From 0e4c55ec1aa3ecd57d541e3bcfef9e42167777a5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 14:56:36 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 01/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...18-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index e782198..25a8c5d 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ tags: - business - sass image: /img/lumburgh.jpg +share-img: /img/lumburgh.jpg --- Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point with equal hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact it has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. From e69b2c6e70e52516804a3544d1d2b9cdb0272a44 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 14:59:08 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 02/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 25a8c5d..1b76759 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: - business - sass image: /img/lumburgh.jpg -share-img: /img/lumburgh.jpg +share-img: '${site/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point with equal hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact it has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. From e1a96840a9dc13d4cbd1a0b83b575aade94c6ab0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:00:46 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 03/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 1b76759..39815ab 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: - business - sass image: /img/lumburgh.jpg -share-img: '${site/img/lumburgh.jpg' +share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point with equal hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact it has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. From 42cf03a93b47c96c7d9a98e3f49d0ee38686720a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:04:08 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 04/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 39815ab..fc81878 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: image: /img/lumburgh.jpg share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- -Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point with equal hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact it has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. +Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact it has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split abusing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. From 80bca8b93016fe39d1cf11f865b7c543df42cb98 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:09:42 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 05/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index fc81878..0794038 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ Let's look at the two most common alternatives to open-office floor plans. I'll Imagine you're in real estate for a moment. You have a space that lends itself to various business types that are compaitble with open-office plans, and it'll easily fetch $40,000/mo. Now let's imagine that a prospective lessee would like to build out a custom floor plan in your open space. They may occupy it for one to three years, as they're a fast-growing company, but eventually when they leave, you'll be left with their floor plan decisions. Do you still charge $40,000/mo? No. You charge more. A lot more. Because in all likelihood, the next company interested in leasing your space will be a lot less interested in living with the previous tenent's floor plans that were predicated on their unique company quirks and excentricities. -Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenail juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degress. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no business building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. +Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenail juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no business building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. From 28ebecf960ab236352d6a43968b499b11bb29cf6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:12:18 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 06/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 0794038..e55db85 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ But with that said, no business has ever failed because of their decision to hav Let's look at the two most common alternatives to open-office floor plans. I'll spend a little bit of time on one—denegrating it—and a bit more time on the other reflecting on what it means for your company's balance sheet. ## Alternatives Floor Plans -1. *Cubicles* — 😱I'd like to say, "'nuff said", but I suspect that many of the people who are currently castigating companies for their open-office floor plans perhaps have never worked in a cubicle farm. So let me just say this: cubicle farms, muted by the monotone hum of white noise piped in through A.C. vents from a recessed ceiling are one of the world's greatest soul-crushers. I've never been more unhappy on a day to day basis than when the majoirty of my time was spent in such an environment. I suspect _Office Space_ would not have been the success it was without a cubicle farm as an office backdrop. Let's go ahead and, sort of, move on to the next topic. +1. *Cubicles* — 😱I'd like to say, "'nuff said", but I suspect that many of the people who are currently castigating companies for their open-office floor plans perhaps have never worked in a cubicle farm. So let me just say this: cubicle farms, muted by the monotone hum of white noise piped in through A.C. vents from a recessed ceiling are one of the world's greatest soul-crushers. I've never been more unhappy on a day to day basis than when the majoirty of my time was spent in such an environment. I suspect _Office Space_ would not have been the success it was without it's cubicle farm setting. It's the only setting that properly fits the crushed-soul _Office Space_ narrative. Let's go ahead and, sort of, move on to the next topic. ![Lumburgh, Office Space]({{site.baseurl}}/img/lumburgh.jpg) From 75b87336db1843b4dc5ce16786443a55cf1a3901 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:15:51 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 07/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index e55db85..4fb954d 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ Let's look at the two most common alternatives to open-office floor plans. I'll Imagine you're in real estate for a moment. You have a space that lends itself to various business types that are compaitble with open-office plans, and it'll easily fetch $40,000/mo. Now