Ask HN: Why do we still use open floor plans?
I read within a job description, "...open floor plans inspire a constant exchange of ideas, advice, and banter.". Is it just me, or do all of those things make you cringe when you're thinking about actually getting work done?
16 comments
Among many reasons, open floor plans are cheap. Offices require drywall and doors and (re-)construction permits. Cubicle walls are surprisingly expensive for how cheap they look. If you are looking to cut every cost you possible can, open floor plans certainly cut costs.
If anyone was curious, $150 for a single straight cubicle wall, up to $1,500 for an "Office Space" style fully surrounded cubicle (inc. desk), and $5,100 for four cubicles (inc. desks and shared walls).
These are all generic grey looking ones, nothing fancy like tempered glass.
These are all generic grey looking ones, nothing fancy like tempered glass.
Isn't that peanuts compared to other employee overhead costs?
It is, but the management sees staff as a fungible resource. So why treat them well when you have a glut of people wanting to work for you? - so they like to believe.
That is new pricing, you can get great discounts on used, although when companies rip out their cubicles, they figure they'll get good money for them, but they typically sell for pennies, much like most office equipment.
Anyway, I've only heard of companies typically ripping out their cubicles to switch to open flooxplan, or starting out on the cheap, line-em-up, see who fits your culture, ostracize the others.
Anyway, I've only heard of companies typically ripping out their cubicles to switch to open flooxplan, or starting out on the cheap, line-em-up, see who fits your culture, ostracize the others.
Open floor plans also photograph well
Is it worth sacrificing productivity to save a few bucks? How many dollars are you wasting? Even if an engineer is 1-5% less productive, compounded over a couple years you can more than pay for every cubicle.
More like 25%, have you tried focusing in a noisy environment all day long?
In my estimate, you are still way low.
In one environment I spent a number of years in, once work-at-home became more acceptable, almost universally, the most productive people -- by my prior and continuing observation -- pushed to add as much of it to their schedule as they could manage.
Even the real collaboration -- email and instant messaging, first. Phone calls where needed.
Some face-to-face meetings could be plenty productive, when properly defined and run. The far majority were not, however.
The best people hated open space. Those who loved it, you typically had to remind 5 times of everything. Or nag. Increasing your own burden, in the process.
In one environment I spent a number of years in, once work-at-home became more acceptable, almost universally, the most productive people -- by my prior and continuing observation -- pushed to add as much of it to their schedule as they could manage.
Even the real collaboration -- email and instant messaging, first. Phone calls where needed.
Some face-to-face meetings could be plenty productive, when properly defined and run. The far majority were not, however.
The best people hated open space. Those who loved it, you typically had to remind 5 times of everything. Or nag. Increasing your own burden, in the process.
Perhaps those who like open plan offices are multi-tasking extroverts? Studies show that humans, like overloaded CPUs, loss efficiency when swapping tasks in and out and in ... responding to interrupts, inter....
The book "Peopleware" discusses this. https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Tom-De...
Basically, open floor plans are cheap and you can maximize metrics like $/person-sqft.
Other factors:
* "everyone else does it"
* Open floor plans seem like a good idea when you first hear them; the downsides are not immediately obvious. Verbal reasoning, no matter how flawed, almost always wins.
* The decision makers tend to be blissfully unaware of the dynamics of knowledge work because their work is typically interrupt-driven. Thus, they don't see any problem putting 50 programmers in a cramped and echoey gymnasium.
* Even if the decision maker is fully aware, their boss might not agree to a higher-cost office plan. Actual dollars will almost always beat non-metrics like "compounded employee productivity" or "time and money not wasted due to mistakes caused by people operating in a distracting environment".
--Yes, in theory you could design an experiment, but that would delay the decision and probably require spending money. And the outcome would probably be misinterpreted: the open floor people will be louder and will appear to be working harder. (But are they actually more productive or are they just scrambling to fix all the bugs they created?)
Other factors:
* "everyone else does it"
* Open floor plans seem like a good idea when you first hear them; the downsides are not immediately obvious. Verbal reasoning, no matter how flawed, almost always wins.
* The decision makers tend to be blissfully unaware of the dynamics of knowledge work because their work is typically interrupt-driven. Thus, they don't see any problem putting 50 programmers in a cramped and echoey gymnasium.
* Even if the decision maker is fully aware, their boss might not agree to a higher-cost office plan. Actual dollars will almost always beat non-metrics like "compounded employee productivity" or "time and money not wasted due to mistakes caused by people operating in a distracting environment".
--Yes, in theory you could design an experiment, but that would delay the decision and probably require spending money. And the outcome would probably be misinterpreted: the open floor people will be louder and will appear to be working harder. (But are they actually more productive or are they just scrambling to fix all the bugs they created?)
Because the management doesn't!
Notice how the further up the hierarchy you go the larger and better appointed offices the managers have? They then hold their meetings in conference rooms, or better still, swanky restaurants and clubs.
And all that is based on the revenue generated by the cube farm slaves.
Notice how the further up the hierarchy you go the larger and better appointed offices the managers have? They then hold their meetings in conference rooms, or better still, swanky restaurants and clubs.
And all that is based on the revenue generated by the cube farm slaves.
The use of open floor plans could also be a choice towards company culture.
I work in an office with an open floor plan, and, most of the time, no one is even talking.
The amount of work you could do in an open floor plan office might also depend on the company culture.
I work in an office with an open floor plan, and, most of the time, no one is even talking.
