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.
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.
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...
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.
Have any of you read the book “The Circle”? It’s a novel about a giant tech company in the near future. Their campus is the latest in “open” design, not only in the innovative total glass of walls, ceilings and even floors, but “open” in many other ways as well. I hear they have made a movie (starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks), but be sure and read the book first if you want the full story. Here is the movie trailer .... https://youtu.be/ZkzpcfY9JAo
They rolled this open workspace crap out at my workplace.
I’m holding onto my office with both hands.
I was hired by IBM in the 80s to be a systems engineer. Our office had an open floor plan.
It was impossible to concentrate while reading, with coworkers talking on the phone & with each other. On the phone I had to cover my other ear to have a conversation. There was absolutely no way to have a private conversation in that room. Coworkers would often interrupt each other with jokes & conversation. Many of us would find an empty room to do paper work or read technical documentation - hiding from the noise. Meetings with customers were usually done in the break room.
All in all it was a very unproductive environment to work. I saw no advantage to being surrounded by people who had other priorities & tasks. It was like trying to work at a cocktail party.
Studies have shown that Open Floor plan decreases productivity.
They’ll be less likely to view porn out in the open? Not that that wouldn’t stop some people.
THat’s how it is at my Son’s job at Citrix. Cool and C O L D!!!!
“Collaborative” design have always resulted in lower quality as employee don’t have time to think and get things right. Instead, it’s a beehive of interruptions about make-work tasks and little engineering or thought.
The women got pissed off with the lack of privacy and left