News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissatisfaction. Parent comment

Re:Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissat... by twistedpair on Wednesday September 18, 2013 @11:09PM (#6409552)
Amen. Worked in an open floor plan (30ft long rows with 8 people at each) and now work in an office of cubes (6'x7'), so actual desk space is the same. I found the developer collaboration and communication far better in the open plan than the closed plan. People were always communicating the the former and almost never pop their heads up for air in the later.

Today a coworker was IM'ing me and I then I realized that he was sitting literally 18" from me behind a partition so I just starting talking out loud to him. Seemed to unsettle him. Collaborate damn it!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissat... by eropple on Thursday September 19, 2013 @04:23AM (#6410493)
> Collaborate damn it!

Do they want to hear you talking to him? I sure wouldn't want people talking while I'm trying to concentrate.

"Collaboration" doesn't have to mean annoying your coworkers. If you need to do things aloud, that's fine--I sometimes find it better too--but it's vastly better go somewhere private for it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissat... by mikevm on Thursday September 19, 2013 @08:49AM (#6411259)
People collaborate on open source projects all the time without uttering a damn word.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Open plan offices attract highest levels of worker dissat... by robryan on Thursday September 19, 2013 @04:38AM (#6410541)
Yeah, I feel weird about emailing/ iming people in the same room as me when something could be solved with a 30 second or so conversation.
[ Parent | on HN ]