well, there are several points here:

1. no doubt engineers like to work in private offices, the question is how bad is open space, in other words how does the productivity decrease when people works in the open areas ?

in my opinion it's about 20%

2. does the open space save more money than engineers lose due to #1 ?

maybe ... in some cases ...
as an engineer I of course say NO ;-)

3. how strong people's concern about that ?

I think the private office is not a big reason for changing a job,
however it can be an additional factor --
workplace organization is quite important.

posted May 10, 2007

This is the complex subject as you've mentioned.
Open space has only one drawback and it is noisy environment (however, "noisy" can be quite quiet by the way).
I've worked both in open space offices and in individual one.
But the open space has one major feature - improved efficient collaborative work for a team of developers.
Nothing is more productive than working face-to-face with colleagues; each small or big task/problem/bug/issue can be discussed with fellow developers in order to find the best way to each solution you have to provide.

If you have several developers working as a team, I'd suggest placing them in the open space. Otherwise, individual office space is required.

The only thing to improve in the open space is to keep noise as quiet as possible.

Good luck.

Sincerely yours,
Shulga Alexei

posted May 10, 2007

My personal experience says that something in the middle is the best option & I fully agree with Yaron.
Once I was working on openspace where all employees were mixed: IT guys with consultants, salesmen, key account managers and so on... In spite of that it was openspace all professions where grouped together. But level of noise made by salesmen was completely unacceptable :(
Complete lonelyness in separate room is also very bad solution. I know that work is for work, but if you aren't able to say a word to anyone during whole day it can drive you into madness.
In my opinion the best solution is grouping small task groups (3-5 guys) in separate rooms. It guaranties peace and acceptable silence during work, but allows you to exchange ideas in comfortable way.

posted May 10, 2007

I personally hate working in a closed office. I'd much rather work in an open office or from home. In IT terms, I always found that being able to work together is a huge plus and leads to quicker & better development.

But a huge variable is the design - a proper open-plan office needs;
lots of natural light
high roof to allow all the noise to dissipate
very good AC plant to handle all the heat from people & machines
enclosed & soundproofed meeting rooms

You also need to control your workforce and take any raging arguments off the floor, and to ensure any noisy workers are politely reminded to keep their voices down when on the phone (nothing more annoying or distracting than listening to one side of an angry legal argument!) When working in environments lacking any or all of these, I prefer a closed office myself.

posted May 10, 2007

It seems that this comes down to how much the people have in common in their daily jobs. Working at IT support, it was great to be in small teams (2-4). We had a lot of opportunity to solve problems together, but also had a room which was mostly empty in case of double phone calls (most requests were by email), and a bigger room with 8-10 computers in case of bigger projects. This flexibility undoubtedly helped productivity and morale.

Later, I worked mostly on single-developer projects, in a corridor with 1-2 person rooms. Since I usually wasn't working on the same project as the colleague in the same room, and the room door was open according to custom, I'd often use headphones to cancel out all the noise.

Both environments were productive, but I certainly prefer flexibility, and a quiet (or, at least, uniform noise) environment is paramount when developing.

posted May 10, 2007

I would definitely be more productive in an office where I had the option to close the door if necessary. When I'm trying to code something, just about any noise is a distraction, and where I currently work they get very, very loud no matter how many times you ask them to quiet down.

I have shared a large office space with a co-worker in the past, that worked out pretty well as we respected each other's needs when one person needed some quiet in order to work. The room was a fishbowl type, so if we closed the door we could still see or be seen by people in the hallway.

The rest of my experience has been in open cubicle environments, and I hate it. I can't even make a doctor appointment in private, let alone write code.

My suggestion: give them rooms with doors they can close, but group the offices together at the end of a hallway so folks can still shout at each other if they want to.

posted May 10, 2007

I think that in some cases, 'Embracing the open plan' is management's copout to cutting costs, but not saying so. So is the 'industrial' design look. :-)

Human beings need both companionship and personal space to thrive, and different proportions for different people. There isn't one panacea to the problem, but only levels of compromise that you are willing to bring to the table.

