RE: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from home

["Sharon Metzger" <sharon -dot- metzger -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I agree that there are plenty of "it depends." I never thought I'd like an open plan office space, but it's working for us, given our current size. Our office has 20 employees, mostly engineers (and me) in an open space. There are closed rooms of varying sizes, so that's where people take calls and have meetings. Many of my coworkers lean toward introversion, and all are good at focusing. Headphones are popular -- maybe for watching help videos, or listening to music to code by, or just blocking out ambient noise. But having everyone in eyesight makes it easy to see when it might be a good time to go ask a question. Also, I never know when I might overhear something useful that didn't come up in a regularly scheduled meeting -- or this has even happened, someone catches sight of me while in a conversation and realizes I might like to join. 

Of course, I don't know how well this will scale, but so far so good -- we only have room for another half dozen or so in this office.

Sharon

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon -dot- metzger=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon -dot- metzger=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Wright, Lynne
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2017 3:51 PM
To: Charlotte Branth Claussen <charlotteclaussen -at- gmail -dot- com>; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from home

I think it also depends on how many employees there are sharing the space, and what type of job they're doing. 

If itâs a small company with a handful of employees, open office arrangements are probably preferable, because you generally do need to be aware of/in sync with what everyone else is doing. For situations where there are dozens of people seated in one big room, if its all programmers quietly focussing on their own thing all day, that can be fine, providing everyone remembers to keep their voices down to minimize intruding on their neighbours' concentration. But if there are people who need to spend a lot of time on the phone (say sales or tech support) open space isn't ideal; they really need some kind of enclosed, sound-buffering space.  

As for people switching workstations all the time; that sounds like just adding confusion for the sake of being trendy. If you need to get up and go see somebody in a space where you may have hundreds of people in different areas and possibly on multiple floors, how do you find them if everybody is moving around all the time? You email them and ask them for directions, then head in that general direction and start playing office Marco-Polo if you can't find them? Not to mention the fact that some Mondays, I have enough trouble finding my desk... and it DOESN'T move! 

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Charlotte Branth Claussen
Sent: February-10-17 3:23 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from home

Companies will always use excuses to save money,

I suspect that people who don't like open spaces are in offices where it's been a cost-cutting exercise rather than an effort to create a good environment. It does require a different office culture, as well as the right physical environment with good ventilation, comfortable temperature, good acoustics, and other rooms to use for meetings or quiet time.

I have most of my time worked in open space offices, and I'd say no to a job where I were to sit in a tiny office or a cubicle.

/Charlotte

PS: a previous workplace where it worked fairly well:
http://www.plh.dk/en/projects/oticon-uk/
The use of open space along with informal meeting spaces and traditional closed meeting rooms was in my opinion good for productivity and collaboration. And even the CEO was sitting in the open space.

2017-02-10 15:50 GMT+00:00 Wright, Lynne <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- kronos -dot- com>:

