Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I used to be an individual office partisan, but after working for a coupla years in cubes with walls that come to a sitting person's neck, I find that there are a lot of benefits: I can just turn (and scoot across my cube, if necessary) to ask or answer questions of a co-worker; I can hear when people begin chattering, which is a sign that something is going on that I need to pay attention to, like the site being down or a discussion about some coding question; I have long lines of sight in at least some directions, which is nice for my psychological well-being, especially in contrast to some office without an outside window.

The main thing, though, is serendipity: overhearing party A ask party B a question to which party B doesn't know the answer, but I do, or hearing people planning to have a meeting I'd want to be in, but which they don't know I'd want to attend, etc. A closed office would be slightly more useful when head-down coding for hours or days at a time, but so much of my time as a developer is spent chatting about coding, helping people solve language or environment problems, talking with users who wander in looking for help, and other miscellaneous interpersonal activity that a closed office would hamper my job quite a lot.




My question is how many of those cited benefits are actually benefits. For example, it may be very convenient for you to scoot across your cube to ask questions of your co-worker, but is it convenient for him or her? Are you making sure that you're not interrupting anything important (and remembering that asking for interruption is an interruption in itself)? Overhearing and acting on conversations might be nice, but it might be equally troublesome, especially where one might be seen as meddling.

I'm not minimizing the importance of communication, but I'm wondering whether the benefits you've cited are actually worth the costs to yourself and others.


Are those benefits that you wouldn't get in an open office? Personally, I prefer the open office, with 2-4 people in a room together, and feel like cubicles are the worst of both worlds. With the cubicle, it's like you're cut off from everyone else, but without the benefits of actual privacy.


Those benefits are not worthwhile to me personally. I want to code, not constantly overhear office chatter.


Then you could work at home, no? For me development is teamwork, and we do it in a war room, wich like extreme cubicle. It works very well, just isolate with headphones and heavily use chat, even for people at your desk. Ask the team to receive calls outside and to talk softly to each other.


Yep, working from home is great. Or within an office with an actual door.




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: