[rlw777]

Originally Posted by emathias

This is going to sound bad, and I don't aim it any anyone in this thread, but it's also been my experience that the people who gripe the most about open plan offices are often the least-productive workers. The only real exception are people doing work that requires privacy, such as certain kinds of law, HR departments, executives, etc. And even then, in the case of executives when you're visible as an executive you can usually muster more out of your workers than you can if they never see you.

So, basically, better light, better air, and having actual line-of-sight of what your team is doing is a huge advantage that, in my experience, more than offsets the switching-costs of additional distractions and disruptions brought on by open-plan office layouts.

Yuck sounds like micromanagment. "Say hello to LUMBERGH for me!!"

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Dude. Seriously. Writers, coders, artists, researchers, statisticians, analysts - basically anyone with a specialized skill set beyond chatting people up - craves privacy so we can do our work in peace while you take the credit and bitch about slackers. Younger generation? You sound 60.

First that response was way over the top I think you may have some unresolved issues with a current or previous employer. Second my office is an open plan office with programmers designers and writiers and we prefer it that way. No gross cubicals, no micromanaging, lots of creative social interaction, and enough space that we don't feel like we are smothering each other.