I work in an open office environment. I never thought I’d say this, but it works excellently; there’s always energy in the air, collaboration is easy, and it’s a great space to hold company all-hands meetings. I’d say there are 4 keys to making this work:
1) The founders have a great sense of aesthetic and our office is a beautiful space as a result (also stays very clean), meaning it stays less stressful and promotes a positive mood. This may not be strictly necessary but it sure helps it not feel like the hellscape that “open office” evokes.
2) There are plenty of closed-room office spaces available if you need focus time
3) Both of our open-office sections are in rooms much bigger than the rows of desks, so despite having a large number of people in one room, it never feels crowded
4) There is Sonos in both open-office areas and people are pretty good about not hogging it or playing obnoxious/too-loud music
I’ve also worked in open offices that were nightmarish, but saw these same factors (minus the aesthetic portion) make for an effective office environment elsewhere as well. Music, breakout offices, and non-desk space seem to be the musts (but do decorate nicely because it matters more than I ever would have thought before).
EDIT: I should add that it’s usually pretty quiet, and the music very low. I don’t consider it a distraction, but I also like my coworkers’ music so this may not work for everyone. Also, headphones are universally respected as a “do not disturb” signal.
> it’s a great space to hold company all-hands meetings.
I've never been in an all-hands meeting that was actually useful. Usually its a bunch of guys bragging about how great they are in roundabout ways.
> There is Sonos in both open-office areas
Oh god. That alone would want me to not work there. I don't want to listen to someone else's music (most of the time, I don't want to listen to music at all -- I work from home now, thankfully, and spend most of the day without any noise or music at all. Silence is amazing. I don't want to be overstimulated all day every day)
My job is 'focus time' 95% of the day. So I need to monopolize on of those office spaces. Hey! Just put a sign on the door - Joe's Office. And we're back to closed offices.
Definitely! There are some dedicated offices for those who need them as well. It’s just the support and dev teams that have open offices. Both of those teams do a lot of informal communicating internally and externally so it’s nice for them (I’m on the dev team and do a mix of focus work and communication).
2) is flawed: I don't want to go to a private office for focus time. I got my external monitors, headphones, dock, etc. in my main seat. It's my working area, and should be the main focus area.
> 2) There are plenty of closed-room office spaces available if you need focus time
As a coder, the ratio is like 99% focus time and 1% socialising. If I were just to take an office everyday id be viewed as entitled even if its the most rational thing
> 4) There is Sonos in both open-office areas and people are pretty good about not hogging it or playing obnoxious/too-loud music
Just, why is there a Sonos in the first place!? I can't imagine being at work and wanting to hear someone's playlist.
> 2) There are plenty of closed-room office spaces available if you need focus time
This is key.
If I had the flexibility to work in one of these spaces regularly (30+ hours a week), I would be fine. Oh, and each of these rooms has a dual monitor setup with a docking station for my laptop, right?
Same exact story here - worked in an open office that was awful that we slowly transformed into one that functioned extremely well.
Where I've always thought open offices break down is when you have the space filled with people who wouldn't normally talk to each other if they were in their own offices. Organizations that have roughly the same number of projects as they have developers.
Where it started to work extremely well, is when the only people within a 10 foot radius of me exclusively worked on the same project, codebase and backlog as me. If you're building a component for a developer that's sitting to the right of you, tested by a QA sitting to the left of you with business rules written by the BA sitting behind you it's incredible how fast you can move.
1) The founders have a great sense of aesthetic and our office is a beautiful space as a result (also stays very clean), meaning it stays less stressful and promotes a positive mood. This may not be strictly necessary but it sure helps it not feel like the hellscape that “open office” evokes.
2) There are plenty of closed-room office spaces available if you need focus time
3) Both of our open-office sections are in rooms much bigger than the rows of desks, so despite having a large number of people in one room, it never feels crowded
4) There is Sonos in both open-office areas and people are pretty good about not hogging it or playing obnoxious/too-loud music
I’ve also worked in open offices that were nightmarish, but saw these same factors (minus the aesthetic portion) make for an effective office environment elsewhere as well. Music, breakout offices, and non-desk space seem to be the musts (but do decorate nicely because it matters more than I ever would have thought before).
EDIT: I should add that it’s usually pretty quiet, and the music very low. I don’t consider it a distraction, but I also like my coworkers’ music so this may not work for everyone. Also, headphones are universally respected as a “do not disturb” signal.