Open space offices are painful

I just saw this article on twitter and I totally agree. Not only in America, also in Oslo people work almost exclusively in open space situations.

For me as a programmer, this does not work out all that well.

I sit all day with headphones on. Actually listening to music all the time is too stressful, so I often just sit there with the headphones on. I really can’t get much done without the passive noise isolation of my phone cups.

Then there are visual and physical disturbances as well. There is always something happening in my peripheral field of view. People gather around screens, people walk past me, someone raising or lowering their desk. An accidental bump into my chair or the edge of my desk. Someone at the other end of the office opens a window and I sit in a draft all of a sudden. You get the picture :)

It is not easy to talk to anyone at all. Talking at my desk is bad, because the conversation disturbs my neighbors. They are programmers as well and I know they need silence. So we have to find us a meeting room or have a quick chat in the kitchen when the need arises. This way my neighbors are left in peace, but each conversation becomes a significant distraction from what I’m actually working on. Also, meeting rooms are a scarce resource in most places.

But resorting to meeting rooms - that’s just for respectful co-workers. Of course there are always people who either forget that others can hear them - or who simple care less. So even though you try to contribute to a noise-free environment, you don’t get to enjoy any of that in return.

What probably annoys me the most is the the uncontrollable temperatures though. It’s really hard to control that in large offices. In the summer there is an air condition system that shall keep the rooms cool. But some 30 meters away from you someone rather enjoys a nice breeze from the open window next to him or her. Completely ignoring that the open window turns off the air condition for the rest of us.

In the winter it’s just as bad: either too warm or too cold, but never comfortable. We who sit in the office have no way to control the temperature ourselves. There is a maintenance company who configures the system somehow. What they and the system ignore is the fact that there is a varying number of people in the office. On Mondays the office can be full - with all computers, screens, and human bodies contributing to the room temperature it becomes quickly sauna-esque. On Fridays many people like to “work” remotely, so the rest of us at work sit in a cold office.