Disturbing Office Trend

[ImAnAspie]

In my office, we have desk dividers but they're not very tall and you can see the people opposite you so I raise my monitor, lower my chair and slouch in it so no one can see me.

 

[Adamantium]

In my office, we have desk dividers but they're not very tall and you can see the people opposite you so I raise my monitor, lower my chair and slouch in it so no one can see me.

I used to hate cube farms, but they are much better than open plan. I have been working in open plan for 6 years, and it has been hellish. I often work early or late, just so I can concentrate. Finally, they are saving money and letting us work from home. It is like heaven after the long assault of the open plan office.

 

[Mattymatt]

Working from home is just a good idea all around. It's better for the environment, less stress on the employee, and it's more cost effective.

 

[King_Oni]

Working from home is just a good idea all around. It's better for the environment, less stress on the employee, and it's more cost effective.

It probably is, but not all employees have the discipline to work from home. That's probably why a lot of companies are still somewhat reluctant to implement this.

 

[Mattymatt]

This is true. I think it should be a privilege earned through reliability and competence.

 

[ASD_Geek]

One of our office buildings recently underwent the whole open office redesign. They tore down offices and walls and have a huge giant open area with about 100 cubes in it with 3-4 foot high walls. Talk about sensory overload. I am glad that I do not work at that building.

The whole "stand and introduce yourself" is annoying as well. This is very common in our professional meetings and in our training. I don't care where other people are from. I'm there to either learn or do my job.

 

[Mattymatt]

I would be glad too. That would drive to quit on the spot. Here's to hoping that the folks managing your building hold on to their sanity and don't change a thing.

 

[Ste11aeres]

One of our office buildings recently underwent the whole open office redesign. They tore down offices and walls and have a huge giant open area with about 100 cubes in it with 3-4 foot high walls. Talk about sensory overload. I am glad that I do not work at that building.

 

[ASD_Geek]

I would be glad too. That would drive to quit on the spot. Here's to hoping that the folks managing your building hold on to their sanity and don't change a thing.

Luckily, our building was renovated first and we had a different design company and plan.
If they ever ask me to move up there, I will definately be looking for a new job!

 

[icesyckel]

It probably is, but not all employees have the discipline to work from home. That's probably why a lot of companies are still somewhat reluctant to implement this.

I agree. Probably, there is a high number of AS/ASD folks who would thrive at home or in a solitary environments whereas this may or may not hold true for the NT. I work with a group of professionals in an industry parallel to my own. About 20 to 30% work from home at least some of the time. The majority of those working from home do not return calls, meet deadlines, or respond to my emails. The few that I do I often suspect have AS/ASD, lol.

That said, I agree that open plans are the extreme opposite. What works for some does not work for all, yet we try to enforce global policies and work environments as it one size fits all. It is neither desirable nor efficient to implement such global policies/designs. I say experiment and go with what works.

 

[Toponoetikos]

I caught this on CNN.com and it absolutely pissed me off: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/07/living/cnn10-better-by-design/index.html?frame=1&hpt=hp_c2. Apparently, workplaces are moving more towards "open, collaborative" work environments. Whoever came up with this idea is a moron! If I had to work in this open environment, I would probably and absolutely meltdown. This is neither aspie friendly nor disability friendly. At least, you have some VERY small amount of private space in a cube. This takes any privacy retreat and shreds it - I thought workplaces were supposedly moving towards more disability friendly policies. Who even says collaboration produces better results? In my opinion, too much of it stymies the whole process and slows it down. Ever try to force consensus on disagreeing people?

I am a partner in a small firm and I am the managing director. I designed the office with an open collaborative space for everyone except for me and the finance people. I have a private office. I come out and "collaborate" but retreat back to my office or leave the building often. When I worked in an open space with cubicles before I would leave the area. Fortunately the open space area was mostly quiet as the people were all scientists (and probably many were AS people. Find the place where you are comfortable - make the world adapt to you. It is hard but can be done.

 

[icesyckel]

I am a partner in a small firm and I am the managing director. I designed the office with an open collaborative space for everyone except for me and the finance people. I have a private office. I come out and "collaborate" but retreat back to my office or leave the building often. When I worked in an open space with cubicles before I would leave the area. Fortunately the open space area was mostly quiet as the people were all scientists (and probably many were AS people. Find the place where you are comfortable - make the world adapt to you. It is hard but can be done.

I agree and do many of the same things myself (although I work in a different sector/profession). You are right - where there is a will, there is a way.

 

[Cyllya]

I have the good fortune of being an introvert in a region where introversion is the norm/majority/preference, so this probably won't happen around here too soon. Thank goodness...

 

[Aspergirl4hire]

Which studies? I'd like to read them.

These aren't the studies themselves, obviously, but here are two articles about the Stanford/University of Beijing study:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/working-from-home-vs-the-office.html?_r=0
Scientists prove telecommuting is awesome | Gigaom

Some general commentary:
Remote Workers - Is Yahoo on Track? - Unified Communications Strategies
Remote working increases business productivity - Telegraph

As such a trend spreads and spreads, I am envisioning open-plan bathrooms.

(How would you like that, open-design proponents?)

Awesome cure for constipated bottoms. Not too sure about constipated heads, but as long as the executives do it first...

NTs love the socializing, and this trend is about NTs. I hope that as Asperger's and Autism becomes a "thing" the trend will die a quiet death.

