sees an open-plan office and says, "No thanks", knowing from experience that such environments are not only unproductive but dangerous (cardiac issues, anxiety disorders, digestive problems).<p>Also, it's not only the noise that makes open-plan offices hell. It's the social overload of being visible to other people. (Open-back visibility, which causes vertigo and neurological problems, is especially bad.) People are bad at multitasking-- men are especially bad at it, but suffer from a Dunning-Kruger effect-- and having to dedicate a constant slice of brain-space to the appearance of productivity, in addition to actual productivity, means that a person is forced into a state of ineffective, frustrating, and just plain <i>stupid</i> multitasking for over 8 hours.
Looks like my website can't handle being on the front page of HN. I'm talking with my provider to try and get it resolved.<p>It's showing up in Google, but there's no cache link.<p>Apologies to those trying to access the article.
The only place I've ever seen this done well is at National Instruments in Austin. Working groups get their area cordoned off with high cube walls. I didn't work there, so I have no idea how well it functioned. But it looked reasonable to me. It had to be better than the open-plan cube-farm that I worked at.<p>In my old co's cube-farm, they even had a paging system where service/tech-support calls to certain individuals were blasted over the whole building. So, every 5-15 minutes you'd get a (BEEP - "Rick/John/Dale/Pam/etc, line 2" click). The paging-lady was very proper too, so she always used people's first and last name.<p>The HR people & bean-counters loved it because they got to watch everyone (real-time worker productivity analytics!). They never really understood why nothing ever got done on time; or why some people liked to work late, or come in early.<p>It was an old manufacturing business run by bunch of boomers, who hadn't been outside in decades, and who thought they'd made it a big (100 employees!) company (but in my mind it was a parody of). Another funny note, they'd built this place in response to growth, and planned/expected more growth. However, the building (new, purpose built) only had additional floor space for a few more cubes, so when the growth happened, they had to wiggle, shove, & stuff people into every nook and cranny they could find. Well, that was therapeutic.
I wouldn't get shit done in an open office as someone with a degree of low latent inhibition. I can listen to music - but only lyric free while I'm working. I don't even have TV in my own house for that reason - background noise drives me insane because I cant filter any of it.<p>I'm not a programmer (professionally, anyways) but an analyst, which also requires huge blocks of uninterrupted time. Clients don't understand why I don't answer the phone all the time and refer them to email communication for non-major stuff.
The last place I worked at was an online advertising agency. My experience was similar, and managed to get things done only by coming early (often before anyone else) and wearing a good pair of headphones.<p>I particularly disliked the fact that some people lacking a technical background don't really understand that we often need a distraction free environment. Perhaps it's because their creative spark comes by brainstorming in a more lively environment or they have seen too many people coding at Starbucks.
I currently work in an environment with about 40 people -- managers, developers, "operations" people -- all in an "open plan" office with half-height partitions. The distractions are constant; my field of view is always busy, someone is always talking, I can hear every phone conversation in the area, and even the coffee machine is loud. The printer is in the middle of the area, so whenever someone prints, it becomes a squeaking, beeping distraction. If I check my bank account balance before going to lunch, everyone can see; even if I have head phones on <i>over earplugs</i>, people still interrupt me!<p>My productivity has fallen by at least half, probably more.
I've had a couple of experiences with this type of floor plan. It's absolutely awful, especially for programmers.<p>Whenever someone suggests a 'bullpen' or 'open' office, I cringe, because, well, I actually want to get things done.
The only good thing about an open office plan, in my opinion (as a programmer), is that my boss can see me working. That means he is forced to acknowledge, when I can't get anything done due to constant interruptions, that it's because I'm constantly being pestered to do unimportant busywork. When I'm home telecommuting, he must imagine that I'm somehow blowing off work despite the same meaningless interruptions following me around via Skype and phone calls.<p>Can you tell I am not having a happy experience being acquired and working at $BIGCORP?
peopleware <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Second-Edition/dp/0932633439" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Second-...</a> goes into this a lot. i know it's an ancient classic that everyone has heard of, but it's actually still worth reading, imho (i found it much more relevant/useful/interesting than mythical man month - not sure why, it just clicked somehow).
The article mentions open plan with no partitions. In my book, there is a HUGE difference between completely open like that, and open plan with low partitions. A low partition blocks a huge amount of sound, while still preventing people from being isolated. Completely open with no partition, once you get above 4 people is almost unworkable.
I toured the Facebook offices in Menlo Park. It's all open plan, even Mark's desk. It's a big deal over there as they are converting the whole building to be open plan. If you want some privacy/uninterruption you can go to a few places around for it.