let's imagine that a prospective lessee would like to build out a custom floor plan in your open space. They may occupy it for one to three years, as they're a fast-growing company, but eventually when they leave, you'll be left with their floor plan decisions. Do you still charge $40,000/mo? No. You charge more. A lot more. Because in all likelihood, the next company interested in leasing your space will be a lot less interested in living with the previous tenent's floor plans that were predicated on their unique company quirks and excentricities. -Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenail juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no business building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. +Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenail juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no place building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. From 8454cc0d706c9d043f1ae063fdb2314cf8e00999 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:22:21 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 08/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 4fb954d..5fc8f8b 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ Let's look at the two most common alternatives to open-office floor plans. I'll Imagine you're in real estate for a moment. You have a space that lends itself to various business types that are compaitble with open-office plans, and it'll easily fetch $40,000/mo. Now let's imagine that a prospective lessee would like to build out a custom floor plan in your open space. They may occupy it for one to three years, as they're a fast-growing company, but eventually when they leave, you'll be left with their floor plan decisions. Do you still charge $40,000/mo? No. You charge more. A lot more. Because in all likelihood, the next company interested in leasing your space will be a lot less interested in living with the previous tenent's floor plans that were predicated on their unique company quirks and excentricities. -Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenail juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no place building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. +Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenial juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no place building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. From 8e309d65ab944528d89019cbf0061250a4795e05 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:25:06 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 09/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 5fc8f8b..2f6821d 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: image: /img/lumburgh.jpg share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- -Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact it has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. +Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split abusing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. From 46b08b03e602ae6ffe901010fdf02640bb201512 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:26:01 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 10/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 2f6821d..a08963e 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: image: /img/lumburgh.jpg share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- -Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of the other reasons. +Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split abusing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. From 5b61bd158836136373f5df69a20eda57b180fc50 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:29:48 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 11/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index a08963e..d4df597 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ But with that said, no business has ever failed because of their decision to hav Let's look at the two most common alternatives to open-office floor plans. I'll spend a little bit of time on one—denegrating it—and a bit more time on the other reflecting on what it means for your company's balance sheet. ## Alternatives Floor Plans -1. *Cubicles* — 😱I'd like to say, "'nuff said", but I suspect that many of the people who are currently castigating companies for their open-office floor plans perhaps have never worked in a cubicle farm. So let me just say this: cubicle farms, muted by the monotone hum of white noise piped in through A.C. vents from a recessed ceiling are one of the world's greatest soul-crushers. I've never been more unhappy on a day to day basis than when the majoirty of my time was spent in such an environment. I suspect _Office Space_ would not have been the success it was without it's cubicle farm setting. It's the only setting that properly fits the crushed-soul _Office Space_ narrative. Let's go ahead and, sort of, move on to the next topic. +1. *Cubicles* — 😱I'd like to say, "'nuff said", but I suspect that many of the people who are currently castigating companies for their open-office floor plans perhaps have never worked in a cubicle farm. So let me just say this: cubicle farms, muted by the monotone hum of white noise piped in through A.C. vents from a recessed ceiling, are one of the world's greatest soul-crushers. I've never been more unhappy on a day to day basis than when the majoirty of my time was spent in such an environment. I suspect _Office Space_ would not have been the success it was without it's cubicle farm setting. It's the only setting that properly fits the crushed-soul _Office Space_ narrative. Let's go ahead and, sort of, move on to the next topic. ![Lumburgh, Office Space]({{site.baseurl}}/img/lumburgh.jpg) From 4eee1be3b15fae99b825a2680434f824ed568d03 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:31:09 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 12/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index d4df597..a49d32d 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. -Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split abusing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. +Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split torturing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. ## Open Offices At companies around the world, there exists a relatively small, but very vocal minority of people who despise the open-office floor plan. Let me just say this to you — your antipathy is completely valid. There are plenty of great reasons not to like open-office floor plans. They're loud, not conducive to deep work and thinking, they breed anxiety, and most importantly they're