I agree, and often times is several engineering teams that have their own budgets for labor, verses an entirely different department (facilities) using a different pool of money. Each department has incentives to cut costs independently and often at the expense of other departments.

I would happily buy my own sodas (I don't drink them anyway), chips/snacks (I don't eat them at work), coffee (I do drink coffee!) if it meant I never had to sit in an open office environment again.

> Ah, but accountants don't measure productivity, only cost.

Accountants don't get to decide the office layout in my experience.

You'd be surprised how often accountants run a company unofficially, and all the ways that it happens.