Re:Why do programmers need private offices with doors? (Do N...
by JAlexoid on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @02:29PM
(#38700312)
Well... I have a counter example of a failure in FOSS, because of remoteness of the responsible department:
At IBM working in a satellite office, I wanted to contribute to Jenkins. The fact that any person with the authority to allow me to do that was "behind an office door". Multiple emails back and forth - I ended up ditching the idea of getting the approval and quit IBM.
Closed doors should be for focus time, which should not be "all the time". Having small team offices and quiet rooms - can contribute to people's ability to focus. But personal offices is just another door that stops people from collaborating will inevitably stop a lot of valuable collaboration.
Re:Why do programmers need private offices with doors? (Do N...
by CamelRocketFish on Friday December 22, 2023 @09:38PM
(#38741146)
If you want to collaborate, that’s what setting up a meeting with an agenda is for.
That said, I can attribute one positive effect in my career to having worked in an open office. Early in my career, I happened to overhear someone on the phone dealing with an Open Source licensing issue (and I genuinely do find Open Source licensing interesting), went over to chat with them afterwards, ended up finding out about the company's Open Source review process, one thing led to another, and not long afterwards I co-ran that process company-wide (for a 100k+ person company), which I really enjoyed and which provided a great deal of visibility into all the work happening in the company.
I don't think "happened to overhear one side of someone's phonecall and strike up a good conversation about it" is a "benefit" I'd say is worth the pain of an open office, but I still want to acknowledge it.