Apple Staffers Reportedly Rebelling against Open Office Plan at New $5 Billion HQ

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Apple Park may have been meticulously designed, but there seems to have been a tremendous oversight: none of the architects or managers realized that the company’s employees hate open office arrangements. Engineers are being asked to work at long tables with co-workers instead of cubicles or separate areas, which is a terrible idea for the easily distracted. The vice president of Hardware Technologies, Johny Srouji, said “f--- you” when he was shown the plans.

"I heard that when floor plans were announced, that there was some meeting with [Apple Vice President] Johny Srouji's team,” said Gruber. “He's in charge of Apple's silicon, the A10, the A11, all of their custom silicon. Obviously a very successful group at Apple, and a large and growing one with a lot on their shoulders.” Gruber continued, “When he [Srouji] was shown the floor plans, he was more or less just 'F--- that, f--- you, f--- this, this is bulls---.' And they built his team their own building, off to the side on the campus … My understanding is that that building was built because Srouji was like, 'F--— this, my team isn't working like this.’”
 
Good for him. The architects who design these spaces don't work in that kind of nightmare, but they get a bee in their bonnet about "collaborative" spaces and go bat shit. No human works well in that environment. For $5,000,000,000 give everyone their own damn little office....
 
Pusher of Buttons said:
Good for him. The architects who design these spaces don't work in that kind of nightmare, but they get a bee in their bonnet about "collaborative" spaces and go bat shit. No human works well in that environment. For $5,000,000,000 give everyone their own damn little office....
Click to expand...
Notice how the executives and other leadership are exempt.

Also: bench seating? Are they fucking serious? What is this, an office space or a school cafeteria?
 
Reminds me of the movie the circle, where everyone was working in the open.
 
I love open designs. I find I do work better when I can just pop up my head and ask someone something.

*shrug* different strokes I guess.
 
Armenius said:
Notice how the executives and other leadership are exempt.

Also: bench seating? Are they fucking serious? What is this, an office space or a school cafeteria?
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons I'd really never want to work in the IT mines out west....they treat their low level people like cattle. I might not be much but I've got 200 sq. ft to myself and like 6 desks. I'll take real estate over income most days :)
 
Cali3350 said:
I love open designs. I find I do work better when I can just pop up my head and ask someone something.

*shrug* different strokes I guess.
Click to expand...
Within the same team, sure. But these floor plans are mixing literally everyone together. And frankly, I work with some people on a great level that have extremely annoying behavioral quirks that would drive me batshit insane if I had to listen and/or watch it all day.
 
"Apple knows what is best for our employees..."

(Some Apple executive I am sure said this)
 
Azrak said:
Yeah, when you're the one always asking questions, it's great. But when you're the one with the answers trying to get work done, it sucks.
Click to expand...
I dont think so. Most likely im being asked about work that I would either be helping with / blocked on / interested in anyway. Its rare Im totally working on a island.

Obviously im assuming a coworker that does not ask me literally everything. But if they did, thats a flew with the employee, not the workspace.
 
Armenius said:
Within the same team, sure. But these floor plans are mixing literally everyone together. And frankly, I work with some people on a great level that have extremely annoying behavioral quirks that would drive me batshit insane if I had to listen and/or watch it all day.
Click to expand...

I agree. Some people's behavioral quirks would drive me nuts if I had to work in that sort of environment. It is bad enough when you're in a room with 2-3 people all day, let alone in a room with dozens, or even hundreds. Every conversation, every cough is a distraction. Some people can focus well enough to ignore that sort of thing but my brain process all of it and I can't ignore it.
 
Done and done
IMG_5175.JPG
 
I think this open space idea is the management's idea that privacy = people slacking off. Obviously the solution is to reduce privacy to keep people honest.
I'm really not sure who in these open spaces besides managers enjoy this setup. It seems as if most computer jobs that require concentration suffer from the many distractions that these setups.
I also feel personally that these set ups are meant to dehumanize people and make it seem as if they're in a sea of replaceable cogs.
 
My work layout switch to this a year ago, and it's been absolutely irritating. All to "follow the example/trend set forth by Silicon Valley".
 
i tohught the office world learned that open office sucked and they are all going back to something else? I know my company is.
 
Azrak said:
Yeah, when you're the one always asking questions, it's great. But when you're the one with the answers trying to get work done, it sucks.
Click to expand...

And if you are the dude trying to video conference or do ap hone meeting to get shit done, all that conversation makes your job hard to impossible. Not to mention your job makes those other two doing their work harder as well.

Everything else aside, you need frikin noise abatement to be productive unless everyone's job is communication free, or requires no talking. It isn't a frikin assembly line.
 
