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Re:Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open O... by southphillyman on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @12:31PM (#15500523)
I can probably count on my hands the amount of times I browsed HN/non work related sites when I worked in an open office environment. Much like Agile, it's an effective tool to micro manage white collar workers.
Re:Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open O... by emidln on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @12:46PM (#15500655)
I quit a job where a manager kept bringing up my web browsing during "office hours". During a conversation, my manager was more concerned about appearance of working than my steadfast project delivery and meeting attendance. Places like that can find other warm bodies and I can find places to pay me.
Re:Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open O... by southphillyman on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @02:21PM (#15501561)
Interesting. The manager at my open office position brought up how I didn't get up and talk to other team members enough. So I made an effort to have casual conversation with others during the day.....and got criticized for talking too much in my next one on one. That was likely just bad mentoring but it opened my eyes as to how someone across a large room, ironically in an office, was presumably able to monitor my activity from afar all day long.
Re:Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open O... by firepoet on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @01:13PM (#15500900)
Yikes! As an Agile Coach, I'm sad to hear this. Though I can imagine where the perception comes from. Weaponized Agile is a real problem, one that I combat actively, but it's quite hard to convince leaders that self-management is the goal, not micro-management!
Re:Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open O... by trhway on Wednesday October 18, 2017 @01:59PM (#15501336)
Expense on company dime monitor privacy screens. Helps with another open office issue too - sunlight hitting the monitor.