[clra]

This article nails it:

> Open offices clearly suck. So why are you (most likely) still working in one? Behind all the fluff, there is a simple explanation: they save insane amounts of money.

In the beginning, there was a lot of talk about open offices producing more collaborative environments, and I'm willing to give this charitable credence and believe that some people might really have thought that at the time. It was an emerging idea and the complete ramifications were not really understood.

These days though, I don't think anyone ingenuous would defend that idea anymore — it's all about money, and this is doubly so in dense tech hot spots like San Francisco where real estate commands a huge premium.

My large company is entirely open office, and has even been known to downsize standard desk size in order to get more of them into the same area. It's annoying, and there's no question that it creates a large productivity tax (desks are packed tightly enough that even a small group of people having a conversation at normal voice levels three rows over is pretty disrupting), but it mostly works, and giving everyone their own office in our central location would be pretty much financially infeasible. You learn to start working around it as best you can with sound insulating headphones, working from home where possible, or even reserving the occasional meeting room when you can.

I find some comedy in the fact that my parent's generation used to complain non-stop about being ousted form their offices and into cubicle farms. These days, my generation would kill for cubicles. Even a couple drawers to store a few personal items are a fantasy at this point.

[IshKebab]

I work in an open office and it is clearly more collaborative than if we were all in separate rooms. You can easily talk to people about things and interested parties often overhear and join the discussion when they wouldn't have even known it was happening otherwise.

Also, being honest, I'd totally waste more time browsing the news if I had my own office.

The key is:

1. Have plenty of space per person. We have big desks and are only at about 60% occupancy at the moment.

2. Don't make the offices enormous. I'd say never more than 100 people in one room. Ideally less.

3. Good acoustics. Carpets are essential.

I used to work for Dyson and they had 1000 people (no joke, I counted) in one enormous office (actually it was a repurposed factory building) with no sound absorbing material at all and it was awful. Current company is just insanely better.

The only issue I have is there is one guy with a really loud and penetrating voice... But it's not a deal breaker.