The amount of work you could do in an open floor plan office might also depend on the company culture.
Because they are cheap.
Headphones were invented to rescue you in open floor office ...
Unless you happen to think best in silence....
Because some people (like me) don't want to be locked up in a boring cubicle like chickens in a battery cage.
In decades past, it was predicted that people would work far less than 40 hours per week due to increases in productivity. Maybe that has happened, but we just pretend it hasn't: people now spend hours a day discussing beer with their coworkers in their open offices instead of working.
Feels more like, "We couldn't afford to build offices or didn't feel like spending money on that, so we'll give you a big cheap floor with lots of distractions, but hey creativity and all that."
I have noticed a strong trend away from doing actual work, towards cooperation and collaboration as a means of increasing the upside of the small amount of work that is actually done, to ensure it is worthwhile and relevant work being done. People in knowledge work create tremendous, near infinite at times, value - in a very small percentage of their work time. The majority of the work is meta-work that enables those tiny periods of massive contribution, and the balance is just hanging out.
That is a wonderful thing for the folks who have such a light workload.
In my experience, even operations and development teams are under this canopy. Only execs and legal have doors, and the only sanctuaries are conference spaces, which have time limits imposed.
On one hand, it is nice to "see daylight" as a member of an operations team. Not sequestered in a windowless NOC, but as things go 'serverless', so does our sanctum.
Headphones only do so much, whether on or off.
In my experience, even operations and development teams are under this canopy. Only execs and legal have doors, and the only sanctuaries are conference spaces, which have time limits imposed.
On one hand, it is nice to "see daylight" as a member of an operations team. Not sequestered in a windowless NOC, but as things go 'serverless', so does our sanctum.
Headphones only do so much, whether on or off.
It's been 30 years since Peopleware was published. If we haven't figured out that giving people that have to solve hard problems peace and quiet and adequate room to lay out their materials yet, I don't think we ever will.
I work in an open plan office and sometimes I find it annoying. If I come in early, I get about an hour's peace. When people start coming in I hear conversations about kids then sport.. then when people who sit closer to me come in, I obviously have a quick morning chat with them.
The whole thing can be very distracting.
On the plus side, it's never lonely even when I am not talking to anyone. It's easy to see if people are available. It's easier to go chat to people about work.
The whole thing can be very distracting.
On the plus side, it's never lonely even when I am not talking to anyone. It's easy to see if people are available. It's easier to go chat to people about work.
"It's easier to go chat to people about work."
That's a plus for the person who wants to chat. It's a massive negative (far outweighing the positive for the person who gets to chat right now instead of in an hour's time) for the person who was several stacks deep in mental context in chasing down some Heisenbug, or really involved in bashing out just the right code with a head full of flowing understanding. Especially when it's a chat that lasts thirty seconds.
That's a plus for the person who wants to chat. It's a massive negative (far outweighing the positive for the person who gets to chat right now instead of in an hour's time) for the person who was several stacks deep in mental context in chasing down some Heisenbug, or really involved in bashing out just the right code with a head full of flowing understanding. Especially when it's a chat that lasts thirty seconds.
It's a trade-off. Closed offices make deep thinking easier; open floor plans make communication easier. Ideally, you want both, but how do you get it?
It makes internal communication and coordination a bit simpler. I feel however open plan offices can make externally directed communication harder.
At times internal coherence of e.g. a planning / architecture team is invaluable. And if such team is embedded in a larger space with related people around it - fantastic.
Most spaces however serve more than one goal. An externally focused organization will want loose coupling to the inside. The last you want to happen is all sales guy jumping on the most promising prospect.
At times internal coherence of e.g. a planning / architecture team is invaluable. And if such team is embedded in a larger space with related people around it - fantastic.
Most spaces however serve more than one goal. An externally focused organization will want loose coupling to the inside. The last you want to happen is all sales guy jumping on the most promising prospect.
The "hub and spoke" model that Cal Newport suggests in Deep Work.
True. Although I prefer cubicles any day but communication is hard - 've seen some have this way of treating as if u've invaded private space. I guess for open office - a good noise cancelling headphone which one of my colleague used to use is a need
Not even necessarily noise cancelling, if you're playing music, generally the background gets drowned enough.
this is really typical. good luck finding a startup with cubicles or private offices. It might be cheaper or maybe it's a design attempt to look effortless and elegant.
open floor plans can cause something like that: http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt-...
I love open floor plans. I've been working >10 years in cubicles, ~5 years in offices and >5 years in open floor plans. My favorite has been open floor plans. It's far more social and people are a lot more accessible. The other benefit of open floor plans is that people can go elsewhere if they feel like they don't want to be disturbed, so it's almost the best of both worlds.
In what companies can you go elsewhere if you don't feel like being disturbed? My experience is always that the entire office is a single noisy room and conference rooms are overbooked.
You go to a coffee shop down the street or sit on the roof and cry.
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I used to find open floor plans the most annoying thing in the world. People would pop up behind/around me unannounced. However, since we started using slack, such annoyance has declined dramatically. I wonder what will happen to office planning with better communication tools around.
The tools exist, and have for a long time. But unless you're the boss, there's little you can do to get people to use them.
Even IF you are the boss it's difficult to force people to use communication tools. We've tried a bunch of different things for our company and the only one that actually stuck was Slack (for some reason).
Now just imagine if you were leveraging technology correctly, and you had your own more or less private 100 sq ft?