[tjdetwiler]

I went from private office to open floor plan when I switched jobs last. It was towards the bottom of things I cared about when I was considering the move.

Private offices are definitely nice, but I also enjoy the positives of an open office

[nilkn]

I could see going from a private office to, say, a well-designed cubicle, but I definitely think for a lot of folks the transition to an open floor plan could be incredibly disruptive.

I suppose it depends on the personality. Generally, though, with private offices, well-designed communal areas, and huddle rooms (plus larger conference rooms), it's hard to see how an open floor plan has any advantages other than supposed cost cutting. The crux of the issue, I think, is that it requires a rather special type of personality to be really productive in a more chaotic open floor plan, whereas it requires a much less special type of personality to be really productive when one has the option of retiring to an office.

Really, what's most important to me is that one has the option of retiring to a private space when the extra concentration is needed. If one were to sit in an open space by default, but always was guaranteed a small private space when needed, I wouldn't see many issues. But I've seen very few open office plans that can legitimately offer that sort of dynamic. Headphones do not constitute a private space -- they're more of a bandaid.

[tjdetwiler]

I personally find cubes to be the worst combination of collaboration vs privacy. You still have people who will walk up to you when you're working, but the cubes really break up the space.

In my office, they have small "conference rooms" which really only have space for 2-3 people that you can reserve if you want to hide away in somewhere quite. I usually fall back to these if I need to go heads down on something.

The best part of the office is the ability to close/lock the door to prevent the annoying "walk ups" that really disrupt work.