Comment by PedroBatista
6 years ago
Open offices photograph better, have been on the right side of the modern&cool™ narrative, are more flexible to rearrange, a bit cheaper to rent and maintain and there's always a sense of busyness going on.
It's very easy for managers to keep track of their herd, see which face they don't like and flex to the colleague/competition using the always important "how many workers I have under my wing/foot" metric.
I think the only downside of open offices is that productivity takes a significant hit and makes worker health and morale a nightmare. But other than that they are fine.
Open office plans are wonderful for the micromanager. Everyone's screen is for all to see - and the moment someone happens not to be looking at an IDE, it's an opportunity to ding someone on their performance review.
While I personally am hyper-focused at work (perhaps too much to the point of tunnel vision), I know peers who have received negative comments despite delivering stellar work - all because they look at HN or doing online shopping from time to time.
That’s my nightmare. I spent a long time in a shop like that. Never again. Working from home is amazing.