[C19fan]

I thank the Lord, I have only spent a few weeks in an open office plan. When I was there I felt like I was in a panopticon.

[Alberta's Child]

For many industries, the type of work space this company leases has a major flaw. I received an announcement a while back from a former associate who started his own company. I was so impressed with him, but when I tracked down his address and saw that it was a WeWork site, his professional reputation declined sharply in my eyes.

In my industry, a WeWork address simply conveys a message of a third-rate, non-serious operation.

[yldstrk]

Can’t get past the paywall

[Skywise]

It’s a stupid article.

Open offices suck but that has nothing to do with capitalism (if anything open offices are socialist)

[eyeamok]

I did some work for them a few years back when they opened in Los Angeles, I am surprised they lasted this long.

[chrisser]

Open Offices are a typical example of what’s wrong with our country. Bunch of MBAs listened to a bunch of consulting “experts” who read a bunch of “studies” coming out of academia. Upper management listened to the MBAs extol the virtues of these progressive changes, which, of course, must be effective because “science”.

Had anyone bothered to ask the rank and file of the company, they would have pointed out what a dumb idea this was and could have accurately predicted the resulting problems and decrease in productivity. But likely nobody asked, and if they did, why would their opinion matter - they aren’t consultants or MBAs or “experts”.

How much money, time and productivity have been collectively wasted over the last decade due to this latest stupid fad? How much more will now be spent to undo the damage? How many morons were promoted and/or bonused due to their successful advocacy or implementation of the disastrous plans based on this fad and are now in a position to embrace the next dumb idea because they were heavily rewarded for the last dumb idea?

And this is just one boondoggle of many that come out regularly and get swallowed wholesale by those who are supposed to know better.

The most ironic thing is this whole group that are responsible for the promulgation of dumb ideas are some of the more highly compensated people in whatever company they infest.

[NobleFree]

study after study has shown open offices to foster seclusion more than innovation; in order to combat noise, the loss of privacy and the sense of being watched, people in an open office put on headphones, talk less, and feel terrible.

[catnipman]

you FORCED me to look up “panopticon” ...

[ctdonath2]

I like my open office.
It’s a table with sun umbrella in the back yard.
100% solar powered.
Thermostat is broken though, gets hot & humid.

[fruser1]

I’ve noticed in many old movies and shows there were offices with open floor plans, usually with managers’ private offices surrounding the open floor filled with desks. I thought cubicles were more of a modern thing.

Seemed to be ok then but, again, that was in shows.

One big diff from the old days though is that you could smoke in the office. Maybe if they allowed that again this type of thing could work. Smoke nazis would flip of course but it seems to me that smoke days were happier days.

They use smoke to calm bees, why not employees?

[NobleFree]

[Albion Wilde]

bump