Edited, because my fingers went on autopilot and typed the opposite of what I meant. Thanks to dragonwolf for calling it out.

 

[JuniperBug]

I work in one of these. Except its 10 people at a table the right size for ping pong in a room barely bigger than the table.

It doesn't inspire collaboration or creativity, just an intense sense of personal space invasion, passive aggressive 'fights' over table space, intrusive sounds/smells, and a LOT of unproductive chit chat and gossip.

 

[dragonwolf]

Which studies? I'd like to read them.

I'm in the process on writing a thing on remote work environments. Here are some of the links I use. Some are studies, some are articles that include studies.

To Raise Productivity, Let More Employees Work from Home - HBR (directly related to your question)
The Open-Office Trap - The New Yorker (problems with and repercussions of the open office floor plan)
A pragmatic approach to dealing with interruptions whilst you are developing (software developer-centric, but illustrates the problem knowledge workers in particular have, and open office floorplans exacerbate the problem due to the increase in uncontrolled interruptions)
Smashing The Clock - Businessweek (the sister movement of Remote Only Work Environments, which are remote friendly by nature; I'm personally of the belief that the two modalities go hand in hand, because without the results oriented/only culture backing, working from home can backfire)
How GitHub Works: Hours are ******** (thoughts regarding hours and productivity from one of the early members of a prominent Silicon Valley company, kind of tangential)
Random Thoughts — A chance to practice what I preach; A remote ready... (a company migrating to remote-ready, again tangential)

 

[dragonwolf]

Apparently it works for creatives (writers, artists, software designers, composers, photographers) not so much for assembly-line work (including call centers, surprisingly). NTs love the socializing, and this trend is about NTs. I hope that as Asperger's and Autism becomes a "thing" the trend will die a quiet death.

As a software developer (which is considered a creative profession), no, no it does not. All creatives need a place to retreat to where they can shut out the rest of the world and do their thing. Open floor plans rarely allow for that (and the ones that have token offices/conference rooms, use of them often come with cultural strings attached). Controlled collaboration is necessary in those positions, but the key word there is controlled. Open office floorplans are anything but.

 

[Aspergirl4hire]

As a software developer (which is considered a creative profession), no, no it does not. All creatives need a place to retreat to where they can shut out the rest of the world and do their thing. Open floor plans rarely allow for that (and the ones that have token offices/conference rooms, use of them often come with cultural strings attached). Controlled collaboration is necessary in those positions, but the key word there is controlled. Open office floorplans are anything but.

I'll fix it. I meant to say exactly the opposite. I'm a big fan of Susan Cain's book Quiet,which lays out the arguments against open floorplans. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Ste11aeres]

I came across this at the following link:
http://notalwaysworking.com/if-it-aint-broke-renovate-it/40173

(Not written by me)
(For a couple years, I have worked full time at a radio station as a graphic designer, with a web developer, and a manager (Boss #1) who oversees all of our projects. It is a really good arrangement: we each have our own offices next to each other in the same hallway. All of our projects exceed expectations, we always finish them all ahead of schedule, and we all work so well together that we consider each other friends more than co-workers. One day, one of our higher-ups (Boss #2) calls Boss #1 into his office. He tells us about the conversation afterwards

Boss #2: “So, we just got the manager reviews back from everyone, and it turns out you got the highest score in the entire building!”

Boss #1: “Yeah, we all work really well together as a team. We’re really lucky to have found a way to collaborate that works well for everyone.”

Boss #2: “It’s so good, actually, that we’re a little worried.”

Boss #1: “Really? Why?”

Boss #2: “We think you’re being overprotective of your employees – they don’t really mingle with any other departments and we want everyone to have relationships with each other.”

Boss #1: “Okay, I can see where you’re coming from. I’ll try to see what I can do to make our department a little more open to others in the building.”

(Our boss tells us about the situation and we all agree to try and start socializing with our other co-workers a little more. We do a great job for a couple of weeks until one day Boss #2 calls us all into Boss #1’s office.)

Boss #2: “So, I have an idea I want to throw past you guys. What if we moved all of you out of your offices and put you into one large shared space, like they have at Google?”

Me: “That sounds like it could be a cool environment, but we already work really well just by having our own offices.”

Boss #1: “Not to mention, didn’t you just pay a lot of money for those personality evaluations? Each one of ours said that we work better if we have our own space to retreat to.”

Coworker: “Can we have some time to think about it?”

Boss #2: “…ctually, I was talking about it to [Owner of the Company], and he wants to make it happen. Construction starts in two weeks.”

(All of us were shocked. True to his word, a construction crew came in to start renovating for our new office… a week earlier than we were told. I came back from vacation to find my office completely empty: my personal items, desk, and even the photos on the wall had all been taken down and moved without my knowledge. In a few days they had moved all of us to opposite corners of the building, isolating us from each other, without any prior notification or really caring about our feedback. It turned out that Boss #2 didn’t like how tight-knit we all were. Within two weeks our morale nosedived, the construction took twice as long as was promised, my coworker quit and found a better job, and eventually Boss #1 was replaced by someone who didn’t know the first thing about what we were supposed to be doing. Our department fell apart. To this day Boss #2 still scratches his head and wonders “what went wrong.”)

 

[wanderer03]

Change for the sake of change is never a good idea.