CDC Suggests Avoiding Open Plan Offices

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/health/coronavirus-workplace-cdc.html

by mrbbk • 6 years ago

55 20 6 years ago

nytimes.com

finphil• 6 years ago

Good read. I also believe sanitation companies will continue to be in demand in foreseeable future.

runawaybottle• 6 years ago

One can dream.

I never understood why cubicles took on a bad rap. Who doesn’t like their own room? It’s your own room in the office.

mc322• 6 years ago

I don’t know how the “hip” companies foisted this idea so successfully upon their workers. Maybe they took advantage of their naïveté and their tendency for group behavior. But man oh man, did they ever pull a fast one on them. I mean in the late aughts people dreamt of massive interconnected organic open offices where they and their bosses shared equal space (and pretend flat orgs).... ha!

exclusiv• 6 years ago

It's a lot cheaper to have an open office. They sold it as cool and the younger peeps bought it.

fumar• 6 years ago

I still hear companies speaking about their relatively flat organizations. Relative to what? I interviewed for a top tech company and the hiring manager told me they were a flat org. Yet there was a hiring manager who was a people manager. They also had a VP, many directors, and managers. I am not sure they understood the concept of flat organizations. I assumed they had a majority of individual contributors and considered it flat.

nightowl_games• 6 years ago

The bosses didn't sell it and the workers didn't buy it. There was no discussion nor choice. It just happened because it was cheaper. It happened because startup culture couldn't afford it and startup culture is worshipped.

wiml• 6 years ago

Cubicles were developed in the 1960s as a way to give workers a bit more personal space than an open plan (or bullpen) office. Compared to having your own office, cubicles are crummy. Compared to having no dividers at all, though, cubicles are nice.

DrScump• 6 years ago

I think cubicles originally became "uncool" in contrast with offices, then tech bro management took the anti-cubicle fervor in a direction that favored them over the individual contributor, ultimately increasing the contrast between ICs and management.

I remember when Microsoft started recruiting heavily in SV (for Redmond positions) in the late 80s. They even had radio spots where the narrator touted that "you will have an office! With a door! That you can close! So you can THINK!"

My first programming job was in a newly remodeled info services center (in the core of an old 300,000 sqft building), where two developers shared large cubes with desks facing away from each other and plenty of built-in storage. Actually great for concentration. Later, I was in a single-large-cubicle-each environment or shared offices. I have yet to work a desk job in an open office plan, and I can only imagine how inherently distracting that it.

mc322• 6 years ago

I wouldn’t characterize it as a move by tech bros. At the time of its rise it was espoused mainly by tech hipster management. Bros kind of walked into this.

But yes, it’s hard to believe that young grads and wide eyed dreamers actually got excited by open offices. I think it harkens back to the idea of utopia. That people in coöperative working groups will help all the others and we’ll become a grand communal success....

making_things• 6 years ago

I think open plan offices started to become a thing in the late 90's just before the first dotcom crash. At least that was the first time I encountered the concept codified into a formal term that everyone was throwing around. That, and "management by walking around" (which i think was the pre-cursor to "stand up meetings".) Anyway, I hated the open-office concept then and I still hate it now. Its noisy, distracting, invasive...it really made me miss cubicles. I can't believe it took a worldwide pandemic to get people to reconsider them...

techer• 6 years ago

I visited banks in the late 80s early 90s and the open office was already going. Wasn’t a trading floor but they did need to get info from each other.

blendo• 6 years ago

Over the last 3 months I’ve come to believe increasing human urban density is correlated with increasing viral illness. Over the next tens and hundreds of years, this bodes poorly for the viability of Tokyo/New York/Mumbai/Seoul and others.

I’ll offer that only Tokyo may yet survive another couple of hundred years of widespread, infective zoonotic diseases, as Japan’s astonishingly low fertility rate might halve or quarter their population by the year 2200.

Curious what others think about long term population trends vis a vis human health?

tw04• 6 years ago

I think you missed the entirety of China... if they aren’t onboard, it won’t matter.

throwawaysea• 6 years ago

This is purely my personal opinion, but I’m not sure if one pandemic in 100 years will be enough to influence population trends. But I think if this happens again, definitely.

I also wanted to add that human health comes in many dimensions. Having lived for years in a mega city, it’s clear to me that it is bad for my mental and physical health. There is something spiritually and mentally freeing about lower density cities and the balance they strike. They also encourage you to experience the outdoors more. The character of smaller cities - like open air, outside the shadows of high rises or even mid rises, with ample green spaces, private homes with backyards, etc. are a massive boon to overall health.

I view overurbanization as a fad that we will ultimately pull back from as we return to seek the basics and a connection to a simpler existence. Or maybe that’s just my hope.

stephenbez• 6 years ago

Seoul and Hong Kong have a similar population to New York City and last I checked had 4 deaths compared to New York's 15,000.

The problem was bad leadership, not density. If you care about health, life expectancy in NYC is significantly above the US average.

Awelton• 6 years ago

I used to hate open plan offices. I still do, but now a have a citable excuse.

technofiend2• 6 years ago

Although my company is doing right by IT workers and actually requiring everyone to work from home I'm skeptical this will result in any real change when we do return to the office. Honestly WeWork is staring to look appealing if I want a lockable office instead of a cube.

mixonEPA• 6 years ago

The only issue that you comes to mind when it comes to renting out a WeWork is the cleanliness of the room since it will be in constant rotation of people throughout the day..

leonroy• 6 years ago

WeWork do private glass cubicles - they get thoroughly cleaned daily.

I had one for a few years, it certainly has a door but the walls are made of lots of glass panes with nothing to seal the gaps - so you see and hear everything your neighbours and the occupants of the hallway are doing.

Since most folk take their calls in the corridors they're not actually that great if peace and quiet is what you're after. Here's an example: https://i.imgur.com/Iuj1mo9.jpg

CDC Suggests Avoiding Open Plan Offices

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