Large Tech Companies Moving Beyond the Cubicle 345
statemachine writes in with a story from Silicon Valley about how Intel and Cisco, among other companies, are experimenting with cubeless, open, and unassigned seating. "Beginning this month, [Intel] will set up three experimental work sites. Open areas, comfortable armchairs, extra conference rooms and tables where people can plop down with laptops will replace the ubiquitous cubes that have been standard issue for decades. Each morning, Intel employees will log onto the corporate network using wireless connections. Their phone numbers will follow them. White boards that employees use to sketch out business plans and project strategies will be outfitted with electronics so drawings and plans can be transferred to laptops and e-mailed to colleagues. 'People feel much more comfortable coming up to me. It's more of a friendly atmosphere,' Cisco senior manager Ted Baumuller said. 'I hope I never have to go back to cubes.'"
What about personal things (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't kid yourselves, it's all about costs (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't kid yourselves, this is just about some PHB wanting to save on office space, cramming yet another dozen workers in the same space.
Management != Techies (Score:5, Insightful)
But not for me. I'm a hardcore techie. I spend days not interacting with people, fighting with the code, and I need my concentration. Every time I get interrupted, I need about 20 minutes to get back to work properly.
Yep, I'm in a cubicle. I hear everything that happens around me, and maybe I'm just not good enough to blank it out. I regularly have to reserve meeting rooms just to have a little peace and quiet to be able to think.
Yeah, I'm mad because my request for noise-isolating headphones was turned down. Does it show?
Re:What about personal things (Score:5, Insightful)
books and junk (Score:4, Insightful)
The King Is Dead - Long Live The King (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone else will continue working in the exactly the same was as they normally do because companies cannot afford and cannot be bothered to spend the money to do this for 90% of their employees.
"I've just seen this new strategy re the comfy seating and un-assigned working locations"
"Excellent, that's marrrvellous"
"Yes, most of our chairs already meet the recommended comfort standard so we'll keep those. The only thing is they're not really suitable for using laptops with so we'll keep the desks too since they're handy places to put the phones and coffee etc on. Now most of our guys work in teams and are kind of settled where they are but obviously we don't actually directly assign specifc seats so I guess that takes of everything ?"
"Marrvellous, our new strategy is a grrreeat success !"
"Yes, I knew you'd agree."
Re:Don't kid yourselves, it's all about costs (Score:4, Insightful)
So we get to implement Snow Crash's Office Plan (Score:4, Insightful)
Contrast that with Joel's Software, where each person gets his/her own office with a window, read what he says about it and how it improves productivity. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html [joelonsoftware.com]
Perfect (Score:5, Insightful)
I am glad to see that Intel has now answered that call.
Re:Don't kid yourselves, it's all about costs (Score:5, Insightful)
Still, I'm not sure why you view this so negatively, or have such bad feelings towards management. I've worked in open floor plans when my role was conducive to it (requiring lots of interaction, etc). Now my role is much more autonomous, and I really need uninterrupted time to get my time-sensitive work done (hence relishing office privacy and coming to work at 6 AM). My experience with unassigned floor plans was that I got more accomplished, and thus felt better about my work -- AND I enjoyed better relationships with my coworkers. The downside was inhibited ability to hunker down and cram out work -- this was solved by setting aside a portion of the office as a DND area. Except for real emergencies, DND was observed by everyone.
Re:What about personal things (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Backward Tech Companies (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh really? And that applies to software development as well does it? And it means more productivity as well, right - of course many people are happy to sit in a big open office and chat all day, but do they get more work done?
Joel [joelonsoftware.com] believes [joelonsoftware.com] it's all rubbish and private offices are much more productive. Personally, I have seen exactly the same thing. When I started at my current job we all were in one room. It was very sociable and we all agreed on what to do
Frankly, those studies are either not applicable or just missing the point.
Re:Backward Tech Companies (Score:5, Insightful)
idiot mods (Score:1, Insightful)
Welcome to lawsuit land (Score:2, Insightful)
Give it four or five years and there will be a lot of lawsuits because of Repetitive Strain Injury. Laptops are bad for ergonomics and RSI, as are "comfy" chairs etc.
These companies are just setting themselves up for a whole heap of trouble. I'm glad I don't work there.
