Ambient Office Sights

Oh, and the coffee machine full of Jazzy Java. It's a guilty pleasure.

Ugh we are moving to a new building with an open office format ie. no more cubicles just sit and stare at everyone all day - I don't know how I am goign to live with this - my small cubicle walls are my only sanity now

Everyone's doing that these days. My main client office is like this.

If people need privacy they simply camp out in one of the many private mini conference rooms all day. Otherwise it is quite exposed feeling.

We're moving to an open plan place in the fall - there's about 300 staff. At the moment we're open plan but split into four floors. Now we'll just be one big megafloor.

My main problem is the noise - I have hearing damage, and for some reason every employee must now be treated like a twentysomething who LOVES TO PARTY. But some people - not just people with hearing damage! - genuinely work better in quiet environments but of course no one's listening to that, so we'll probably just end up with a token quiet space next to the pool table or something.

Also fuck office pods and "if you've got a hearing problem you can work in a office pod!" - you mean these things with no walls and no sound protection?

https://img.officefurnitureonline.co.uk/media/img/shop/pd/074497.jpg

Some places have these little stand alone things that look like ikea bookshelves without the shelves that you're meant to sit in to make phone calls. They cancel noise but overall it's a silly gimmick that I see very rarely used.

This is my nightmare. Luckily my employer is convinced that people are more efficient with their own offices and quiet spaces.

I would love a workplace with just very tiny and soundproof micro offices. Just enough room for a desk and a door to shut. Rest of the area would be collaboration workspaces.

i'd say 40% of my job satisfaction comes from the fact that i have my own office with a closing door and a giant window

open offices are horrible

I don’t mind semi-open offices at all, in fact I prefer it to cubicle working, I just need (health-wise, mental wellbeing-wise, and productivity-wise) the option to have quiet space around if I need it.

My current thought is maybe I can do actuall work at home and when I'm in the office just wander around hallways all day

I like how the managers who a remaking these decisions themselves have offices with doors

how the managers who a remaking these decisions themselves have offices with doors

lol always

I just hope this happens "uh oh its really loud now"

I have have an idea lets make littel walls"

and teh cubicles return!

"A cubicle is a partially enclosed office workspace that is separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually 5–6 feet (1.5–1.8 m) tall. Its purpose is to isolate office workers and managers from the sights and noises of an open workspace so that they may concentrate with fewer distractions."
wikipedia

oh man I remember them taking away cubicle walls years ago, it was awful. Felt so naked and exposed. You get used to it tho. I still get creeped out when I see "work benches" tho, ie just one big desk facing a wall with 10 or so people sitting at it each on own computer.

Perhaps I shall wear an opaque bubble helmet

These 3m peltors are lifesaving

https://content.zoro.co.uk/images/200_200/g/jeeps/958/plt9581540m.jpg

I've only ever worked in open-plan offices. (apart from factories and pubs). Cubicle sounds ace tbh

Cubicles are sweet. Open office plan terrifies me, no exaggeration

Moved from open to cubicle nine (9) hours ago oh blessed day

I like looking out over the hundreds of other desks I can see from mine, wondering what they are all doing. Might be different if there were desks behind mine though.

Our office moved about a year and a half ago, and with the move went the cubicles. Frankly hate the open office shit (my ADD pretty much requires me to have music playing constantly in my ears in order to ward off the panoply of distractions taking place all around me all the time) but you do get used to it. It's kinda like sharing an elevator for eight hours. Just face forward and focus on your own shit and you'll be fine despite the inarguable odiousness of the circumstances.

We're in a schmancy new open plan space with windows all around (so, nice and sunny at least!) bt oh god the noise. Between everyone around me talking, shoes squeaking or clacking on the polished concrete, the fecking espresso machine going CHHHRRRRHHHH HOOOOSHHHH every five mins and people CONSTANTLY PLAYING BLOODY POOL. I have to put white noise on heaphones quite often, but cant all day long cos i also have phone calls to answer :(

It's really just so goddamn inexcusably stupid.

There are quiet zones in our office, like little glass offices/rooms you can go in that are really soundproofed, but one cant of course go in them to work day to day.

we had open plan for like a week & i found out my cubicle neighbor had bad morning breath we sat so close it was horrible
everyone complained so they put up tall dividers lol

OMG, don't get me started. Dude next to me is a smoker and REEKS, like not just of smoke but of the long-term accumulation of smoke. He sometimes wears these sweaters that seem to hold his entire smoking history within their weave. It's legitimately nauseating at times. I don't want to resent people simply because our place of employment has forced us to spend eight hours a day within arms length of one another, y'know?

Oh please let working from home become the cool new cost cutting thing for management

Going forward...

The smell of Deep Heat.

A group of people somewhere clapping.

A member of Fatima Mansions.

A Noggin the Nog mug.

Everything not owned by employees is in dull, coma-inducing colors.

Someone has suddenly spoken extremely loudly into their office phone

The annoying thud as someone falls off their ergonomic ball seat thing for the third time this week.

framed awards & photos in mismatched frames all lined up in ever so slightly crooked rows

After paging over the intercom, someone doesn't hang up their phone all the way and the company is treated to 3 minutes of off-mike conversation until the culprit is identified and disconnected.

entire company is open but of course c level have reserved conferences rooms that double as offices, but stupid outlook doesn't always know what is off limits and you book a room and find out CFO "owns" it. Worst aspect of open plan is that I love to gossip and shit-talk co-workers and i run risk of others hearing, I do it anyway

gossip about a soon to be available desk location