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Re:Is the open office layout dead? by daxfohl on Sunday August 20, 2017 @11:04PM (#15061632)
Some buildings in Microsoft still do. In my building, most people SDE2 level and up has their own, and below that most seem two-to-an-office (there are counterexamples on both sides though, as well as a number of empty offices). Oddly they're refurbing existing buildings to remove the private offices though. It doesn't seem like a space problem, nor a money problem. Apparently there's just a desire to get rid of them for who knows what reason, spending a lot of money and morale (employees have to relocate to temp offices in downtown Bellevue for a year while they refurb a building on campus) to do so.
Re:Is the open office layout dead? by pacaro on Sunday August 20, 2017 @11:33PM (#15061732)
When I was moved from single offices to open plan (Microsoft 2012) we were told that we had asked for it(!)

But the architecture firm who designed the space did give a really good walk through of how they designed the space. All their stupid decisions had justifications. One tidbit that fell out of that was that they couldn't put more people on a floor with open plan because the width of emergency stairwells dictates the floor occupancy rating.

So we lost offices, whiteboards, bookshelves, couches, and privacy. There didn't seem to be much gain