RSI Info [demon.co.uk]
Re:What about personal things (Score:2, Insightful)
terrible terrible terrible (Score:4, Insightful)
Did I have photos in my cubicle ? No. but some people do. They have plants, action hero figures... etc etc. I personally only had specially crafted documents (crap no one else understands), but I know how deep people get hurt every time they moved them.
2. YES personal items.
No, I do not mean photos. I mean coffee stains, skin particles, food grease, saliva, boogers, pubic hair. No I am not a health/cleaning freak at all, but these are the personal items you ALWAYS find at someone else's desk/area.
3. My chi
I am sorry, but sitting at a different place disturbs my concentration, provides new distractions, and it takes time to learn to learn how to lock out that annoying new neighbor who chats to the wife screaming on the phone.
4. Special devices
Unless you are that uniform person who works with the standard given crap you are in trouble. Do I need a 22" to program code?
Well, not necessarily (even though at home I have one, so more text fits on it), but at work the standard 17" will do.
Then what? Oh well, I hate mice, and being a rather tall individual I cannot stand regular keyboards - too tight. Besides knowing how crappy the the keyboards and mice were the last Fortune 10 gave to the employees, even if I was ok with mice and regular keyboards I would differ to use any given one.
Pickiness? Well, when you spend 10+ hours at a computer (did I say 16+ ? ), and I am sure a lot of guys here do, you want the best input devices. I personally only work with a Logi trackman and any (non-cheap-o) split keyboard : MS, Fellowes are OK, without these I suffer after a few hours of working.
But then again I am a sociopath and quit a good job because I hated cubicle life so much, and I love to work bare-feet, underwear with my dogs sleeping next to me....
Anyway, this kind of workplace sharing is completely incompatible with me. I program and sysadmin, and while "sysadmining" tolerates socializing and noise at times of maintenance/support, programming needs dead silence and no changing environment for me. So does systems engineering, or even installing an unknown feature into an environment (e.g. reading docs, and try until it works kinda stuff).
Put it into any coating, it comes back to saving money to these corporations. It has nothing to do with you being well changing workstations.
Just my 2c.
damn I would do anything, even write a book on
Re:Don't kid yourselves, it's all about costs (Score:3, Insightful)
How the hell is it easier to round up the team when no one has a known location?
Re:This is not new (Score:4, Insightful)
No thanks. I have 10'x10' space that is all my own, desks on three sides of it, a 4 shelf bookshelf, room for a mini fridge and I can put whatever I want on the walls short of nude pictures. My cube is practically a study. No way i'd give it up except for a larger cubicle or office (which is a cubicle with a door)
Re:What about personal things (Score:4, Insightful)
It took me about three weeks to get used to the new arrangement, completely different from the 66" high, eight by eight cubes I had at my last job. We've got a little space to hang personal goods; a little over a foot of wall protrudes above the desk surface, and you can set little things on the wall rim. After settling in, I found that I like this arrangement far better than I liked the other system. You can look at people while you're talking to them several cubes away without getting up, and you can keep an eye on your clients without leaning over their shoulders. It makes you more accessible to your clients too, which his good in my case, but that's not best for everyone.
I'm a very social person, and like interaction with people. That's not for everyone, and I'm probably a bit outside of the norm for my chosen profession. If I want some privacy, I put on my headphones and make the world disappear. The boss, who frequently walks up to check on the state of the world, doesn't care if we surf the web, so long as we don't abuse the privilege and get our work done (I can post this without staring over my shoulder). For the most part, my counterpart and I are left to our own devices so long as nothing goes haywire.
That's something that a lot of companies (for instance, the electric utility I left to take this job) would have a hard time with; the idea of leaving people to do what they do and not worry so much about work style. If you take down people's walls (literally), you have to make them feel like they're not exposed. The cultural shift has to start at the top, not at the cube wall.
Re:In Support of Open Plan (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes and no. While face to face may be able to bring a faster exchange of ideas it's also nice to have that black and white conversation trail to work from. Not unlike Slashdot, just talking about an issue without a reference point can lead into a problem becoming confused and focus is more easily lost. Also, e-mail gives us the opportunity to sit back for a couple of minutes and think about problems instead of feeling urged to just fire back an answer.
So the decision on which option is the best for communication comes down to the issue and the individuals involved.
