Ask HN: Which Companies Give Their Employees Private or Team Offices?

[stevesearer]

Here on HN there are so many people that loathe open office layouts, and it seems like there is a lot of energy spent yearning for privacy, but I don't think I can name any companies other than Fog Creek Software that actually give employees a private office or small team office.

I run an office design website and want to write an article about it, but it also seemed like it would be nice way to see who is bucking the trend of the open office plan.

Which companies give their employees private offices or small team offices?

[pmcg]

Google has team offices for some teams. My first year here my team was split in two 5-person offices with doors. For the last year we were in an open office space. Soon we're moving again and some of us will be in team offices again of 3-4 people. I don't know the percentage of team offices vs open offices across the company though.

Also, since moving into our current building they've added sound-resistant walls and barriers in various places which has helped significantly.

(Speaking for myself, as a happy employee.)

[dangrossman]

Microsoft has private offices with doors, or did when I was there. Some offices were shared with two desks on opposite walls. On the other coast, I had an office at DuPont too.

[stevesearer → dangrossman]

Ah interesting. I've published a number of MS offices and from what IC an tell from the images, many staff work in open plan layouts. I wonder if higher up staff receive private offices?

[Eridrus → stevesearer]

MS likes to talk about the fancy new offices they're building, but all the old building, e.g. where Windows, office, etc are all private offices with 1-2 people in them.

Contractors get screwed though and stuck in much larger shared offices.

[fsk → Eridrus]

I thought MS was planning to phase out private offices and go open office for everyone?

[ytjohn]

Most places utilize cubicles. The open floor plan eliminates those cubicle walls and re-arranges the desks to face each other (or replacing several desks with larger conference tables).

[fsk → ytjohn]

I haven't seen cubicles in awhile. It's been all open offices, every place I interviewed in the past several years.

[drstewart]

Epic Systems (healthcare software, epic.com) does.

[MichaelCrawford]

When i consulted for microsoft i expected an office with a door i could shut. what i got was quite literally called the boiler room. it was worse than the open plan in that the other consultants were all on unrelated projects so we had little we could talk to each other about.

there were no windows, and so many computers that it was very noisy and hot.

Now when i interview i ask to be shown where i would sit.