Interruptions in the open office

Earphones. Literally couldn't work without them! Between our developers we just kid of look at each other, and if you see someone in the zone you leave them alone. If we have a question, we'll use Skype and wait for a reply rather than interrupt them.

Headphones and hiding. For example, I am currently sitting on a sofa on the mezzanine above our open plan office, and I can see other people in the kitchen and hall with their laptops. It's a solution to a problem that didn't need to exist in the first place, really...

This can be really tough. We have a Google Home that plays someone's music all day so headphones are a must if you get stuck with that one guy that loves Celtic rock or something else that you don't prefer.

I have a really hard time concentrating with strong smells, so when someone gets a stinky lunch, I purchased a candle that sits under my nose :)

Also, all of the developers are on an island in the middle of this open office so when a coworker has jittery legs or is tapping his/her foot or is drumming on his/her desk to the celtic rock music blaring out of the Google Home, my monitors shake and feel every vibration.

I'm probably overly sensitive because I have trouble concentrating to begin with, but safe to say, I'm not sold on the open office concept 😂

Interuptions in our open office space were a big problem a while back. We have essentially two different teams in the developer team's office:

The biggest problem was not how loud the keyboards were -- people screened that off with headphones -- but rather other staff from the organization who needed to talk to one of the teams. The discussions bothered the other team. The two development teams work together so we didn't want to split them up (we thought about it but decided against it) but they also bothered each other because they worked on different projects.

So to solve it we brainstormed ideas to improve our development methodology, especially regarding the interruptions. Two things came out:

• Hodor and
• Meditation time

Hodor

(It should be called "do not disturb hours" or something but there was a joke flying around because of a misunderstanding about Hodor so that name stuck)

Every day between 10 and 12 in the morning the development team (db+web) closes the door and nobody can disturb them. Preferably they also close email, chat etc. This is holy time for the development team to make sure that they get time every day to work on their projects.

People will either have to come back after lunch, submit a ticket to an internal ticketing system, or talk to the department head if there is anything they need (there's a big sign on the door with instructions).

No meetings can be scheduled during these two hours. Disturbance in the room needs to be kept to a minimum.

The only exception to this are emergency situations but under those
circumstances managing the situation inside the development room is
discouraged.

Mediation time

Hodor (Do not disturb hours) are kicked off each day with meditation time. Developers take 15 minutes to meditate, each in their own way and are guided by an experienced team member.

People can freely participate in meditation, browse the web, do some work, think, whatever. They just have to keep quiet and gain focus.

Outcome

This combination of mediation and do not disturb hours really helped us gain control over the interruptions. Meditation helped set the mood and then people work for 2 hours (other employees in the organization respect these two hours, even so much that when X-mas gifts were handed out I (unit head) was asked if I would keep the gifts in my office while the developers were working).

My wife had a similar problem even if she was in her own office. She was constantly interrupted at work even if she had headphones while in the zone. So I suggested that she buy a really silly/threatening teddybear that she could put on her desk when she needed focus, as a sign of "I don't want to be disturbed now" (e.g. holding a sign that says do not disturb). She hasn't had to use it since she bought it so I don't know if it works well or not, but that's another idea for reducing interruptions.

Is it such a huge problem for you guys? On my open space we talk loud, we swear to the code, if someone is wearing headphones we tap him on the shoulder if needed. If he can answer, good, if not he says "5 min, doing something critical, I'll ping you". Someone is more sensitive to interruptions someone's not. And if i need deep focusing i just go to one of the meeting rooms (that means bother me only if super urgent)

I charge by the hour, reduced productivity is a bonus. 😉

Headphones, heavy music, and for own sanity, pomodoro timer Chrome extension.

Headphones for background noise/noisy colleagues. If it gets too loud, simply ask the noisiest to pipe down or take their conversation off the floor plate, usually quiets things down.

Actual interruptions from people from other teams: try to dissuade drive-bys through asking them to schedule a meet, drop an email etc. Put them off enough times they’ll resort to proper channels.

I work remote so recently dumping Skype for text chat and taking to a Slack channel instead has really helped. Can chat real time but also not if you choose. Slack also allows me more access to team chat/banter that I didn’t get from Skype.

We just had our cubes taken away and given just a desk in the open. One good thing is there are plenty of rooms we can use when we need privacy and quiet.

unfortunately headphones don't work around here, although they block out the noise :p probably going to put very passive aggressive post its on my desk sometime soon :p