10 comments

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  Niall Litchfield

  1 year ago

  God that makes me feel old 1991 was 16 years ago - really? How did that happen?
  
  oh on topic again, I sadly suspect that Puneet is correct in imagining that corporates look at the culture of other corporates, more successful - more rich - more innovative whatever it is, and decide that they can use seating plan changes to drive culture changes. I don't believe so, it seems to me that culture change is driven both top down - overtly - and by core groups of internal staff covertly (or at least tacitly). But it's a human activity, not a logistical activity.
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  Jake

  1 year ago

  Excellent point, one that I have alluded to in other posts. Maybe it's feasible to change logistics first, but that road is long and hard. I'm glad to have a firsthand account; I'm hoping to get an update from Puneet in a few months to see how the change is going.
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  Graham

  1 year ago

  Interesting seeing how different countries woek in different ways...
  
  Here in the UK it's pretty much all open plan, everywhere. In the customer office I'm in this week the entire (Agile) team sits in an open plan area and there are conference rooms at each end, of differing sizes, that can be used when privacy is needed (or wanted).
  
  In the Oracle offices it's pretty much the same, most areas are open plan, but some of the senior management gets their own office... a lot of the desking is hot desked too, so there's not a huge amount of "this is my space, this is yours" over here... although messing with the resourcers would be a REALLY bad idea!
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  Alex

  1 year ago

  4-bull pen is good if the pens nearby are occupied by the people doing similar stuff. Our team next door is not software developers, and they have to chat on the phone. A lot. Yes, and joke and laugh out loud.
  
  But other poor souls have it even worse, having to sit next to some kind of secretarial or legal team, who have much more to chat about.
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  Jake

  1 year ago

  Graham: Odd to hear that cubes are not prevalent there in the UK. I never had one, but I always thought the low-walled cubes were a nice compromise, offering some of both plans. The ones with widows are decent too.
  
  Alex: Totally agreed. The old Santa Monica office (now Google) put me too close to sales folks who were constantly on the phone. I used to get in early to have quiet time, but that only works for development.
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  Els

  1 year ago

  Like in the UK, in the Netherlands we don't use cubicles much either, if at all. I've seen a lot of offices from the inside, working as a temp for over 15 years (80's and 90's), and have never seen cubicles other than in American movies.
  
  Only once I've experienced something remotely like it; I was working with 3 colleagues in one room, and at some point someone in charge of things decided we would work better with a 5 feet wall in the middle, seating us two by two. Still opposite of each other, but facing the wall instead of our colleagues. I hated it.
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  Jake

  1 year ago

  Els: This is great stuff. Honestly, I am just discovering that the cube is an American phenomenon. I've worked only in cubes and offices when I went into an office for my entire professional life. I can see how it would be shock to the system.
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  L K Tucker

  1 year ago

  The phenomenon discussed here related to Cubicle Level Protection is called Subliminal Distraction.
  
  If you work in an office with out this level of protection and have psychiatric episodes such as panic attacks visit the Panic Attacks page at VisionAndPsychosis.Net.
  
  The phenomenon produces a variety of symptoms including depression. There are pages of events going back over a hundred years to support this.
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  Dave Gardner

  8 months ago

  Nice post and description. I've been stuck in "bullpens" and "cubicle farms" for many, many years of my career as a technical editor/writer. I'm now working on escaping the clutches of the "cubicle" and breaking out on my own as an independent freelance editor. Although I'm gaining clients for my editing services only slowly, the freedom of working in my own environment (where ever it may be), is refreshing... and allows me to edit more competently and write without constraints. Thanks for the post! I hope you don't mind, but I'm linking to this post from my website on cubicles!
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  Jake

  8 months ago

  Thanks Dave. The author, Puneet, has left the bullpen and Oracle, but he stays in touch, so maybe he'll see your comment.
  
  I live in Portland, which has by far the biggest nomadic tech workforce I've seen. The combination of wi-fi enabled spots like coffee houses, great public transportation, excellent bike-friendly conditions, and heavy-duty Open Source roots make it an ideal spot for work environment freedom.
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