Open Offices Are Terrible ↦

I briefly mentioned open office plans before, but Tom Morris found some scientific studies to back up the conclusion that open offices are terrible:

So, open plan makes you feel like you are being preyed upon by someone trying to kill you, and it makes you less motivated to work on hard problems, and it makes you less likely to adjust your work station posture, meaning you are more likely to get a nasty physical problem like RSI. That sounds great. Just the sort of place you can relax and focus on solving hard problems, as knowledge workers are asked to do every day.

He also mentions something that I hadn’t considered before but makes sense: as awful as open offices are in general, they are even worse for those with hearing loss.