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Comment by tbyehl | Hacker News Reader

Imagine working in an open office space the size of a Sears floor. That's what I see every time one of my Racker friends posts up a picture of their workspace. Ugh.

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Take it from someone that used to work there -- it's horrific. The noise level is unbelievable. All the technical folks live in their noise-canceling headphones all day.

10 years at INLD / PEER1. The shopping mall was the final nail in the coffin of the idea that I might ever move to SAT and jump ship to Rackspace.

I'm surprised they didn't do anything for the noise. I have seen some really interesting noise cancelling ceiling treatments if the ceilings are high. One looks a bit like a kelp forest hanging from the ceiling only denser. The "leaves" on the vertical vines form a noise capturing space so absolutely nothing bounces off the ceiling.

Exactly, the false ceiling is designed to absorb sound. If you remove that the space is nothing but a concrete echo chamber.

They tried various things like big fabric panels designed to absorb sound hanging from the ceiling, special wall treatments, and moving desks around and such around.

It's just a big space with thousands of people, many of them on the phone all day.

Interesting, did they keep data on what they tried do you know?

I don't know. I hope they do since they're always trying to improve the noise situation.

How is living in San Antonio? I had a recruiter from Rackspace contact me and that seemed like a big negative.

I was actually in the Austin office most of the time but spent a lot of time at "The Castle" (as they call the SA headquarters).

Texas is a bit different and SA is that plus more. It's hot. ;)

Austin is great, though, and I still live here (albeit about 30 miles NW out in the country).

I'm actually from around Austin. It is a great city.

You need ceiling tiles and/or carpets that absorb sound instead of reflecting it. I was involved in a couple of office moves with Meraki when they still hadn't found an office large enough for more than a year of growth. The moves were so rushed that the noise-dampening add-ons hadn't been installed, and the noise was horrendous; and then when they finally were installed, you could notice the difference very well.

You can take a look around inside on Google Maps.

https://goo.gl/maps/VTkMW8dmL1t

It looks like someone just put tables in there. They didn't hire an interior designer?

There are people who would have you believe this is a good thing. I share your revulsion.

I spent a couple of days working in the Rackspace "castle". It felt much the same as the average Silicon Valley office building (which are typically constructed with big open floors populated by cubes). Except it has a slide and a food court..

Nothing says walls can't be built inside the stores

I would also have a problem with the lack of natural light.

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