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A comment on Employers are rethinking open-plan office design. Parent comment

Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by SketchySeaBeast on Friday May 22, 2020 @04:39PM (#23276683)
The focus in an open floorplan feels fragile, sitting in one I have a constant low level anxiety. I hate feeling constantly watched, as someone can see everything I do. Any time I sneeze I'm bothering a couple of dozen people. My monitors are open for display. If I eat at my desk everyone needs to suffer through that. My only sense of any sort of privacy are my headphones, which people are constantly talking over, or I'm taking off because someone is talking to me. There's no office door to close and never any promise of any sort of flow.
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by rodiger on Friday May 22, 2020 @04:42PM (#23276728)
I'm sure it varies based on place of employment and personal preference. I understand many people have some level of social anxiety that may be exacerbated by the open floor plan. I just personally enjoy it and hope to not see its demise. Glad we get to pick our employer!
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by ken on Friday May 22, 2020 @05:01PM (#23276968)
Unfortunately, that doesn't help, since 100% of software employers with offices use open floor plan offices, or some variant of the same.

I always ask people in the industry what company has private offices for programmers. The only answers I've ever heard are "Fog Creek" and "maybe Microsoft?", but my friends at Microsoft say that's not so common any more.

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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by sokoloff on Friday May 22, 2020 @07:26PM (#23278266)
Citation badly needed. We use cubicles rather than open floor plans in most of our office locations. Every commercial real estate discussion I've had has treated open floor plan, cubes, and offices as three distinct points on a spectrum.
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by turbulentic on Saturday May 23, 2020 @05:31AM (#23281508)
It's ironic to try and fit as many software developers in a floorspace as you can, when their productivity more than linearly drops like that. You could do with a few, actually focusing people.
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by pertymcpert on Friday May 22, 2020 @06:13PM (#23277667)
Apple still has 2 person or completely private offices.
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by fzzzy on Friday May 22, 2020 @07:47PM (#23278416)
Not in the spaceship.
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by SketchySeaBeast on Friday May 22, 2020 @05:20PM (#23277197)
It's not so much a social anxiety, as an awareness of others. You can't just be yourself without being rude. Even just basic body functions, like farting, is something you need to consider and manage before doing it. I'm not saying I want to constantly fart, but there's no privacy.
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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by loco5niner on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @07:53PM (#23317852)
> social anxiety

Yikes, that's kind of an insulting assumption. I just get bothered by sounds, and don't want to bother others with sound (and smells).

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Re:Employers are rethinking open-plan office design by rodiger on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @05:36PM (#23330350)
I didn't suggest it was the only reason people may prefer offices- just one potential reason. I'm making no claim about OP or any other specific person on this thread.
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