Thoughts about working in the open concept, collaboration format? Working at a table with people sitting right beside you all day is not productive. Most people around me are talking about personal stuff, etc plus my team is spread out in various states. I’m doing this 4 days a week because I’ve been told to.
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Open space is cost saving for the company. They don't have to re-tool office space.
My experience is that most people who work from home work harder and longer hours, in part because they do not waste time with the commute and because home is typically a better and more comfortable work environment.
Upper management does not trust the people who do the work in the company and many are such dinosaurs that they want to manage people like they are working at Jack-in-the box.
Since our group was forced back to an office productivity and morale has sunk. Not one of us has "collaborated" with anyone in any office. Just wasted gas and time to get there.
My wife works at Microsoft and 8 years ago implemented open work space in her group. One year later they found productivity went down and put. them back in offices (and cubes). AT&T is always behind. I moved to open workspace at AT&T last year and it is very unproductive: people chatting, loud conversations, docking stations/HVD don't work nor does skype, no privacy including planning layoffs unless you want to keep getting up and taking your laptop to private rooms, etc ...just to name a few
Training, badges. D&I, community service are all the easiest things to collect metrics on. Same as checking badge logs to see who is onsite. Easy metrics. ATT management is so distant from the workforce that all they can do is review reports of metrics and they think this is how to run a business. The open space office let's then do the same thing. Look around and see how many people are there and if they look busy. Most ATT managers wouldn't be able to tell of that busy work is actually productive or not but it makes them feel like something is happening.
This is a great idea if you are constantly talking/collaborating with others at your location about the work that needs to be done, how to do it, and actually doing it. How many employees only work with the others at their location?
If you are an individual contributor and work with others that are not in your organization, or are at your location (not all jobs are in hub cities, there are people in other locations for a reason - not all work can be done in a hub city), it does not work. It's extremely difficult to be on a call when not only you, but the person you are on the call with, hears everything that is being said by the many people that are around you. If you have work that requires any level of concentration, you will need either headphones to block out all of the noise around you, or will need to do that work while you are NOT in the office. If you are a manager and need to speak with one of your direct reports about something you don't want everyone to hear, you have to find a space to have a private conversation, which is much easier said than done.
The open concept/collaboration format is more style over substance and is another initiative that is more about appearances than actually getting the work done. IMO, actually working and completing real work is the lowest priority at this point in time. That is probably the real issue with this company; doing actual work has been replaced with training, badges, community service, D&I and whatever is popular any given day.
Everyone know where one of the "Open / Collaboration" office concepts came from right? https://www.tlnt.com/the-yahoo-effect-its-all-about-collaboration-one-way-or-another/
That was a Marissa Mayer initiative, AT&T bought into what Yahoo was doing 5 years ago and soon followed suit. Mayer resigned from Yahoo! June 13, 2017 (Wikipedia) after cutting 50% of Yahoo! employees and losing market share. She's quite the hatchet lady.
One thing is for sure. Much easier to reorg every three months if you have open floor plan. If your job doesn't require on site collaboration, it should be offshored to Phillippines like the call centers.
The open office collaboration scheme is a known failure to everyone except apparently AT&T management.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/heres-proof-that-open-office-layouts-dont-work-and-how-to-fix-them
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/success/inc/tca-the-open-office-plan-is-backfiring-20180220-story.html
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/new-harvard-study-you-open-plan-office-is-making-your-team-less-collaborative.html
Side by side with people, can’t understand a word they say. Noise level is through the roof. Bad odors, dirty tables/desks/chairs. Doing a job that can be done from anywhere, yet the perception of collaboration is what is important. Worst idea ever.
Most jobs at ATT are making slide decks, calls to review slide decks before a meeting, and calls to post mortem slide decks after a meeting. The actual meeting might not ever happen. In fact, most people multitask during the meeting and just ask you to send the slides. Why this wouldn't work better in an open office?
I find it ironic that a "mobility" company is trying to enforce "non mobility" upon its workers. Our group has had similar edicts. The problem with the set up is that it doesn't scale, or reflect the dynamic nature of the company. By "scale", I mean that it assumes that the people you are working with are the people you are colocated with, and that it will stay that way forever. That's just not going to scale over time, unless the company wants to constantly relocate people, and nobody is going to put up with that for long. Why doesn't the company embrace mobility solutions and really showcase what can be done? (Of course, there are some jobs and positions that do require colocation, but many do not.)
Assuming what you say is even remotely correct, obviously your job does not require much focus or concentration.
Those of us with real skills are able to use the various online tools to communicate with our co-workers wherever they are, without peering through windows or interrupting other people who are working.
Total Cluster - Loud, people always coming and going, if you like working in a Starbucks or bus/Train station, fast food drive thru, this is the office space for you. Where being interrupted, distracted is the new way we work. No longer do you need to focus or concentrate. As the buildings are sold to pay debt, jobs are offshored, none of this will matter. Its a cost cutting move its not about collaboration, to keep the pressure on employees to jump through hoops. Guys in India are 4 or more to a cube or elbow to elbow at a table, look at how well that works. This is great accommodations for all the H1B newcomers,
If you get the opportunity, take the offer.
Sorry for everyone who doesn't like it, but the open floorplans are great for collaboration. I am always jumping into other people's conversations and pulling people from meetings if I need something. The glass conference rooms really help with finding people. The best part is that I've met so many people with different jobs that I dont feel stuck where I'm at.
Yep, before I was gone last year they wanted people downtown bell 1 to collaborate and I was enterprise sales because they were shutting other buildings leased. I would be sitting in a flex desk wide open on 14th or 17th floor with marketing people jacking with power points all day and you could not whisper without people hearing you. It was and is still like a library and a cold environment. I'm with a partner now and go Bell 1or Bell 3 to meet with sales teams and it's the same environment like Joe vs the volcano. When you had a cubicle you had your own space to focus, now everything is a distraction and anyone can just walk up and break your focus with see thru glass huddle rooms. This is not conducive to a productive work environment plus I live 35 miles north of Dallas and takes me a hour and 1/2 drive IF I'm that lucky!!
try to find a nice rack...and then hand there everyday...not bad
Took a couple months to get used to it. But I do it want to go back to a closed off space ever again. Whenever I need something I can walk right up to who ever I need to talk to and ask my question. It's even better than Q!
The only problem is when your team is not all on site. Relocation to consolidate teams is the next step. Right now we are only in open space for knowledge transfer while the final locations are being set up with new hires.
More hard candy at the office, yay!
Yet another example of AT&T executing a failed concept. SMH. I’m sure some corporate cupcake cheerleader got a bonus for it.
curry and b.o........omg instant vomit
Working in open areas is just not conducive to tech jobs that require concentration and thinking...When juggling deadlines, meeting with stakeholders, subject matter experts and trying to keep it all straight; one requires quiet time to process information that’s coming at you from multiple angles. Most importantly one needs and requires a quiet corner to work, think, process, and most importantly to produce quality documentation. Most of the time I wait until I get home at night to work on my requirements as it is impossible to think and concentrate in the new open concept office spaces.....Sometimes I wonder what are these decision makers thinking or are they that removed that they do not understand that all positions can be retro-fitted into this new concept successfully...….
Doesn’t work well at all since the people I sit around are not the people I need to work with so I’m on the phone most days for hours on end and so are the other people in the open office. So the end result is none of us can hear our calls and people on the other end of the phone can’t hear us either. And there’s not enough focus rooms for the amount of calls I have to take.
I love the open concept. I can socialize all day. No one gets any work done.
You can add the body odor from our indian counterparts, & nauseating effects.