> More collaboration in an open work space = more distracting ambient 
> noise for everyone. Its debatable whether that trade-off is worth it.
>
> I think the real reason companies go for open space designs are that
> 1) it reduces costs because you don't have to buy cubicle partitions 
> and you can squeeze more people into the same space; 2) people can't 
> slack off by surfing the internet or whatever, because anybody passing 
> by can see what's up on people's monitors; 3) It looks all hip and 
> minimalist to have long banks of shared worktables with no space for clutter.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf 
> techwr-l-bounces+Of
> Lin Sims
> Sent: February-10-17 10:40 AM
> To: salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from home
>
> There's been at least one study that suggests that the "open work 
> space environment" (I had to look that up; yech!) doesn't inspire any 
> more collaboration than having private offices; however, people who 
> have private or semi-private offices seem to have far lower levels of stress.
>
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidburkus/2016/06/21/why-
> your-open-office-workspace-doesnt-work/#4f89804216d0
>
> I miss working at Telcordia. Managers had private offices, and 
> everyone else had semi-private (2 people per room) offices. Solid 
> cinder block walls and a solid door. Ah, peace.
>
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:31 AM, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
> > IBM and Yahoo aside, I do perceive value in certain sociability 
> > aspects of being on-prem.
> >
> > But at one client whose facility I frequent one a month or so, all 
> > are engaged in meetings all day, every day. I leave wondering how 
> > anyone actually does any work. And Mr. ImAllImportant marketing guy 
> > wants to quibble that medical device user manual reading audiences 
> > (if any
> > exist) that no one will understand what "unwell" means (he wants it 
> > to read, "not feel well").
> >
> > Further, I just read in the local edition of the Business Review 
> > that yet another company has bought a building and is going to 
> > create an open workspace environment. No thanks.
> >
> > At least my HP cubicle afforded some degree of privacy, and it was 
> > common to let team members know when one was "on critical path" (read:
> > don't bug me right now). From what I've read, all the open workspace 
> > does is promote more slacking off, not desired "team building"
> > (unless that definition has come to mean playing fraternity house pranks).
> >
> > Once upon a time I had a high-ceilinged 12' x12' office with a door 
> > I could shut. If I needed to attend a meeting, no problem. If I 
> > needed to coach an engineer how to construct an actual useful UI, no problem.
> > If I needed to go in the lab to bang on a piece of kit, I could. Yet 
> > when I needed some freakin' quiet think-and-do time, I could retreat 
> > to my man cave and have at it with no interruptions.
> >
> > Today I have a nicer man cave at home, from where I do my clients'
> > work. At the medical device place, all they give me is a study 
> > carrel, a crappy lamp that can't be positioned such that I'm not 
> > looking directly into it, and no external monitor (they all have twin 24"
> > units in their cubicles). My handler was put off when I insisted on 
> > going back to my nearby hotel room between their all-important 
> > cross-dysfunctional meetings. There I had set up my external 
> > keyboard and 24" rotating monitor with my laptop, along with Bose 
> > SoundLink Mini. I had all of the peace and quiet I needed (except 
> > for the snowplow at 4:00 am one morning)âespecially during one very 
> > intense
> > 1-1/2 hour critical path where 150+ pages were flying as I hastened 
> > to update yet another iteration.
> >
> > Chris Morton
> >
> >
> >
> > â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
> >                      â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring Click to 
> > <http://t.sidekickopen68.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nM
> > JN7t5XYgdnqQxW7fsH3H4XrddKW1pNgV-56dMhqf2Q-c6C02?t=https%3A%
> > 2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fpub%2Fchris-morton%2F2%2F166%
> > 2F6ba&si=6020636811198464&pi=4ba8e002-4d27-4f88-dc26-e24f9998f2c4>
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:04 AM, Cardimon, Craig 
> > <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > The idea of working shoulder-to-shoulder is not exciting to 
> > > introverts like me.
> > >
> > > If the introverts have options, they will skedaddle.
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> > > techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf 
> > > techwr-l-bounces+Of
> > > Stuart Burnfield
> > > Sent: Friday, February 10, 2017 8:51 AM
> > > To: 'Techwr-l' <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> > > Subject: Re: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from 
> > > home
> > >
> > > It sounds a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
> > >
> > > IBM is a vast, surprisingly decentralized, enterprise so it's hard 
> > > to sum up in simple terms. But if you poke around on ibm.com and 
> > > browse the marketing material that's written by marketing people 
> > > and not technical people, you'll find a lot of "I don't understand 
> > > what
> this means"
> > > translated from English into marketing jargon.
> > >
> > > Getting the writers to sit with other marketing people who don't 
> > > understand what it means either isn't going to help with that.
> > >
> > > If cutting payroll really is the unstated goal, this will work. A 
> > > lot of good people who can leave will leave because they have 
> > > options. Some
> > staff
> > > who suspect they won't thrive on the job market will stay.
> > >
> > > If the real target is lack of productivity from some remote 
> > > workers, this is a ham-fisted way of going about it. It's a 
> > > management problem that
> > could
> > > be solved by better management.
> > >
> > >  > "I know this is hard ... But we have gotten to a place where  > 
> > > we're excited about the path forward."
> > >
> > > <retch>
> > >
> > > Stuart
> > >
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> --
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