Re:Open offices are bad for us
by rotten on Wednesday January 11, 2017 @12:53PM
(#13375846)
At one place I worked we went in on a weekend and rearranged all of the cubicles in our work area to better suit our work style and needs. (moved openings, created a central collaboration area, etc) Our boss was ok with it because he said he was responsible for the budget for that floor (including real estate) and if we felt it would make us more productive he was all for it. Unfortunately the corporate bureaucrats got wind of it several months later and came in from HQ (which was 1,000 miles away) and ordered us to put them back in the official standard configuration. They didn't care that our team worked better and was more productive the way we had it. They had official standard configurations and our cubes had to stay that way.
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Could it be that one of the team members made a complaint privately (or anonymously)? Otherwise it would be a stupid move (and would be easy to fight by taking the case to the next level of bureaucrats -- "bureaucrats have greater bureaucrats to go to .. " :) )
Re:Open offices are bad for us
by NickNameNick on Wednesday January 11, 2017 @08:57PM
(#13379275)
Teammates of mine have very occasionally been able to fend off a stupid edict by a mid-level manager with a simple (and literal) "Fuck off, we're busy" and/or "we have real work to do". They're usually to embarrassed to respond or escalate. It's hardly a recommended procedure, or appropriate for every situation or combination of people.
The more polite - "We're 100% contracted out right now" is somewhat less effective - they come back a month or so later.
Re:Open offices are bad for us
by relaytheurgency on Wednesday January 11, 2017 @01:04PM
(#13375960)
Was there some complaint from another team or something? That is just so illogical.
I have no idea if someone complained or not. There were regular visits by senior management and remote team members. Some of whom were jealous that we had cubes at all.
Re:Open offices are bad for us
by brokenmachine on Wednesday January 11, 2017 @09:45PM
(#13379466)
...or they said that they were jealous to toe the party line.