memes

I worked open office on a contract job one time that lasted a week and I could not WAIT to see that place in my rear view mirror.

Open office and bench seating were designed to increase surveillance, so of course they feel awful

That looks quiet and positively spacious compared to the last open office environment I did time in.

Imagine that same space but 4 people between the column and the window instead of just 2. Then make the space 3x as long. Then reduce the space between the backs of the chairs by 50%.

Even though everyone in the space was doing individual programming / sysadmin work, the space was extremely loud just from a few spontaneous conversations between people working on the same thing together. Everyone wore headphones nearly all the time, only taking them off if they needed to talk / shout to the people near them about something. Often, if you needed to talk with someone sitting 4 desks away, the easiest way to do it was over IM.

It was designed to pack more people into an office plan. The open workspace has been proven to be ineffective, but it makes people more money, therefore it’s everywhere

How anyone gets any work done at all with a single monitor is beyond me, actually no, I know the answer is they don’t.

I’m an IT manager and have advocated for at least dual monitor at every workstation for a decade. Every time we’ve transitioned a department to dual we’ve seen significant productivity jumps well worth the $100 per station it costs.

At least that open office has carpet. I’ve seen open offices with concrete or tile floors and walls. Those kind of offices are hell to be in. If a small group starts talking that sounds bounces around the room and then everyone has to talk louder because they can’t hear each other. And managers are surprised that everyone wears headphones or don’t want to be in the office at all.

I'm starting at new office with that policy. I'm already scoping out the single desks. It's kind of nice being able to ask people questions, but I'd rather just use webx these days.

The constant noise in an open office plan is nervewrecking, and being permanently in view of your supervisors is annoying as hell. i don't need someone to watch my every move, and if you think you have to watch my every move, i probably don't want to work for you.

Yeah. The size of this cubicle and not being open plan tells you this picture is from at least a decade ago. It's so much worse than this now.

Yep, my last job had an open office plan. It was incredibly distracting and I hated that if I needed to scratch myself, everyone could see me.

Those are still half height cube walls. It is a bit more privacy, but still has noise isolation issues. I miss head height cubes.

Fast paced means ad-hoc requests, constant changes and no roadmap whatsoever.

With no attempt to measure or manage an employee's workload.

I get that for most people, this is a nightmare. But for me, having lots of varied tasks is fun.

It's why I took a job at a tiny city with 11 employees in City Hall. Nominally, I'm a permit processor, but I oversee the permitting process, GIS, coordinating third-party services, and more. Yesterday I made a map for the police, processed permits, drove across town to fix a manhole cover that came loose (we don't actually have a public work department), took pictures for the city attorney of a mansion being illegally built and screwing up city utilities, and fixed a broken printer.

Yes, I'm stupid busy, but I enjoy the variety. I'm also paid more than double what most permit techs are, and have my hands in development, public works, finance, administration, and more. All of which will be useful later in my career when I want to move into city management at a larger town.

I hated cubicles until I discovered open offices, then I just plainly hated offices:
hated water-cooler conversations,
hated the smell of reheated meals,
the unending birthdays of people I spoke to once a year,
the parties and outings that are secretly interviews,
the idle people that are always looking for killing time chatting,
the busy people looking for a nasty rumor to climb higher,
I hated commuting and hated having to stay longer just so everyone thinks I'm working hard,

But above all, I hated the middle managers that want to both be your friend, your boss and the person that will fire you to cover a fuck up.

I think the picture is missing several people from upper management hovering behind the chair?

"Friendly and fun" = we force you to celebrate everyone's birthdays, engagements, baby haverings, etc and so forth with cake and mandatory card signage and possibly gift/money givery.

"Learning and development" = you'll be forced to participate in mind numbingly stupid seminars, self directed online courses, and/or online presentations.

"With opportunity to grow" = grow mold as you fester in the wretched job.

Happy friday

Is it a fun, fast paced environment? Or like an actual office