[smakz]

What are you doing at work that you don't want people looking over your shoulder? Serious question by the way - it always comes up in work environments that some people are pretty against the lack of privacy that comes along with these types of set ups, but really if you are at work there shouldn't be too much (if anything) on your screen which is private.

I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide open spaces and everyone is together with no walls between.

If you have that, and also offer a few "quiet rooms" where you can go if things are loud or you need to check your personal email, I don't see what the problem is.

[JabavuAdams]

> I'm a big fan of bull pen type environments, where it's wide open spaces and everyone is together with no walls between.

Visual and audio noise.

They're really bad for productivity of creators. They're good for managers / coordinators / investors.

The standard argument that "you can wear headphones" doesn't work for serious design work. Pounding music is great for grinding through list-ish stuff, but not for creativity.

It's like sleep deprivation. People who are sleep deprived will insist "I'm fine -- I just need a coffee", but their performance is much lower than those who are well rested.

EDIT> I'm not responding to the over-the-shoulder question here. I find it very distracting to see others' faces, though, e.g. with back-to-back monitors. Most of us are wired to pay attention to faces, so they cause a lot of visual noise.

At this point in my career, open-concept offices with > 4 or so people are a deal breaker. It makes me hate programming.

[CWIZO]

I just don't like somebody looking at my monitor. I also don't like somebody looking over my shoulder when I'm reading a book or a newspaper, and there's nothing to hide there. It just makes me nervous. I just don't like being on display and knowing that at all times somebody could be watching me and I wouldn't even know it. That's why I like the layout of our office. We are all together, not 2 meters apart from each other, but everybody can "hide" behind his monitor(s) and have his privacy. Also the way we are organized I don't see others people's faces unless I want to (JabavuAdams pointed this out in his reply to you)

[eipipuz]

I think it is more a principle than a pragmatic choice. People want privacy for no other reason than having it.

[sfphotoarts]

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