Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by michaelbuckbee on Sunday February 16, 2020 @03:30PM
(#22343576)
What about remote? It's kind of an offshoot of that (quiet place for productivity).
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by notyourday on Monday February 17, 2020 @11:21AM
(#22348726)
If a company does not have a culture of addressing developers quality of worklife issues (developer: the noises are killing my productivity. manager: well, we aren't changing our office setup to accommodate people who want it to be quiet ) then it is extremely unlikely that the company would allow remote.
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by loco5niner on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @06:00PM
(#22361339)
Yep, this is exactly my situation. However, I'm seeing signs that part-time remote is going to happen in the next couple of years.
Surely there are other options your manager and you can look at that fall between having an open floorplan and not having one. Get them to buy you noise cancelling headphones or something.
Noise canceling headphones don't do a good job of canceling the kinds of noise you hear in an office environment, though (conversations, ringtones, people across the room suddenly erupting in loud laughter).
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by joyeuse6701 on Monday February 17, 2020 @10:06AM
(#22348146)
I work in an open floor plan where managers frequently shout and have long conversations next to me with each other.
I use a mix of brain.fm (or similar white noise) and apple AirPods pro. As a combination, they work surprisingly well at blocking out enough noise to let me remain focused on whatever problem.
They are indispensable to me now.
Just be conscious of the effect long-term exposure to constant loud noise can have on your hearing, even if you're able to concentrate. Drowning out loud sound with louder sound is not particularly good for your ears.
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by klondike_klive on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @06:03PM
(#22361361)
mynoise.net does a pretty good "busy cafe/restaurant" noise generator with burbling unintelligible voices that drown out conversations. I used it extensively when directing an animation series where the production staff insisted on having Heart FM playing loudly the whole day.
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by loco5niner on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @06:02PM
(#22361349)
Agreed. I'm dealing with hearing issues from exactly this type of situation.
Visual noise is as bad as audible noise. What's next, horse blinders?
Well there was the idea of the third picture here: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2012/3m-privacy-for-your...
It's from an ad for a privacy screen filter, but unlike that, it works the other way around too, blocking out the world.
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by ThrowawayR2 on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @11:19PM
(#22363010)
That's actually been done already: https://www.dezeen.com/2018/10/17/panasonics-wearable-blinke...
I have fantasized about draping a thick black curtain around my workstation to try to focus. Do you think that would fly?
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by WrtCdEvrydy on Sunday February 16, 2020 @10:35PM
(#22345386)
We had a guy who used his lifted desk to build a little box for himself (out of carboard)
Improv cubicle... yeah. These are sad times when cubicles are a hallmark of the good old times.
How did the management feel about this?
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by WrtCdEvrydy on Monday February 17, 2020 @03:31PM
(#22350448)
Let's say 'not well'
Re:1-on-1 meeting questions
by loco5niner on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @06:01PM
(#22361347)
Noise cancelling headphones don't work for this type of work and gave me tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
For example, there aren't plenty of companies with quiet offices searching for developers. When I tell my manager "The noise in this new open floorplan office is killing my productivity", they say "OK, well, that's not going to change", and then we spend the rest of the hour rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. (Or they remind me of how they're spending money on me, in other ways I don't care about at all.) If I said "Hey fix your shit" they'd say "Every other software company in town has open floorplans too now -- good luck with that".