It all depends on the task you are currently doing and how good your managers are. A good one can understand the need to have a quiet time to concentrate on the task, and another will insists of micromanage you to death. Worked with both types.
I’ve had this happen to me, and even said to the person, “No nevermind! My train of thought is already derailed. Say whatever you were going to say now.”
If I remember correctly there was a Japanese videogame studio who did that in the 80’s they locked their development team in the office. I can’t find the article any more though.
Sounds a lot like what Joel Spolsky was advocating for since 2003, although now it’s easier since most people already have a private office, just not in “the office”.
The reason our corporate overlords went to open office plans is that they are much less expensive than actual offices. All the other reasons were bullshit to justify enshittification.
Another benefit from working from home: I will happily spend my own money on a good chair, keyboard, etc. I spent 20 years working in an office and there’s no way I would’ve ever brought in my own chair during that time… I would’ve had to become the chair police to prevent it from getting “reappropriated”
I particularly enjoyed a recent company meeting that spent considerable time talking about the importance of flow state. It had an awkward pregnant pause when someone (usually very quiet) unmuted to ask, “is the policy to increase the number of days we must spend in our open-plan office kind of undermining this?”. Literally all of our directors just shifted on their seats hoping another would answer that.
Eventually, HR director stated “Not at all, that’s what headphones are for!”
Which was particularly delightful, as our tech director had only 20 minutes before stated how he would like to discourage people sitting in the office in silos with their headphones on.
I know it’s their job, but I’m still amazed how how completely tone deaf HR always sounds when they’re actively contradicting the obvious better option with vapid enthusiasm.
I wish that was a panacea. If you work remotely, but they require you to be available via some messenger, they can and will interrupt you just as much as if you were in a physical office with a door.
I’ve got one engineer, only one in the two teams of like ten each that I work with, who doesn’t understand the concept of sending out a short email or IM to ask, “Hey, I’d like to give you a call about XYZ. When would be a good time for you?”
I mean, email is by far the best. It doesn’t demand real time attention and ALSO gives a body of text and attachments to refer back to whenever.
IM also offers these but not as easily organized and searchable.
Phone is worst: there’s no lasting record, no attachments, and you have to drop what you’re doing to participate.
Most of my team realizes these things and prefers email. There are a few who still rely on calls but they at least set up a time for calls.
Only this one guy (a young guy too) thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to call without any announcement or warning, then take up 30-90 minutes of your time with a call to convey information that could have been in a short email or taken care of in literally 5-10 minutes.
He always wants to chat about random shit before getting to the point, then give you a bunch of extra info you don’t even need.
Thus, I’ve started just ignoring his calls when it’s not a good time for me.
If he feels it’s okay to just randomly interrupt, I feel I’m just as justified in refusing to allow said interruption.
My boss sometimes calls my personal cell. But only to get my attention on a thing that needs attention, or something I need to know right then. I always answer because I know it’s important, never bullshit. And that’s how it should be. Also, he takes action when needed, never lets anything sit and fester.
He moves fast and expects his team to do the same, when need be. Fair enough. We also have fewer meetings than any other department. Because we move. I can sit on my ass all day (read: nap), but when it’s time to move, I move. Love the guy. When I started working for him last month, “I do not micromanage my people. If you find yourself being micromanaged, I’m already looking for your replacement.” Getting my feet back on the ground after being micromanaged for 4-years. :)
Kinda disagree on email communications. We use Slack effectively. Mostly. Problem is, many of us, me included, allow it to distract us. People tend to expect instant response from a DM. I don’t check email often, and I’m sure that annoys some people. But you’re 100% right on tracking the conversation. OTOH, you can track conversations in Slack almost as well. Email for external customers. DMs for internal. Works for me.
Learning to turn Slack off for a period of time, or block my calendar. Boss encourages this! “HR wants our personal reviews in this week. Block out an hour or three on your calendar and do it.”
Was on a team trying to kick this around, figure out some kinda policy. Never really got agreement or traction. Seems it boils down to social skills. I know the VP isn’t approving my purchases until early evening. Gotta poke her if I need action. I know $manager isn’t looking at his DMs, but he is looking at group channels. I know $dev is not going to answer me for a day if I Slack him.
All over the place on this post. Guess we just have to learn how we each work, roll with it. 🤷🏻♂️
Messenger apps have do not disturb for a reason. I know many people feel like using that is wrong if you’re actually working, but if your output is a measure of your actual work, reducing interruptions is the only reliable way to ensure it without working even more hours (for free if you’re salary).
It would have been nice to have a connection made to Flow, since that’s what was being alluded to throughout, but maybe excluding Flow was deliberate in some way I’m missing?
I always thought about this. What about those with disabilities, like ADHD? Can companies really maintain their “equal opportunity employer” position while stripping privacy in the workplace? That’s an over generalization for moving to an open office.
They will make a few exceptions then at some point say “that’s enough” when all the employees need is less stimulation and more privacy
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It all depends on the task you are currently doing and how good your managers are. A good one can understand the need to have a quiet time to concentrate on the task, and another will insists of micromanage you to death. Worked with both types.
I’ve had this happen to me, and even said to the person, “No nevermind! My train of thought is already derailed. Say whatever you were going to say now.”
So they can listen to Aphex Twin at max volume with their robot ears and not frighten all the non-robots.
