Anyone work in open office enviroments?

[sityeuropa]

Just like to say how horrible open office layouts are.

I have axieties of many types and dealing with open offices is work in itself.

So noisy, everyone can hear what you say. I find it hard to speak and have to shout over everyone to be heard.

I know the life stories of people in the next bank of desks and I've never even spoke to most of them. Some people are not phased by it and don't care everyone can hear what they are saying. So much uninteresting crap I have to listen to.

Only positive is managers can see what everyone is doing. Not a good trade off for stress and lower productivity.

EDIT: Thinking about it another big positive is the departmental communication is faster. This is more suited to supervisors and mangers.

 

[Scythe]

I hated being in an open office too for similar reasons to be honest, I'd much prefer if my team was situated in a separate office.

 

[MisChief]

I don't mind it, means I can be lazy and just turn around to speak to a colleague without having to get up and walk over to them. Me and my female colleagues always talk about diets, weight loss, shopping and men. A male colleague got pretty annoyed once...

Noise doesn't bother me as I listen to music through earphones anyway.

 

[Raymond Lin]

You learn to ignore the noise and the women talking ^^^ and get on with some work.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I work in an open plan office and I actually prefer it. It makes knowing what other people on the team are doing, which means it's easier to help others and get help when I need it.

 

[PapaLazaru]

I work in a totally open office environment with no set desk to sit at. We are positively encouraged to move around and sit wherever we want, even in another building (we have six large open plan offices on site). You just pull up a chair, turn on your laptop and start work. All wireless (though there are plugs to charge up your laptop and phone). It is all nice and quiet though as most people are analysts of some form.

 

[Voxination]

Open office here as well, but it kind of needs to be for the business to work properly (stock brokers/traders). Didn't like it at first (way too noisy compared to other open offices I've worked in), but you get used to it over time and realize that no one unintended is listening to what you may be saying as they're too wrapped up in whatever it is they're doing.

As Burnsy says, it also makes it much easier to help/get help from other teams without having to go and disturb a quiet room full of analysts that would then all definitely be able to hear every word you're saying.

 

[julianhj]

I've only ever worked in open offices, and was hot desking for over eight years until a couple of months ago. I now stick headphones in if I need to concentrate, as I'm sometimes easily distracted by the conversations around me.

 

[Doomedspeed]

I used to work in an open office. The only ones who weren't in that office were the company directors (everyone else was, including my boss' boss).

Luckily i was in the corner, so i could have self-pescribed 'OCUK breaks' which was nice. I if wasn't, i doubt i'd get away with it.

I enjoyed it because you were never scared to ask for help and you may somtimes overhear some VITAL imformation (which someone may not have deemed vital to you).

As an example, i overheard a phone conversation which meant the projecti was working on was going to change, DRAMATICLY. Acting on this i left it aside for the rest of the day. It was the DAY AFTER when i was told offically, if i hadn't heard i could have spent an extra 8-10 hours working on something that was just going to be scrapped.

It is also a good place for jokes, some people say (shout) things the probably shouldn't... and get long lasting nicknames for it.

 

[slinxy]

I've worked in open offices in the past and they do have many advantages..
Mainly the easy of access to people and there's no need to arrange a meeting for a 5 min chat and people can't hide an office and claim their busy all day.

The one I dislike the most is the booth office! Not quite open and not closed, so you had the disadvantage of both. I had one guy; who just smelt, decided to move in to the booth next to me and remove the devider between our booths, cos he was my friend and liked talking to me! Without letting me know. It took me a week find an excuse to get the wall back in!

But yes, I'm that one in any office that has he's headphones on way to loud; one day I'm going to burn at work.

 

[jkb]

When my company bought a business in Spain the first thing I did was open the office area out into a single area. It was so against the culture there that everyone hated it. To prove a point I also sat at a desk in the open office when I was there. I think they are much better, no hiding behind doors and you get a feeling of the things that are happening. It is important that there are sufficient quiet/meeting rooms.
I saw a company on the internet where no one has their own space, everyone sits at one huge table and got just turn up and grab a seat. It probably wouldn't work for us but I would love to try it.

 

[FunkyCowie]

I find it unproductive due to noise levels of chit chat caused by people coming in or neighbors talking loudly to one another which stops me from being focused. But I find it productive in that I am next to the three people I have to deal with most everyday... we work at the quiet end of the office, the other end is very noisey.

 

[rodo]

Where I work all our offices are open plan. However a number of desks are hot desks and you turn up and take your pick. Normally works quite well (odd noise issues) except when at one point in my team there were 3 times the amount of people to hot desks and every morning was a fight to get in early or spend an hour walking round looking for people calling in sick.

 

[M1k3H]

Working in an open office as well. Usually appointed new area depending on project responsible for so other people in the project can ask questions without having to email, or vice versa. Don't mind it at all. IF there's anything annoying, or if I'm writing a document and need some peace and quiet, I just plug in my headphones and listen to some music.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Open plan with meeting / conference call rooms off to one side is the best solution I've encountered yet. You still have managers sending you emails from 15 feet away instead of coming out to talk to you though.

Cubicle farms are grim. Spent 2 weeks in one supporting a project in the USA a few years ago and they completely kill all banter and teamwork.

 

[Stewy]

You just need to make sure you get your back against a wall so you can browse OcUK.

I do find it quite loud but, as other people have said, I just put in noise-cancelling headphones and go into my own little world if I have a lot of work to do.

 

[Deus Ex]

Like open working spaces.

 

[memyselfandi]

I have always worked in open plan offices and they can vary enormously on how good or bad they are.

The first one I worked in was completely dead ... nobody communicating in any way with anyone around them just sitting in dead silence. It was quite intimidating as a trainee at the time as you didn't want to ask anybody anything as you felt that everyone would be listening in.

Since then I've worked in several offices which have been a lot more lively with lots of interaction within and between teams and that has normally meant that things have gone great with people communicating more if they are stuck on something so issues are fixed more quickly. Yes there were occasions where you have someone who is loud and annoying but they don't tend to last for long without someone having a word ...

If I need to really concentrate then either a pair of headphones (making sure they are not leaking noise to annoy people) or working from home for a day normally allows me to get things done, (the latter also being used if I have a voice conference which I don't want to do in "public", e.g. appraisal or team meeting (none of my team, nor my management, are based at the same physical location as me)).

 

[deusexlumina]

don't like them, i like to work in quiet environments. don't mind a chat, but hearing everyone else talk nonsense gets annoying.

 

[Randomface74]

I work in an open office, very distracting when trying to code. I often book a meeting room just so I can concentrate.