Not sure if this is the right board. My firm is moving to an open office plan and I fucking hate it. I'm back-to-back with an employee I don't really know in a tiny C-shaped alcove surrounded by waist-high cubes. There is a guy looking me in the face, a guy looking at my side and a guy looking at my back at all times, plus constant chatter. This is really distracting and puts me on edge.
Have you had to work in this environment? How did you cope? I'm seriously considering leaving my firm over this, it just adds stress on top of my work.
Nearly all modern offices are designed this way. In creative environments it helps with collaboration. In non-creative environments it builds a sense of self-policing and reduces the need for supervisors.
Are you socially awkward, or do you just like browsing biz while at work? There is literally no downside to it.
>>1042595
I really don't like having someone face four feet away from mine for eight hours a day.
>there is literally no downside to it
I doubt that. It's hard for me to even think when I'm surrounded by constant banal chatter about muh kids all day long.
>>1042595
>Are you socially awkward
Yes. I come to you from /tg/ and used to compile campaign notes or read novels during my downtime. Now my employer seriously expects me to "sit quietly until the end of the day" if I have no work.
>>1042590
would rather be unemployed than work like that.
>>1042608
No, I'd rather find a new job than put up with this for more than a year. But if there's a way to make it easier I'd rather try that first.
>>1042636
Yep, it's always somebody else's fault. Our company culture isn't toxic or distracting, you're anti-social! Uh oh, gotta go guys, Game of Thrones is on!
>>1042647
If you are distracted by someone talking about their kids xbox game then yes, you are a bit of a problem.
Toxic doesnt mean what you think it means.
You are the type of person who cries in a department meeting and is never heard from again. Seriously, wtf is wrong with you? Push through the distraction, its obviously not effecting anyone else.
Cubicles are the crutch of poor managers. Offices are the safe haven of even worse managers. The top 5 "best companies to work for in the US" all use, and tout open office floor plans. It seems to work for them.
humans are predisposed to disliking change, especially if it redefines social interaction.
Find a way to busy your mind away from the new change and you'll slowly acclimate to it. The consequence of focusing too much on it will give you a weird office version of cabin fever.
If you don't have any work to do, open workspaces encourage you to find some way to productively busy yourself. embrace the change as something good, it keeps those certain assholes that every office has from pretending they are more productive than they actually are.
>>1042670
Open floor plans are sold under all those reasons but they're just about cramming more employees into less sqft and reducing costs.
>>1042613
Pretty much every firm is moving to open floor plans, bruh. I hate them so much. It only works for extroverts.
>>1042636
>>1042670
Are you telling me you wouldn't be bothered staring into someone's face for eight hours a day while someone else watches over your shoulder? You wouldn't have trouble focusing if there were three different conversations going on around you at all times?
>its obviously not effecting anyone else
Then why is half the conversation in my office about how weird and creepy it is? I don't care what some cookie cutter "best place to work for" does; this isn't a Silicon Valley startup with a snack room and gym. I worked fine in a cube, what's wrong with that?
>>1042683
>Find a way to busy your mind away from the new change and you'll slowly acclimate to it
Tips? The nature of my work is pretty much "we don't need you unless there's a problem" so I do a lot of waiting.
>>1042590
>tfw only do 30 mins of "real work" a day in the office
>tfw the gravy train is coming to an end with these gay floor plans
>>1042719
For me, it's less that I don't do my work or that I don't do much work, it's that eight hours at the computer nonstop (save a half hour lunch in the middle) makes my brain feel like mush pouring out of my ears. I like to take a walk every now and then or check the local news, grab some coffee and get back into a rhythm.
>>1042595
Fuck you.
open offices are a disaster of the "modern workplace". Every study done has shown they drastically decrease job performance.
We are not a "team". But specialized tasks, with a manager running everything. Thats how shit works. Open any peer reviewed journal ever.
Put in your 2 weeks notice, and tell them why. If they value you as an employee, they'll give you an office.
>>1042687
There is very little if no floor space gains from the design scheme. A 36" cubicle panel is less than a handful of dollars less than a 60" panel.
The difference between a cubicle forest and an open floor plan is people talking, communicating, and bouncing ideas and thoughts off each other. Not saving 4 dollars on a cubicle panel.
If productivity drops, that is on the manager who put the team together.
>>1042712
Yes, that is what I am telling you because that is how I spent the first 3 years of my working life
At my company (+50 people) only the c-level execs get offices, and that's mostly for holding business meetings. You should become an executive
>>1042762
I don't even want an office! I want a cube! The lowest of the low! Not this contemporary crap! But I have a feeling things are coming to a head over it and I'll have the opportunity to speak up soon. Otherwise, I'm skipping state. Illinois sucks anyway.
I'm 23 and I feel like a cantankerous old man, holy shit.
>>1042774
>that is how I spent the first 3 years of my working life
What kind of shithouse did you work in and how did they con you into that?
>>1042782
It was level 1 and 2 tech support. If I was stuck I learned to hit mute, make eye contact, and bounce ideas off the guys around me. Use it as a dam tool not some kind of personal attack on your bubble
>>1042750
This.
http://eab.sagepub.com/content/34/3/279.short
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494413000340
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2013.871064
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2011.00745.x/full
>mfw the CFO sits in a glass office 15 feet behind my desk.
>>1042595
>be dev in open office
>non-devs talking all day
>can't focus, or worse, waste time talking with them
>half the team works remotely anyway
>only hope for productivity is taking a desk at the other side of the office where non-devs are a bit quieter
>sometimes they get chatty, in which case no hope for quiet productivity
>contemplating working remotely for peace and quiet
self-policing? nigga please.
>>1042789
OP here. I skipped that step and went straight to dev. Have you ever tried debugging legacy code while Chad and Cindy talk about their kids' soccer games like the office is the water cooler?
>>1042834
No, but I have tried sourcing 3 servers on Saturday night. I was lucky enough to get 4 Super Micro's on a American Airlines flight at 1am Sunday morning from Cali and had a taxi deliver them to downtown Chicago by 7am the same morning, got them up and running by 10pm. Slept at a motel a few blocks away for 6 hours, and got back to work just in time Monday morning for my Dell servers to arrive. Then did it all over again.
At least Wednesday and beyond was normal that week.
>>1042834
BTW my morons were named Doug and Tommy. They spent the better part of 6 hours talking about Call of Duty and how hard they were studying for the CCNP
I saw this media company's office in New Zealand. It's open plan and what's more they all have to stand.
I hate busybodies.
>>1042858
treadmill desks have been shown to reduce workplace injuries due to sitting. They also lower health insurance costs due to diabetes and obesity
>>1042867
Source?
>>1042887
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23417995
Awww dam, its a .gov domain :P
God this fad needs to die.
it's all very dilbert. Managers don't really have anything to do for stretchs of weeks or days between high level meetings and the time the real work gets done. So to justify themselves they reorg, or suggest stupid shit like this
all very Dilbert.
>They found something worse then a cubical
It's funny, because a cubical was originally meant to be an upgrade for the worker.
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protip=The real problem is Americas shifty multi-culture and shitty work culture for anyone not WASP. 89% of work is assbackwords, and you'll hate it nomatter how the office is set up.
This also worked because everyone was the same culture
person to the side of you is close, but face the same way so it's not aqkword. You go to his BBQ's sometimes. People in front and behind are far enough away that breathing and paper rusling isn't bad. High ceilings and big desks give a sense of space and shielding. The Boss sits at the front on a raised platform to see everyone, but he is also behind a desk, and has work. The Boss can't goof off in his office either
Everyone in this office is doing the same job
everyone in this office is female. They even have the same haircut
