[contergan]

I fully agree. I currently work for a startup and after we moved into a new office last month our management had the glorious idea of putting the programmers next to the customer support team in an open office :/

It's horrible - I have to endure the customer support calls the whole day long and can't find even 5 min. in silence, in order to concentrate on the programming tasks I'm supposed to do. I tried putting on headphones and listening to white noise etc., but that doesn't cut it either. I need silence to work efficiently and it's been that way ever since I cam remember. My productivity has absolutely tanked in the open office and coming this Friday, I will quit the job and spend the coming weeks getting back into self-employment and working from home.

[Cthulhu_]

Have you at least provided feedback to the managers? Like cold, hard feedback "I cannot work like this, I and my colleagues are going to quit and you're fucked when we do" kinda feedback.

[mgkimsal]

No one ever does this, unfortunately. Getting a group to band together and threaten collective action is something few people even consider - most people I know are scared of entertaining that idea.

[mkopinsky]

It's not about making a collective threat, it's letting management know that the new conditions are making you consider options "up to and including departure", and that you think the other devs may be in the same boat.

[snx]

Just make sure you don't talk for other people (for example naming your peers). Otherwise i strongly agree.

[rlonstein]

    > I fully agree. I currently work for a startup and after we moved into 
    > a new office last month our management had the glorious idea of 
    > putting the programmers next to the customer support team in an open office :/

I'm a CTO and we moved to new offices a couple of months ago. There were glass-topped, full-height cubes in the center of the floor with natural light on one and a half sides. Not perfect but better than a bullpen. I explicitly asked and emailed the rest of management that we not alter the cubes. The developers prefer to huddle or break off into conf rooms and need the option of getting heads down. The result, the COO had the cubes trimmed to waist height for a open floor effect.

It's damn difficult to get non-IT people to change their POV.

[hvidgaard]

If a COO does not listen to what the CTO say is important for productivity, you have bigger problems than non-IT people not understanding you.

[dataker]

Dilbert principle at its best