And that’s why I like working from home
Joke’s on me. 100% wfh, but hours of zoom meeting a week.
It’s not programming specific, reducing distractions for any worker is a good thing for productivity
get back to work
So you can lock them in.
If I remember correctly there was a Japanese videogame studio who did that in the 80’s they locked their development team in the office. I can’t find the article any more though.
Sounds a lot like what Joel Spolsky was advocating for since 2003, although now it’s easier since most people already have a private office, just not in “the office”.
The reason our corporate overlords went to open office plans is that they are much less expensive than actual offices. All the other reasons were bullshit to justify enshittification.
Or we could just work remotely, which is far more productive.
Another benefit from working from home: I will happily spend my own money on a good chair, keyboard, etc. I spent 20 years working in an office and there’s no way I would’ve ever brought in my own chair during that time… I would’ve had to become the chair police to prevent it from getting “reappropriated”
I particularly enjoyed a recent company meeting that spent considerable time talking about the importance of flow state. It had an awkward pregnant pause when someone (usually very quiet) unmuted to ask, “is the policy to increase the number of days we must spend in our open-plan office kind of undermining this?”. Literally all of our directors just shifted on their seats hoping another would answer that.
Eventually, HR director stated “Not at all, that’s what headphones are for!”
Which was particularly delightful, as our tech director had only 20 minutes before stated how he would like to discourage people sitting in the office in silos with their headphones on.
I know it’s their job, but I’m still amazed how how completely tone deaf HR always sounds when they’re actively contradicting the obvious better option with vapid enthusiasm.
I wish that was a panacea. If you work remotely, but they require you to be available via some messenger, they can and will interrupt you just as much as if you were in a physical office with a door.
But you can choose when to reply at least.
Looking at you Teams Messenger. Oh, how I hate thee…
Get a reputation for being unreliable, mute notifications, purposefully refuse to respond for an hour…
Untrain your coworkers from relying on you replying with an answer faster than they can find it themselves.
I’ve got one engineer, only one in the two teams of like ten each that I work with, who doesn’t understand the concept of sending out a short email or IM to ask, “Hey, I’d like to give you a call about XYZ. When would be a good time for you?”
I mean, email is by far the best. It doesn’t demand real time attention and ALSO gives a body of text and attachments to refer back to whenever.
IM also offers these but not as easily organized and searchable.
Phone is worst: there’s no lasting record, no attachments, and you have to drop what you’re doing to participate.
Most of my team realizes these things and prefers email. There are a few who still rely on calls but they at least set up a time for calls.
Only this one guy (a young guy too) thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to call without any announcement or warning, then take up 30-90 minutes of your time with a call to convey information that could have been in a short email or taken care of in literally 5-10 minutes.
He always wants to chat about random shit before getting to the point, then give you a bunch of extra info you don’t even need.
Thus, I’ve started just ignoring his calls when it’s not a good time for me.
If he feels it’s okay to just randomly interrupt, I feel I’m just as justified in refusing to allow said interruption.
My boss sometimes calls my personal cell. But only to get my attention on a thing that needs attention, or something I need to know right then. I always answer because I know it’s important, never bullshit. And that’s how it should be. Also, he takes action when needed, never lets anything sit and fester.
He moves fast and expects his team to do the same, when need be. Fair enough. We also have fewer meetings than any other department. Because we move. I can sit on my ass all day (read: nap), but when it’s time to move, I move. Love the guy. When I started working for him last month, “I do not micromanage my people. If you find yourself being micromanaged, I’m already looking for your replacement.” Getting my feet back on the ground after being micromanaged for 4-years. :)
Kinda disagree on email communications. We use Slack effectively. Mostly. Problem is, many of us, me included, allow it to distract us. People tend to expect instant response from a DM. I don’t check email often, and I’m sure that annoys some people. But you’re 100% right on tracking the conversation. OTOH, you can track conversations in Slack almost as well. Email for external customers. DMs for internal. Works for me.
Learning to turn Slack off for a period of time, or block my calendar. Boss encourages this! “HR wants our personal reviews in this week. Block out an hour or three on your calendar and do it.”
Was on a team trying to kick this around, figure out some kinda policy. Never really got agreement or traction. Seems it boils down to social skills. I know the VP isn’t approving my purchases until early evening. Gotta poke her if I need action. I know $manager isn’t looking at his DMs, but he is looking at group channels. I know $dev is not going to answer me for a day if I Slack him.
All over the place on this post. Guess we just have to learn how we each work, roll with it. 🤷🏻♂️
Messenger apps have do not disturb for a reason. I know many people feel like using that is wrong if you’re actually working, but if your output is a measure of your actual work, reducing interruptions is the only reliable way to ensure it without working even more hours (for free if you’re salary).
What a great article. Practical and poetic.
It would have been nice to have a connection made to Flow, since that’s what was being alluded to throughout, but maybe excluding Flow was deliberate in some way I’m missing?
Then you throw in a little ADHD
I always thought about this. What about those with disabilities, like ADHD? Can companies really maintain their “equal opportunity employer” position while stripping privacy in the workplace? That’s an over generalization for moving to an open office.
They will make a few exceptions then at some point say “that’s enough” when all the employees need is less stimulation and more privacy
I mean, personally, I will never work in an office other than my home ever again.
This still highlights every teams call I get roped into