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Open floor plans in office space: more loss than gain

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Management will not listen while everyone suffers (Score: 4, Insightful)

by hyper@pipedot.org on 2014-12-04 13:30 (#2VJY)

I have worked in a few open offices and visited many. They can range from very bad to sort of okay. If designed correctly with teams organised to compliment each other it can be quite good. This never happens, or is ripped apart within a few years.

Paranoia is rife. You hear everyone talking. Everyone can see everyone else's monitors which tends to end up that you watch someone across the floor surf the net all day. All it takes is for one exhibitionist, loud mouth, megaphone personality or uncontrolled cackler and your work becomes. punctuated. by. sound. which. is. really. annoying. Nothing can be said which hasn't been said before. It sucks.

If you have never experienced an open plan office then be thankful and do what you can to avoid them.

Re: Management will not listen while everyone suffers (Score: 3, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-12-04 14:28 (#2VJZ)

All it takes is for one exhibitionist, loud mouth, megaphone personality
In a previous company, they had this brilliant idea of putting marketing guys right next to the developers and they never shut up all day, either on phone or "quick team meetings" etc. I had to go to the sub-zero server room to get anything done.

Open plan sucks bad. It's now one of my main criteria when assesing a job offer.

Re: Management will not listen while everyone suffers (Score: 2, Informative)

by tanuki64@pipedot.org on 2014-12-04 15:15 (#2VK1)

I can top that. In one company one of the 'nicer' colleagues really thought it ok to smoke in an open office. The boss did not care, he was a very heavy smoker himself. It was the only time when I left a project before its time.

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Time Reason Points Voter
2014-12-04 17:28 Informative +1 dajhorn@pipedot.org

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