Don't sweat it - you are, of course, totally right. This is something that's been on the back of my mind as a clever joke for a few years. The music is definitely not something I'm going to install long-term.

I've turned the volume up really loud for my demonstration in the video. And in reality I haven't got a song for every staff member. It also only plays once per day before 9am. It's smart enough to last at least a couple of weeks before we all decide it was a clever hack but is annoying as f*ck!

Thanks for the nice comments otherwise, though. :)

Well to each his own right? I personally would hate to work in a place where there's little socializing and quiet all day. I love the open office.

I always get a little annoyed when people make the assumption all programmers want peace and quiet. My day concists of a lot of banter and wouldn't want it any other way. I worked at a major financial services firm for a while too where there there were private offices and lots of silence and I felt isolated and miserable.

How about we all just look for jobs where the work ethic fits our personalities instead of judging if someone else's doesn't fit yours.

The problem is that if just two or three people like the lively, chatty open office, it ruins it for everyone else whose productivity suffers by an order of magnitude in a noisy environment.

It's basically impossible these days to find an office where someone who needs quiet to concentrate can get work done effectively.

Whereas in an office where quiet is the norm, you can always go to the kitchen if you really want to chat.

well you can always buy noise cancellation headphones, though i personally hate open office space too, i would rather work for less money in normal office than for more in open office

There are several problems with this, namely: they don't work as well for loud conversation (they're more for things like the drone of an airplane engine). They're also not necessarily comfortable to wear for long periods of time. But most importantly, why is it so hard for people to just, respectfully, shut the hell up? I work (and worked) with people who practically yell during Google Hangouts and don't go to conference rooms, or who joke around all day. I've worked in theee separate open environments and a handful of people have always had volume issues which ruin it for everyone else. Luckily I can work remote now, but why is it so hard to be considerate of others?

I agree. Unfortunately, loud people want to be loud, and you have a problem if you want quiet.

Also I hate loud music in every cafe/store.

Why are people so scared of a bit of quiet reflection/concentration?

there will be always inconsiderate people, even if it's only one out of 20 it's more than enough in big open space and you can't really do anything about it, it's just human nature and it's foolish to expect there won't be person like that in big team

it was same in every open space i worked in those many years, luckily in my last job we had internal messenger and personal communication (at least with our team) was discouraged so i had no problem with headphones to live in my own environment

My last job at a startup was good craic. I am generally one of the more chatty + whimsical people in an office. But, though goofing around with my colleagues was alright its not my ideal way of spending my time.

I just thought that work was sucking away my life! I will try and explain it using numbers in a very ad-hoc manner...

Lets say the desirability of spending time working really hard and focusing on interesting (but not your own work) is 50%. Working less efficiently on interesting (but not your own work) in an atmosphere of bonhomie and craic with your colleagues is 60%. Doing exactly what you want(hobbies, working on your own ideas ,time with friends etc) is 100% Also just for reference the desirability of spending time cleaning the house and paying bills and crap is 0%.

In my last job I was spending 8 hours per day (out of 16 waking hours) at work at 60%, another few hours at 0% (lets say 4) and only a few at 100% (lets say the remaining 4) That leads to an average of about 55% for the day.

Contrast this to working intensely and without distraction for 4 hours, the same 4 hours of chores, and then the remaining 8 hours of doing whatever you want. This leads to a daily average of 62.5%

This is all made up and incredibly rough but the 2nd scenario will yield a higher average unless you greatly desire work with craic over intense focused work, or you desire work with craic almost as much as doing whatever you want.

I used to work at a bank service center (with cubicals) and it was night and day compared to the startup I'm at now. I don't miss the work, but I definitely miss he silence. There were the occasional loud conversations, but otherwise there was just the lowest din of office noise (phones ringing here and there, keyboards clicking, etc.) I think part of it is cultural: these were mostly women in their 30s to 50s processing IRAs and direct deposits, and not people right out of university doing trendy software development.

Anyway, I agree with you. I think it's partially because Google did it, and partially because if you make an office "fun" and "cool", people spend more time there for the same amount of money. (Note: your startup CAN have exposed conduit in a downtown office building AND be quiet.)