Armenius said:
Notice how the executives and other leadership are exempt.

Also: bench seating? Are they fucking serious? What is this, an office space or a school cafeteria?
Click to expand...

bench seating would destroy me.....although i guess if I worked there maybe I'd put up with it, get some doctors to say its killing my back and then sue for lots of money and live the american dream?
 
I find continual distractions keep me from my 'zone' where I become very productive. This sort of environment would keep me from my zone.

We have separate spaces where I work now, but anyone can interrupt anyone at anytime for any reason. I have told my manager that I would get more done if I could work from home a couple days a week or have set hours where we can interact with each other, but he didn't want any of this.

It's a management decision and if they want me to be interrupted all day knowing that I will get less done, then that's how it is I suppose.
 
ruffbytes said:
I find continual distractions keep me from my 'zone' where I become very productive. This sort of environment would keep me from my zone.

We have separate spaces where I work now, but anyone can interrupt anyone at anytime for any reason. I have told my manager that I would get more done if I could work from home a couple days a week or have set hours where we can interact with each other, but he didn't want any of this.

It's a management decision and if they want me to be interrupted all day knowing that I will get less done, then that's how it is I suppose.
Click to expand...

There was a study done recently about interrupting programmers and how it takes them something like an hour to get back into "the zone" of productivity. Forgive me if I dont recall the exact number but I am about to head out of the office and dont have time to google around.

Just consider that every time you interrupt someone - it takes time for them to recover and refocus on their work. As a manager I take this into account and use email when issues dont require an immediate answer. Even IM is better since it can be "ignored" until the person is ready for an interrupt.
 
One of my former employers tried to do this to our (IT) department. In the original building, IT was in a badge-locked room, and people had to knock. It was secure, we could store hardware in our room, and yes, we could pretend we weren't in there once in a while. :D It was nice. Obviously "they" got sick of that situation. They got two floors of a really nice downtown high-rise, plenty of individual offices all around the perimeter. They stuck IT in an open space between a bunch of otherwise non-open departments. Totally retaliation for us having a locked space in the old building. They said they thought that IT should be more accessible to everyone. Only it was totally awkward, we had random "talky-type" people walking up and annoying the hell out of us with small talk, etc. We finally all collectively raised our monitors way up, stacked things on our desks, and otherwise made it so anyone wanting to talk to us had to funnel through a choke-point. :D Shortly after the company went under anyway, so it was all for nothing.
 
kju1 said:
There was a study done recently about interrupting programmers and how it takes them something like an hour to get back into "the zone" of productivity. Forgive me if I dont recall the exact number but I am about to head out of the office and dont have time to google around.

Just consider that every time you interrupt someone - it takes time for them to recover and refocus on their work. As a manager I take this into account and use email when issues dont require an immediate answer. Even IM is better since it can be "ignored" until the person is ready for an interrupt.
Click to expand...

This is true of any task that requires some degree of thought, creativity or concentration. Sometimes it can throw off the entire project or portion of the project, especially when creative and focused thought is flowing freely for someone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kju1
like this
J3RK said:
This is true of any task that requires some degree of thought, creativity or concentration. Sometimes it can throw off the entire project or portion of the project, especially when creative and focused thought is flowing freely for someone.
Click to expand...

Oh I am aware - I just recalled the study was for programmers specifically.
 
"People don't need separate spaces and tastes. Everyone will drink green tea. The only food in any dining hall will be a turkey sandwich with chips."
 
private office>shared office>cubes>shared cube>open office

Even with cubes, noise is a problem when you are trying to work. More open the office, the more noise there is, the harder it is to get any work done.

Just like the urban planners that think everyone should live in expensive, tiny, high rise apartments close to mass transit.
Meanwhile they all live in large homes in the suburbs with 3 car garages and large yards for the kids to play in.
 
I'm can guarantee that the engineers in my office would be pissed as hell if we were asked to work in an environment like that. Good lord, I don't like to think about the time I spend sitting at work, put me on a bench seat like that and that's all I will think about.
 
Armenius said:
Within the same team, sure. But these floor plans are mixing literally everyone together. And frankly, I work with some people on a great level that have extremely annoying behavioral quirks that would drive me batshit insane if I had to listen and/or watch it all day.
Click to expand...


I think that's the key to these designs, the team area. The best design would allow areas for people to work in their own space as well as easily work in collaborative areas among the team. No cross pollination of departments.

I'm a person capable of both, so I naturally (with a laptop) could float between the two areas with my team depending my mood. Whereas a more private person could stick to their private area.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top