Hi, folks!
I think more people work in the company and main the room is open space.
Which you have rules in your open space room?
Because in my company we have open space where seats 30+ people and this room very noisy and very active.
I think this a bad practice.
Top comments (4)
Here is what I've noticed from noisy spaces and quieter, more functional, spaces:
Loads of places for people to work alone, have meetings, make calls etc. Think like 1 small meeting room per 6 people on the floor.
Make discussions longer than 3 minutes taboo in the open space. Pairing is an exception, phone calls are not.
Pairing doesn't need to happen 100% of the time. Maybe even less than 50% is more accurate. It's a strategy for reducing bugs and transferring knowledge. Are your devs really writing source (high risk activity, pairing is good) 6 hours a day?
Lunch elsewhere.
As with all personal things, consider taking a private moment to deliver well thought out feedback to someone if they are obnoxious, or the only person you can hear from across the floor.
Question for you: if your open space becomes a quieter space than it is now, when and where will casual communities and relationships develop?
Be careful not to kill the most important team building tool, people becoming friends, by censoring the workplace. Foster the noise and camaraderie elsewhere
Thx, Marc!
For sanity purposes, the best thing we have is wheely whiteboards to create false walls between workspaces that double as writing/collab spaces. So I can pretend I have privacy while also having a place to whiteboard out something with someone nearby.
The biggest issue: Do not have a foosball table or other hot tech startup toys near the code monkeys. I can learn to drown out the sound of idle chatter. I cannot tone out games and grunting and cheering.
Thank you for your experience!