Re:What about personal things (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been in IT since 1972. I've worked in bull-pens and cubes. I've worked in the employer's space, and in my own. The environment in which you spend your time affects your behavior. The difference is that those in power are now aware of this.
In any group that is structured around leaders and rules, such as businesses, armies and to some extent, political parties, it is important to be able to exert control over those not in charge. Regardless of why this is being done, whether to save space or money, or whatever other explanation is offered, the psychological effects are the same. Knowing this can help to limit the effects, but that is only true for those who are conscious of these subtle power games. The rest of the workers slip ever-so-slowly into the mind-set of drones.
Think of it like that frog, being turned into Borg so slowly that it doesn't even notice.
But small changes can also be used to make big changes, if you know what you're doing. Introducing a new idea, a meme that infects one person after another, can also change the world. Like what happened in a story on my blog called "Business Decision"...
* * *
Evan studied the portly man standing in front of the curved dais for a moment before answering.
Jason Sweeney had attended Council meetings before, a silent but imposing presence brooding in the far corner. A curious glance was enough to influence the more convivial constituents in the room, causing them to stay well away lest they become enamored of whatever unsavory business had paid for the custom woven fabrics of his business suit, and led him to wear such uncomfortable-looking shoes. But something was different today. Something had driven him to exchange the shadows at the edge of the room for a brightly lit moment at the center of attention.
* * *
The whole story is here
http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/short-story-business-decision/ [wordpress.com]
Depends on your job (Score:4, Insightful)
Jobs that are conducive to this environment:
- marketing
- pre-sales engineers
- artists (graphical, musical, etc.)
- people managers
- sales people (maybe). Depends if they are usually out in the field or taking calls from customers.
Jobs that should be conducive to this environment but the workers wouldn't enjoy it:
- human resources: easily accessible, able to really keep a pulse on morale but a constant need for privacy.
- desktop support: easily accessible, immediately aware of issues but unable to get proactive work done.
Jobs that absolutely cannot work in this environment:
- developer: needs absence of interruptions and quiet for concentration.
- security: no one should be able to peek at security information whether physical or logical.
- sysadmin: same as security plus during a failure the accessability and interruptions would be detrimental.
- accounting/payroll: security concerns as well as customer privacy issues.
I could see a hybrid environment working well - a handful of cubes and offices and 75% of the space as described above. Once you get past the job descriptions, then you must consider whether or not it's conducive for the company's industry. At Cisco and Intel where you have a high percentage of "idea" people and sales people, it works. I'm quite certain the engineers, IT and some back office functions will not and cannot be part of this experiment.
Re:What about personal things (Score:5, Insightful)
And what about the the people occupying those cubes in between you and the person you're talking to?
Might as well work at Starbucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What about personal things (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about personal things (Score:3, Insightful)
Further, as a HW guy, I often keep equipment, boards, etc. that I'm working on in my "personal space" (cube, lab bench with my name on it). I do this a) to isolate stuff I've modified so that someone else won't take it and get hit with my nonsense and b) to protect the stuff I'm working on when some MGR tries to get promoted by shortchanging us on equipment. I do not wish to lose hours a day hunting for parts, or stealing a board to work on, getting apparatus set up, and then doing testing..every day.
Finally, imagine a world where both HW, Software and Mechanical engineers like to have multiple large screen monitors on their desk (all of these jobs benefit greatly). This sort of thing can't be done easily with this open floor plan environment. Everyone's needs are not the same, but the exceptions are more numerous than the rules. Sales, marketing and management can often live with this "on the go" lifestyle, as their duties are necessarily more social and dynamic...but for a lot of us grunts who actually design and cause to be built the products companies make money on...we need desks.
Unfortunately I see us being victimized by this process (having in the past 5 years gone from an office, to a large cube with high walls, to a small cube with low walls, to soon a smaller cube with smaller walls, to this new stupid thing) until it's realized it doesn't work. We live in the era of "one size fits all", even when it's blatantly obvious that it doesn't...mgmt proceeds to do so anyway until they get "data" that proves it.
Re:What about personal things (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about personal things (Score:3, Insightful)
Companies like it because it's CHEAPER!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
You can call it an 'open concept' office, you can call it 'hot-desking,' but at the end of the day it's a way of providing less space and less infrastructure per person. The companies toying with it are 'trying it out' not to see if it helps productivity, but to see if they can get away with it without causing their workers to revolt.