absolutely full of distractions that preclude productivity. I work for a company with an open-office floor plan and at any time of day, if I'm not listening to music or white noise to drown it out, I could probably listen into three to five different conversations. We've even turned these conversations into a series of Slack channels spanning multiple floors and offices: #heardinsf, #heardon3rd, and #said-it-on-2nd. Hands-down these channels are the best thing about our open-office floor plans. From 0089bac0b27994fe849b25f2ccebdd8867e48fce Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:32:53 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 13/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index a49d32d..6a52765 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: image: /img/lumburgh.jpg share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- -Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually feel very strongly about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. +Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually have very strong feelings about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split torturing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. From 6932f52b0527ae03425e9582d1245c40404e786e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:59:46 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 14/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 6a52765..d0c711a 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: image: /img/lumburgh.jpg share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- -Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I don't actually have very strong feelings about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. +Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I actually don't have very strong feelings about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split torturing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans. From 8afbfcf1dcf522490983c53c992c143f6dc2cabf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 16:01:40 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 15/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index d0c711a..4af5168 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ Let's look at the two most common alternatives to open-office floor plans. I'll Imagine you're in real estate for a moment. You have a space that lends itself to various business types that are compaitble with open-office plans, and it'll easily fetch $40,000/mo. Now let's imagine that a prospective lessee would like to build out a custom floor plan in your open space. They may occupy it for one to three years, as they're a fast-growing company, but eventually when they leave, you'll be left with their floor plan decisions. Do you still charge $40,000/mo? No. You charge more. A lot more. Because in all likelihood, the next company interested in leasing your space will be a lot less interested in living with the previous tenent's floor plans that were predicated on their unique company quirks and excentricities. -Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenial juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no place building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop railing on this trope du jour. +Chances are, for a large enough space, the price difference between a custom and open floor plan would pay your annual salary and maintain a full keg of millenial juice (cold brew) on tap. So maybe that open-office floor plan you hate is saving your job's ass. But who am I to say? Pop in some noise-cancelling headphones, lobby for quiet spaces/times, and figure out how to make your open-office work. I would argue that nearly every issue people have with open offices can be fixed, or at least mitigated to a large degree. Unless your company is insanely profitable—in which case, I hope you get that custom floor plan and stare down your nose at the rest of us plebes sharing space and making sensible business decisions—you probably have no place building out a custom office floor plan. The money saved might just materialize as your next pay raise. Buy yourself a better pair of headphones; or take a writing class to hone your management-lobbying skills for that quiet space. I don't really care — just please stop parroting this trope du jour unless you you're offering a better, afforable alternative. \ No newline at end of file From 8deb208017fd1d4e74b1c4f7370bd67f8a651d47 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adriano Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2018 16:03:11 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 16/16] Update 2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md --- ...8-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md index 4af5168..bee298d 100644 --- a/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md +++ b/_posts/2018-07-14-open-office-floor-plans-are-saving-your-job-s-ass.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: image: /img/lumburgh.jpg share-img: 'https://adriano.fyi/img/lumburgh.jpg' --- -Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I actually don't have very strong feelings about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open offic has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. +Do I have your attention? I'll come clean — I actually don't have very strong feelings about open office floor plans, but with so many people [waxing hyperbolic about them](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-open-plan-office-is-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea-42bd9cd294e3), I felt that it was time someone weighed in with a contrarian point and matching hyperbole. DHH's article above essentially reduces the decision of having an open office to the idea that they look good to managers signing leases who will inevitably use the office as a backdrop for media interviews. These managers—so the thinking goes—don't care what impact an open office has on employees' day-to-day lives because managers need not directly live with the decision. What with their corner offices and travel-heavy schedules. This argument is highly reductive and doesn't honestly portray the multitude of reasons that companies may choose to have open offices. I think I understand one of those reasons. Disdain for open offices is becoming technocrats' newest and laziest trope. A lot of digital ink has been spilt cataloguing the ways in which they'll be the demise of modern work. And a lot of digital ink has been split torturing this ink-spilling expression for the digital age. Let's not dwell on that; let's talk open-office floor plans.