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Why open plan offices suck

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    Why open plan offices suck

    Open plan offices suck. Why people are finally waking up to it - Telegraph

    Worth a read.

    In summary :

    Background noise - it can be stressfully hard to string a sentence together or review a column of figures in monastic silence, let alone amid a cacophony of conversations.

    Lack of visual privacy - it is a biological fact that whenever you’re in a ‘crowd’ or public setting, the body’s fight-or-flight mechanism is on permanent standby.

    Reduced ability to control personal space - Nomadic hotdesking.

    For female workers, the worst offenders – in terms of sick days – were the three sizes of open plan offices.

    For men, flexi-offices – with no individual workstations, though some shared meeting rooms – were most likely to result in days taken off.

    ***

    I'm currently working in a large open plan office. My malingering to one side, I do find the throng of telephone calls, impromptu meetings held at yodelling volume and people just popping by a big distraction.

    I'm not so bad if I'm just doing bugfixes, but if I'm having to design a moderately complex object model I find my thought processes about as fragile as a soap bubble. Perhaps I'm just old and cranky.

    I make good use of earphones, but even then the background noise can reach such a hiatus that even they don't drown stuff out.

    Anyone else find office configurations counter productive? What tips do you have for me so I can get back to my autistic monastic ways?
    Knock first as I might be balancing my chakras.

    #2
    I hate them. All I can suggest is try and WFH, or get in well early before everyone else.
    While you're waiting, read the free novel we sent you. It's a Spanish story about a guy named 'Manual.'

    Comment


      #3
      I plug into this when I need to concentrate.

      12 Hours of White Noise (Static) in Stereo. Favorite it for the future. Studying Sleep Tinnitus - YouTube
      What happens in General, stays in General.
      You know what they say about assumptions!

      Comment


        #4
        I reckon what used to take me 5-days to produce in a client's open plan office takes me between 2-3 days in my own office now.
        "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by scooterscot View Post
          I reckon what used to take me 5-days to produce in a client's open plan office takes me between 2-3 days in my own office now.
          What I can produce in 1 minute sitting on the toilet.

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            #6
            Originally posted by doodab View Post
            I hate them. All I can suggest is try and WFH, or get in well early before everyone else.
            Shhhh

            You can't get more people getting in early.
            "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

            Comment


              #7
              They suck because there is no where to hide from stupid people, or Dev's are the are more commonly known!
              Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy
              I can't see any way to do it can you please advise?

              I want my account deleted and all of my information removed, I want to invoke my right to be forgotten.

              Comment


                #8
                Always worked in open plan offices, so I guess I'm used to it.

                Sucks when you have to sit near a loud talker.

                I prefer being out in the open though as you can be more involved than if you were locked away, plus you can just stick your headphones in if you need to concentrate.

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                  #9
                  if you work in a well designed one it is fine.

                  ours has 14 floors and a huge central atrium and little to no barriers between the work areas and the central atrium - which you would think would lead to huge amounts of noise

                  but thanks to modern materials and noise deadening 'white noise' generators rarley does the sounds get above a murmur - and the building houses about 10000

                  magic!

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                    #10
                    I'd hate to work in anything else.

                    Comment

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