For example, cube farms are horrific in many ways, but mainly because they are designed specifically so that no worker ever feels safe and secure. They have the effect of causing anxiety, and since your back is to the corridor, often people will startle you when the come up to talk to you.

Now, just turn the desk around and suddenly you have a calmer, more peaceful environment. Yes, it takes a few more square feet (which is why I believe many don't allow this setup) but I believe it more than pays back in increased productivity and lower turnover.

Add a few common areas that are 'on the way' to places employees regularly visit, such as restrooms and cafeterias, and put actually comfortable chairs in them! Put up some nerf darts or something. Make it a -nice- place to sit so the employees who want to interact can feel comfortable doing so. Make up goofy names for the spaces and theme them. Make the cafeteria something other than a mess hall with formica tables and plastic lawn chairs. It doesn't need to cost more.. just put more thought into the design process.

The question of private offices is difficult.. honestly, I don't think that anyone who doesn't functionally need total privacy (managers and sales people) should have a door they can close and not be seen. And non managers should be sharing offices with others. Cubes can be made semi-private, so I think they could be modified in this way to provide the best of both worlds. Such as higher walls, sound absorptive paneling, and clear doors.

I don't think there is a perfect solution to this, but I do believe that if you keep the human needs in mind you'll be able to come up with a compromise that will work within your floorplan and budget, and keep almost everyone happy.

posted May 10, 2007

Private Office, nothing less !

In fact I would probably refuse open space jobs, I did it a few times ( worked in open space and even in call centres) at beast and you basically loose considerable time witnessing individual quarrels & conversations at worst ( call centres now outsourced to poor countries) you go tensed and exhausted.

Further more your body may produce sounds that can attract attention in open space… ( not me, others ; )

I now have a great office, a view on the valley ( their is often a horse in the field) and I'm "polluted" by the noise of crickets in summer and birds in trees all year...

Of course I'm unfortunate enough to live in an archaic country named France ( still few enough open space jobs, long meals etc, etc...)

Against such paradise environment, I get less money than someone based in a "modern" city ( it actually took considerable energy to achieve such a salary drop while finding a very interesting job…)

I thinks we only live once, and at least 1/3 (1/2?) of that time is at/with work so if you ever are gathered-up like cattle in open space...( just look for another job!)

posted May 10, 2007

There are open spaces and there are open spaces :-)

If I was working by myself on a project I would generally want to work in a quiet office.

If I was working in a team I would much prefer to room where everybody working on the project could work together in one place. I've found this much more effective than people working in separate offices.

For me the absolutely worst environment is working in an open space with people not working on the same project as I am.

posted May 10, 2007

Give people access to windows to see outside, private areas for those private phone calls, gathering space away from cube farms, high walled cubes, and good management. Oh, and if you're sticking someone in a cube, turn their faces towards the opening or give them a rear view mirror.

posted May 10, 2007

Adrian,

We went through a very similar decision at Microsoft almost two years ago. My team was one of the first at that company to propose shifting from individual offices to open space. The benefits and the problems can be summarized as follows (Top 4 on each side)


Blessings:

1. Productivity will go up. Distractions such as personal web surfing, personal phone calls, plain self-absorption, side activities, etc... will reduce by sheer feeling of exposure. Employees will self-police as a natural reaction to no protective walls.

2. Communication will improve. Transparency on multiple teams will happen naturally. People will become more aware of related (or even redundant!) projects... Info will transfer without needing to organize so many formal meetings.

3. Cammaderie will raise tremendously. Even the most staunched solitaires will warm up to their neighbor's worlds... Friendships will be forged!

4. The quality of creativity somehow will grow: Team members will show their work to their side neighbors, answers will be qualified by others' opinions, back-and-forth idea-forming will happen by serendipity.

Curses:

1. In companies with entrenched cultures of self-reliance and independent work, such a shift will undoubtedly bring serious costs: Some of your best employees that felt rewarded with corner, big & window offices will not give them up easily. Some will fight it to the end. An they WILL defect! be ready to lose people even with the best communication and counseling plan in place. Employee turn-over WILL happen.

