News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on High-performance employees need quieter work spaces. Parent comment

Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by mason240 on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @01:02PM (#13932647)
Our company is currently relocating to new office, and they want an open office plan in the space. We will pack in tight, and our cube walls will all be 3.5 feet high. We have adjustable standing desks that will coming with us, so when standing we will towering over every one and I already know it's going to be awkward for me.

The best part is our 5 person IT team will be right next to 25 people who work phones for customer service.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by JustSomeNobody on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @01:15PM (#13932782)
> ...so when standing we will towering over every one...

Because everyone likes to be the CoA.

> The best part is our 5 person IT team will be right next to 25 people who work phones for customer service.

Time to polish that resume.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by iamdave on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @01:37PM (#13932985)
The best part is our 5 person IT team will be right next to 25 people who work phones for customer service.

Lemme guess, your company is the type of company that thinks the entirety of IT equals help desk, and therefore will be on the phone all day fielding tickets, so to whoever made this god awful decision, sticking IT right next to CS "just makes sense".

I'm with the other guy here, run.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by buxtehude on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @04:46PM (#13934764)
Hope you have a very big monitor and a good noise canceling headset. Otherwise get ready for a coding/interrupt cycle that will drain all your productivity (unless you start staying late to make up for it). Good luck.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by rdiddly on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @02:56PM (#13933667)
I agree this sounds awful, but if the IT people were properly empowered to solve the problems they overheard being dealt with in customer service (and it wasn't forced on them), you might actually manage to get a nice feedback loop going.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by foepys on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @04:18PM (#13934461)
But for every useful information you might overhear, you will listen to 1,000 calls about how Internet Explorer allegedly ate their emails, made their dog sick, and burned their house down.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by ratsz on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @01:56PM (#13933146)
Be lucky you have cube walls. Many open plans don't even have those!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by Arizhel on Thursday March 23, 2017 @02:55PM (#13942941)
It makes little difference at 3.5 feet. I've worked in two offices like that; you might as well not have any walls at all because you can still see and talk to everyone around you. I don't see the point in even having such walls, except probably to use as structural support for the desktop surfaces. The only advantage they have is that they don't need legs like a standard fold-up table: those legs take up space under the table and you can bump your legs into them.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by gozur88 on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @04:07PM (#13934359)
3.5 feet is barely higher than a desk (a normal one). That's like leaving your waiter a penny tip.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by chrisbennet on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @05:51PM (#13935341)
Yeah, but at least people can't see your junk on "wear a kilt to work" day...

I get that for a startup money is tight. Instead of telling employees:

"You folks really deserve a your own offices but we just can't afford it."

Instead they tell you the big lie; that they are doing it because it "increases collaboration".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by Arizhel on Thursday March 23, 2017 @02:56PM (#13942956)
If money is really that tight, you can just have people work from home. That's a lot cheaper than renting commercial office space.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by Namrog84 on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @08:03PM (#13936312)
Stack 2 walls on top of each other! And laid that with 2 walls you'll be double effective. Then convince everyone needs it. And extend that idea from there!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by mason240 on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @04:11PM (#13934395)
That's exactly what they are going for - desk height.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:High-performance employees need quieter work spaces by AdamN on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @02:20PM (#13933346)
Get out!
[ Parent | on HN ]