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> Also in all these articles they say "its too noisy..." Has no one ever heard of headphones. They let each individual employee get the best level of noise they need. Want it quiet get a set of sound isolating headphones and put on quiet background noise. Do you like music to work to go ahead and put that on. Do you like the organic background of distant communication and the peaceful methodical hum of the ventilation system. Leave the headphones off and enjoy it. What I have found as the big turning point is you need to have an entire office that is respectful of others no matter what floor plan you have. If one worker insists on playing loud music or having conference calls all day no matter what set up you have chances are he will be annoying his direct neighbors.

All of these items are fixed by giving me an office with a door. If I want interaction and noise, then I'll open the door, head out to the shared conference floor space and work from there. I'm not sure why more offices don't do this by default these days.

I prefer my brother in law's set up, it's an inverse of what you want, open office but with isolation caves assigned to no one that can be used when you need silence. I think making isolation an opt-in rather than opt-out makes for a much more inclusive environment.

I think "inclusive" is really getting over rated by so called "efficiency experts"...My last gig had these "focus booths" occupied by a single person all day every day. They used them as their offices because they wanted to concentrate in silence.

Inclusive? I'm not at the office to socialize, I'm there to focus and do work.

I think that's a false dichotomy. Without socialization it's very difficult to understand the people you're working with and this, in my experience, is often the root of friction between teams and departments.

I've been working from home with my distributed team all over the USA (and world) for over a year now. I haven't met a few of them ever in person yet. Our company and team are doing fine just socializing over Skype and conference calls / Google Hangout (occasionally) when needed.

Someone doesn't need to be sitting right next to me able to interrupt me whenever they like to "promote synergy"

This article[1], linked to in the first sentence of the posted story, specifically mentions headphones and also provides reason as to why it's an argument against the open office. Also, quality noise-isolating headphones can get pricey. Are those provided to the employee?

1. http://www.fastcompany.com/3022456/dialed/the-10-worst-thing...

I'm always surprised by the complaints about open office plans, especially from programmers. Am I the only one who tends to have programming jobs that rely on close communication between multiple team members? The idea of me having my own enclosed office just seems ridiculous.

Of course, I once mentioned this on HN and someone replied that the need to communicate readily with my fellow programmers is a sign that our code base isn't well-documented. I thought that was pretty funny.

Do you talk to your team members for 8 hours a day? I don't. I may catch up with them in the morning for something, perhaps go out for a coffee, or do some pairing when debugging etc but 80-90% of the time I am working on something alone. I can work far more efficiently in a private space. I cannot concentrate when I know that there are people around me all day who can interrupt me or distract me at any point in time without warning.

If the main benefit to open floor plans is to foster communication, why are you encouraging headphones?

Also, you may find it odd to know some people (myself included) typically prefer no noise while they're programming. I'll use headphones when my options are music or "loud obnoxious conference call on speakerphone" but it's hardly the best option for me.

>Has no one ever heard of headphones.

To some, headphones are just another form of noise and distraction and not a solution to the problem.

If that is your opinion then there is no viable solution. Unless tyou want to competly disconnect everyone in the office and seal them in anechoic chambers then your going to get noise. Headphones in open offices are a nice middle ground that can make _most_ people happy. Some people will never be happy, they appear to be concentrated on the internet.