[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.