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Comment by Sileni | Hacker News Reader

I will never work in an open plan building again. It left me absolutely brain dead and begging the clock to go faster because I couldn't think at work anyway.

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I'm with you, it's like my brain turns off when I'm there, no amount of noise-cancelling headphones can stop me noticing movements in my periphery or the feeling of possible immediate jarring interruptions if I have my back to the room.

I get all my day-work done in the evening, when I'm in the office I just browse reddit or read HN because; unless I'm in a meeting or talking to a colleague- I cannot possibly be productive.

(I _really_ did try to avoid Reddit/HN but after 2 years of doing basically nothing above a 10 minute task I couldn't do it anymore, I was bored.)

And my company still trucks on with an open office policy. :(

> no amount of noise-cancelling headphones can stop me noticing movements in my periphery

Or the shaking of the floor. I worked in a "modern" high-rise of a well known company with open offices and the floor felt like it was made of Ikea particle board skin of an under-floor giant African drum.

People have different priorities. Having worked in both environments, if I had to choose between a private windowless cave with no sunlight and an open bullpen fishbowl with ample natural light, I’m picking the fishbowl every time. You can wear headphones to block out the noise, but it doesn’t work to just hang a picture of the sun on your wall.

I think this entire thread boils down to choice.

I don't have an option, the fishbowl is thrust on me and has been for many years over many jobs.

Similarly; I actually prefer the dark, but were I in a situation where I walked into a dark room in the middle of a building- I would probably not like it.

I feel the same way, but I'm just not sure I'm to the point where I can demand to not work for an open plan company; it's how it is pretty much everywhere I've interviewed. I'd be curious to see percentages in terms of tech companies that still have office rooms for their engineers.

I’d be curious how the valley compares to other places. Fog Creek (in NYC) famously trumpets their strict “offices have doors” policy. Here at Esri in Redlands (SoCal, 80mi out of LA) we have individual offices with sliding glass doors — an idea which I think we got from Microsoft in the ‘90s (also non-valley).

Admittedly, I'm in something of a hybrid situation at the moment, and I have the benefit of being a chemist, not a programmer. My lab has a few desks in it, and technically it's "open", but since we're constantly moving in and out of the office and I can always go for a walk outside to think during the day, it works for me. Look for compromises and suss out the absolute most important point. For me, that's not having people moving around behind me. I have a large set of shelves behind me, and you can only enter my desk area from ahead-left of me.

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