New location in El Segundo, CA opened today and from what I understand the basic setup follows what they did in Atlanta and plan to do in Dallas.
The good:
- Compared to the increasingly dumpy and dreary space we left (the old DIRECTV hq), the building and facilities are a legit improvement
- Sit-stand desks are nice.
The bad:
- Layout could only have been designed by people who have their own offices. It''s open plan slop everyone hates. You can hear every conversation and teams call. The old space, while dumpy, had decent personal space and a modicum of privacy. Great environment for doing focused work. But there is pickleball!!!
- Of course, the geniuses continue with the no assigned seats policy. Yes, there are "neighborhoods" but they didn't have enough seats so people in some groups had to use overflow space. You can toss the collaboration BS out the window.
- Everyone got new chairs, which should be nice except that the seat backs are hard plastic, like you're sitting in the upper deck at a football game. They're going to need to swap the onsite shrink with a chiropractor. Back was ki-ling me by the end of the day. And these cheapo imitations of Herman Miller chairs will be the standard across the company. At least the VPs have the same chairs.
So basically, this isn't awful but coming here is still completely pointless. A fresh coat of paint and pickleball can't fix stupid.