2. Upon first implementation, employees will fight for the "best" spots in an open space. Be ready for 1-to-1 requests for changes, request for favoritism, complaints. Specially from those spots with the seating back to foot traffic or noisy spots.

3. Fight micromanagement! The temptation for accessible over-the-shoulder direction could drive your teams crazy. Distraction will happen nevertheless.

4. Privacy? Forget it... At the beginning, people will fear the openness and clam-up considerably. But later on, the urge to deal with life will push on... And chats about health, families, rumors, discipline, compensation, performance, etc, will continue to the open audience's amuse. Be ready for quite a new layer of unsuspected transparency! At Microsoft we reduced its impact with the building of "Short Term Parking" small offices for public use, where private gathering or phone calls could be still attained by sliding a glass door.


Mixed:

1. Morale will raise and drop quite fast... there is nothing like close proximity for rumors, good and bad feelings on the company latest decisions to spread like brush fire.

2. Open spaces tend to be great for designers and creative personnel, a little bit more demanding on developers an technical staffing. But their cross-interaction will benefit the resulting product!

3. Personal music and eating at desks will have to be banned... but the solution could bring a lot of new benefits: At Microsoft, a designated time ("3 o'Clock Rock") was implemented (Where anyone could choose a song and submit it for public broadcast) and became a fun moment of the day that everyone looked forward to. Social group lunches will increase. Despite our fears, noise level was kept minimal.

4. People's personal spaces will decrease in affordability: Chances for hanging posters, placing swag and customized decor will decrease considerable... Many do not think this is a bad change. ;-)

5. Climate and light control will have to be negotiated as a group... But with proper interior design skill, be minimized.

All in all: I HIGHLY recommend open spaces... It teaches your people to interact and share knowledge. Redundancy (one of the worst maladies in corporate environments) will be considerably reduced. Creativity will flourish... And come recruiting day: It will feel more like an inviting family to potential new employees.

posted May 11, 2007

on my team, there are cubes and offices for devs. generally, the majority of people prefer the cubes (partially because the cubes have windows that look out on a rather nice view). Being moderately new, I am in a shared office (2 people in the office). The office is actually quite nice, but I sometimes wish I was a bit closer to my teammates like the people in cubes are.
I have seen some 4-person offices, as well, and it seems like those can be really cool if you have the right group of people. In many cases, the 4-person offices end up getting decorated really well, and it becomes a cool place as well as a productive place.

posted May 11, 2007

In my career I've the opportunity to reconfigure space for software development teams a couple of times. I've used both the open space and closed office models. What I've found works best in terms of productivity and morale is the idea of clusters of closed and cubical-type offices (some possibly shared) centered around a common open work area that is "owned" by the team. The open work area can be used for team meetings, informal conference and, importantly, chance encounters which create an opportunity to ask for help or offer it. The clustering idea promotes team identification and also tends to minimize distractions from other teams/work happening in a mixed environment. In providing the closed/cubical offices, you must be sensitive to both the employee's needs as well the company's "rules" for how to assign offices. The latter is helpful because it provides an independent reference point from which to start the discussion. By all means, provide your superstars with the environment that maximizes their productivity - they are going to carry the load for the team. Remote members of the team are a complication, but depending on your level of control you can configure their area similarly and use frequent video/tele-conference in the shared areas to promote team cohesion. My two cents!

posted May 11, 2007

As an interior designer for spaces like you are talking about, I find the feedback fascinating. As 'trends' go, we've been through the whole 'private offices' to 'open office/bullpen' to 'cubicle' environments. Each has it's good point and bad points from both economic and functional points of view.

More and more companies are looking for solutions that are flexible, support productivity, provide employees with the tools they need to be successful, etc. Even in a completely open plan system, there is a need for some portion of the office space to be enclosed to provide privacy. In the past several years the 'team' concept has been answered by providing open office space with furniture that can be easily reconfigured to allow team members to come together and work on a project, but then go back to their somewhat private space to complete tasks requiring more solitude. The trick is to find the right mix to accomodate any given company's staff and their needs.

posted May 11, 2007