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Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

I don't get the Open Office hate, given that our universities and most of the companies only use this kind of concept.

The only issue is having quite places for the meetings.

The open office from which I type this is usually quiet. Three of my neighboring co-workers have chronic coughs, throat clearing, and hacks. I wear earplugs inside can headphones that are on all day, and still, it's excruciatingly distracting. I would pay several thousand dollars a year to never hear them cough again.

In university, if you were going to go and get some serious work done, it was generally accepted that you went and hid in the stacks in the bowels of the library, or some other hidey-hole where it was quiet and people wouldn't find you or bother you.

One of the best perks of having a work-study job doing maintenance and AV stuff was having a set of keys that allowed getting into out-of-the-way places so you could post up with your tote bag of sources and grind out term papers.

We didn't had such privileges.

The library only had books, laptops were out of reach for most pockets and the computer labs had about 20 PCs per room.

I hate when other people watch me work. Always have.

What part of the world are you in?

Europe, open offices are quite common office layout in the countries I lived so far.

Offices tend to be only for bosses, or mini-open office with 3 to 4 desks.

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