Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com