[nunez]

I personally love open floor plans. It is so easy to talk to people and get answers and ideas about projects and the like. I don't see how free flowing collaborating through cubes is possible.

The best permutation of open spaces and privacy that I've seen is a wide open space with quiet rooms and sharable offices. Work in the open space when you want, or work in the quiet room when you need some privacy.

I wish that more companies would adopt this.

[officelineback]

The thing is I like to get my workstation ergonomically perfect for my issues (I have back and shoulder issues) and using a generic table with no extra monitors for my quiet intense work sucks. It should be the other way around...everyone gets a private office, but has an option to join the fray in an open office area.

[nunez]

If everyone had an open office, then very few would use the open space area. Also, providing offices for everyone is expensive, and it's harder to collect people sitting in different offices than it is when everyone's in an open space. I'm personally against everyone getting an office, but we'll agree to disagree :)

[dasmoth]

If everyone had an open office, then very few would use the open space area.

Assume you mean private office. Isn't that a pretty compelling argument that the majority don't see big advantages to open plan?

[cwilkes]

How expensive is it really? Maybe $15k to setup some walls? Let's sAy $30k as you will lose about 1/3rd the floor space.

That's a one time cost. Amortize that out over a 5 year office lease and it is peanuts compared to the productivity gains and lower turnover.

Also once you go with a private or semi private office you won't want to go back. Any employee from there interviewing at places with open offices will probably think how much they will hate it there.

I know the occasional person will pop up with the "I love hearing other people jibber jabber throughout the day!" But 9 out of 10 people I talk with would rather not.

[bradstewart]

I had this setup at my previous company and it was truly fantastic.

[officelineback]

Are you allowed to name names?

[bradstewart]

I don't see why not: Silicon Labs in Austin. All of the company's office space isn't setup like this, but my floor was.

[greedo]

I personally do not love hearing every personal detail from my neighbors when I'm trying to troubleshoot an issue. Nor do I enjoy having a coworker trim his fingernails on a weekly basis in my open are. The idea the open floor plans are good is only for people whom rarely need to deeply concentrate.

Quiet rooms don't help, not everyone has a laptop, nor wants one. You end up with a crappy, un-ergonomic desktop environments. And there are only so many quiet rooms possible. If you use one continually, you get marked as the social deviant.

Shareable offices? How is that any different than the old "hoteling" concept? Sharing an office is going to be first come first served, same as your quiet rooms. No diff.

If managers, directors, and VPs are willing to use this type of setup, I'd be more tolerant. But in our latest update, they all have dedicated offices. They can't mingle with the hoi polloi, having an office is a signal of their power and prestige.