Posted on 08/17/2017 9:38:02 PM PDT by nickcarraway
So, you can’t even pick your nose without everyone watching you. No thank you!
Someone needs to invent the “Desk Burka”.
My office (one of the largest Silicon valley company) is open floor workplace. HORRIBLE. very noisy, my Boss sits opposite to my terminal. His boss sits next to him.
Coughing , chewing, phone calls, meetings, all you hear whole day.
No phones on desk anymore. Phones are only inside conference rooms and conference rooms are 3 sided glass.
Snacks are fruits only. Flex time, Black tie buses are free of cost.
Cool, you can fly mini spy drones!
The C-level guys are very easily swayed by the “collaborative openness” BS the the office design firms spew not just because it sounds high concept but really because it’s cheaper. However, employees uniformly hate it, there is zero privacy even with so-called white noise generators, there are all manner of distractions and you have no control over your workspace in your absence. We’re not even talking cube farm here, it’s basically open tables with a low divider, you’re looking at people on three sides at eye level. Get used to your phone conversations being run up the flagpole all across the office before you’re able to prepare your immediate superior if even remotely controversial. I’ve experienced such an office space once, absolutely despised it.
LOL! The 21st Century "cone of silence".
Can you listen to white noise to block it out? I”ve been able to do that at various workplaces. I can still (usually) hear if I am directly addressed but it helps tune out all the chewing, coughing etc. One place I shared an office, the only way I could get my colleague to stop incessantly interupting me was to wear prominent headphones when earbuds would have been fine. I often didn’t listen to white noise there, I just needed more quiet than she did.
I have some electronic devices that help with white noise (and of course cell phone apps) and I sometimes listen to ambient-mixer.com sound tracks. The other thing I hate is so much non essential movement in my line of sight. People struggling with the printer, stapling, shuffling etc.... THAT I haven’t figured out how to avoid. I’m more productive in the stillness of a traditional office.
At work I use an ipod cranking very loud music so I can’t hear Laquisha yacking on the phone all day talking about which ex-boyfriend to call to get her kid out of jail (again).
If they got rid of cubicles then I would also have to deal with another employee who showers once a month and keeps three months of paper files all over his work area.
(Retiring next year so the ipod will retire as well...)
Bosses take stupidity and turn it into an art form.
An open floor plan is management’s way of telling you that you’re a drone.
Some Apple Employees May Quit Over New ‘Open’ Office Plan
One thing I have learned from my time on the internet is that if there is the word “May” in the title, it is a bull**** article, space filler and often made up.
Open spaces at a large table?
____________
Like kindergarten? Wow.
The only benefit is to the company who can monitor you every second you are at work.
______________
The man is a winner!
Give him a cigar!
It is terribly distracting, especially when it comes to having technical discussions on a conference call. When the people adjacent to you are having their own discussions and are totally devoid of the fact you are trying to listen to what is being said on the call. I also get complaints from those on the call about the background noise around me.
My kids had a big bottle of bubble bath that was a colorful statue of Mickey Mouse. Guess what wound up on my desk!
Sure enough, he made a bee-line for my desk and asked (loudly) "What the h*ll is this?!?"
To which I replied, (equally loudly) One personal item, of course!!"
The next day, Mickey, Minnie , Donald, and all sorts of other irreverent objects appeared -- all over the office!
~~~~~~~~~
The "Open Office" lasted less than a month...
We have an open office. I have six feet of desk. Our company pipes in white noise which acts to mask the conversations of other people.
For me the problem with white noise is I go home with my tinitus screaming.
It is interesting that whenever there is a building wide PA announcement, the turn off the white noise just before and there is a moment of quiet bliss.
The worst part of the open office for me is that there is always someone who wants to turn ALL the lights on; A migraine trigger for me.
Good thing there is a first-aid room with a couch where it is pitch black with the lights out. If I start seeing migraine auras, I can go there an lay down until they pass (Over the last few years I don’t get the headaches, just auras).
Nope, you are sitting in rows of 4-8 people on each side of the desk - like a trading floor layout.
No privacy at all, very dense.
I suspect that the main reason for the “Open Office” approach was to cut down on the complexity and cost of their HVAC (i.e., air conditioning) systems. It’s much easier to deal with balancing out an open space, than it is to make sure every nook and cranny gets decent flow.
They just won’t tell their employees that...and since none of those 12,000 employees knows how to operate a pair of Vice Grips, I doubt any of them manage to figure it out.
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