Community Chat

[Abrowneyegirl]

I was out with 'the girls' and 3 of them were venting about the 'new European' office culture their companies are/have converted to called open concept.

No offices or cubicles just wide open spaces of tables or desks.

2 of my friends work for the same company, there are 600 people on one floor and about 700 people on another.  

They took away all the cubicle walls and now the person who was on the other side of cubicle is sitting across from you looking at you all day.  No matter which way you look or face there sits a co-worker!  They showed me photos

They said the noise alone is enough to make you crazy.

People taking on the phone, sneezing, etc.

The other girl says her floor at her company is next, she also has hundreds of people on her floor, but with the conversion they are adding another 70-100 people to her floor to free up space else where.

I could not work in this environment, the noise, distractions, interruptions would drive me crazy!!

Could you work this way?

[Camry22]

I think this started with tech companies and it appeals to millennials. I would hate it!!

[MyGirlsMom]

I worked this way in the 80's and 90's, it's not a "new" concept at all. 

I'd rather have an open floor rather than cubicles clocking out sunlight. 

[AuntG]

That's how it was when I started working in the 80's.  Then they came in with cubicles.  What is old becomes new again.

[bri20]

I couldn't work like that

I'm glad I work from home.  I don't have the patience to deal with all that commotion 

[bmorechick]

Omg I would quit. I have always had my own office with a door that I close when I need absolute quiet. I got mine all hooked up with my own microwave, Keurig, mini fridge and a cozy chair. I have my own lighting with lamps as I hate the overhead fluorescent lights. After 38 years, I could never survive in the environment you have described.

[deepwaterdotter]

I also worked in an arrangement like the one described by the OP.  I preferred it to cubicles.

---

@MyGirlsMom wrote:

I worked this way in the 80's and 90's, it's not a "new" concept at all. 

I'd rather have an open floor rather than cubicles clocking out sunlight. 

---

[Moonchilde]

It would depend mostly on what your job IS and the key requirements to DO your job properly.

This will not work well if your job requires listening (to people on the phone or to dictation) and/or you must be able to concentrate.

For many years, transcriptionists (and customer CS phone reps as well as other jobs that require quiet and concentration) worked in individual cubies where noise interruptions were kept to an absolute minimum for the sake of speed and accuracy.

Many of those jobs have had their walls taken down, so to speak, and their work environments have become stressful chaos. They are expected to do the same thoughtful, accurate work they've always done - but in the middle of a 3-ring circus.

This wasn't done to improve the surroundings/situation of those working (management could care less about that) and no one can figure out why it's supposed to be so beneficial, to whom, and why, when all it does is sabotage and handicap the employees from doing their work.

I can see this type of environment at places like Apple, FB and Google where the type of "work" (largely brainstorming) benefits from being communal, but to assume it's appropriate or beneficial *everywhere* is stupidity.

[hopi]

People forget why some fought so hard for unions and decent work conditions. All the monopolys are leading to no progress for workers.

[september]

I worked in a hospital envoronment, where we had no desks of our own (even once I got promoted to a mangement position).  We just rotated around from one area to another.  Our only personal space was our small locker in the employee changing area.

there was no privacy at all.  You get used to it.