Being in my late 20s and having only worked in open-office environments, the thought of having my own office seems archaic and counter-intuitive to productivity and communication. If I have my headphones in, I'm busy. If I don't, I can answer questions or talk to my colleagues about something. Projecting how I would feel in a "closed office" environment, I can honestly say I'd feel trapped and isolated.
My experience is of course, purely anecdotal and non-scientific, but I can't help feeling that younger people such as myself lean more toward an open-office configuration due to how differently we approach and accomplish tasks. It's neither better or worse, just different.
>Being in my late 20s and having only worked in open-office environments, the thought of having my own office seems archaic and counter-intuitive to productivity and communication
Being in my late 20s and having worked in cubicles, open-office environments, and now with my own office, the thought of not having my own office sends shivers down my spine.
For me, an office with a door is mandatory. It's now the second or third question when I'm interviewing. I would not work at company that does not provide one to me. Period.
The surprising thing is that I was like you - when I worked in the open floor plan environment I really liked it, and felt like it improved my collaboration and teamwork. I wasn't able to see how damaging it was until I got my own office: ambient noise is now nonexistent, I don't have to rely on a clunky signal (headphones) to tell people I'm available/not, and I'm able to sit down and focus on a problem without playing my music at full volume.
Again, yet another anecdote. But I haven't seen any study that indicates a cross-generational difference in office preference; open floor plan settings are universally panned, and rightly so, IMO.
I think this can be summed up fairly easily. Among those who've never had offices, there's a fair amount of disagreement about the value of offices. But among those who have private offices, you'll virtually never find someone who would want to give it up in exchange for a seat in an open floor plan.
> If I have my headphones in, I'm busy. If I don't, I can answer questions or talk to my colleagues about something.
This comes up every time people discuss open floor plans. Inevitably someone says that the solution is headphones. Except that a lot of people don't want to wear headphones all the time. I find it uncomfortable, and I also find that music significantly reduces my productivity (unless I'm doing something that doesn't require any meaningful amount of thought). A number of studies have shown the same thing. Listening to music while working decreases mental power.
The article also covered this:
But the most problematic aspect of the open office may be physical rather
than psychological: simple noise. In laboratory settings, noise has been
repeatedly tied to reduced cognitive performance. The psychologist Nick
Perham, who studies the effect of sound on how we think, has found that
office commotion impairs workers’ ability to recall information, and even
to do basic arithmetic. Listening to music to block out the office
intrusion doesn’t help: even that, Perham found, impairs our mental acuity.
> I can't help feeling that younger people such as myself
I don't think you're as much different as you imagine. Young people don't work in drastically different ways than older people.
I'm with you... headphones are not comfortable. I've tried all sorts to either listen to music with or to just block out the noise and after a while they are almost as distracting as the noise.
With the wonderful weather we've had in the Midwest this past week I've been working from home and I have realized how much I hate our office setup. I'm very much dreading going into the office tomorrow.
True, but this doesn't fix the comfort factor. It also doesn't change that headphones are just a bandaid for the core issues which are excessive distraction and ambient noise.
I think the culture of the office matters, too. If there's a culture, of, "Hey people are working here let's not be loud." and "She has her headphones in so let's not bother her." then it won't be too distracting or have too much noise.
Conversely, if an office with a closed office plan has a culture where closed doors are common and it's rude to knock, then collaboration will definitely be hindered.
We need to collaborate and to work in peace and quiet. This is probably why it oscillates between open and closed office plans. Neither solution is perfect. The best solution is probably default closed offices with a culture of having your door open and lots of collaborating spaces that are actually used.
> The best solution is probably default closed offices with a culture of having your door open and lots of collaborating spaces that are actually used.
This is what I have right now at Microsoft and it's awesome. Everyone on my team has a private office, and we have plenty of collaboration spaces, including conference rooms as well as less formal gathering spaces between blocks of offices and near the food areas, plus a few large open areas dedicated for meetings (these are more isolated from offices, and generally used like conference rooms, but open to the hallways, with curtains that can be used to isolate a bit more).
I've worked in both and I can't stand open office plans. You mentioned that you have your headphones in when you are busy, I did the same. I'm sure I contributed to my hearing loss because I had to cover my ears to prevent me from being distracted by my co-workers when I needed to concentrate. What about when I want to concentrate in silence? Can't do it.
Also open office "productivity" devolved into my co-workers being able to easily turn around and interrupt me constantly for trivial items vs. if there was a bit more friction in them getting my attention: walking to my office etc, they would go figure out the problem themselves. These two things were major reasons I hated working in an open workspace.
In college, I had a friend who always studied with his music on. He was having a really hard time with chemistry -- or was it bio? -- and was worried that he was not going to make the cut for pre-med.
I suggested he try studying without music.
After his next test, he sought me out and thanked me. His last score was at least a grade level higher than he had been achieving.
He'd always studied to music. He didn't know the difference, until he experienced it.
Admittedly, individual reactions vary.
However, I also worked with some people who were very aggressive multi-taskers and rather proud of their ability to juggle numerous assignments and responsibilities.
Whenever I touched something they had worked on, inevitably I immediately ran into numerous and significant errors, including quite often apparently a very superficial approach and lack of insight into deeper implications as well as relationships to a broader context.
I've rarely encountered a noise, or music, embracing person nor a heavy multi-tasker, who actually performed well.
Many of the best developers I worked with at Big Co, after our "cubification" (or "veal-ification", as it were), spent numerous hours in the evening actually getting the meat of their design and programming work done, at home. There they would be, on IM.
And as a virtual presence became increasingly tolerated, they signed up for as many days out of the "farm" as policy would allow and they could manage without getting into political issues.
The door was invented before the headphone as a signalling technology. I can personally verify it works very well. There is also an elaborate exception handling protocol, knock on a closed door if its a total emergency, but there better be something close to a fire.
I am also in my late 20s and have worked in situations in which I've had my own office and situations in which I had to share my office with one other person. I much prefer having my own office. I dislike the feeling of always being watched in an "open office" environment. If you can take out your headphones, why can't you call a colleague or go into her office?
I'm also not sure there's a generational difference in how "differently [people] approach and accomplish tasks."
I had a private office with a door before I ever worked in an open office layout. I currently do not want to go back to having an office at all, but there's an enormous caveat there: I don't want to go back as long as the team is good. I've seen other teams where it quickly turned into a really bad situation, and can see how easily it could be a nightmare compared to a private office situation.
More important than the office layout is having a good IM setup that everyone uses, IMO. Even when you have your own office there are people who'll knock on your door which is more of a pain to deal with then just wave them away with a "not right now," IMO, if you don't have some other way of communication for trivial questions or indicating status.
The other thing an open plan has to have is lots of small conference rooms you can jump into at any time either for a discussion with other people or just to take advantage of silence for a while.
Sweatshop-style open office plans are great and even mandatory if you're an early startup, very small, full of very bright, energetic, motivated people. It is awful in any other situation.
> Being in my late 20s and having only worked in open-office environments, the thought of having my own office seems archaic and counter-intuitive to productivity and communication.
There were kids growing up in Soviet Russia who really loved Lenin. They didn't have anything to compare it with, either.
So many people advise wearing headphones to signal being busy, but that doesn't seem like a good cue. I'm still going to stop and ask a question even if my colleague is listening to music.
Not to mention, the headphones are probably also for blocking out background noise, which you might not want even if you are fine with being talked to directly.
My experience is of course, purely anecdotal and non-scientific, but I can't help feeling that younger people such as myself lean more toward an open-office configuration due to how differently we approach and accomplish tasks. It's neither better or worse, just different.