ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
 I found this awesome page describing the needs of introverts in the office and showcasing various facilities for their use.

(no subject)

Date: 2017-04-30 05:36 am (UTC)
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)
From: [personal profile] mdlbear
That's cool!

... and it made me realize that I can design my own work spaces now. Hmm.

(no subject)

Date: 2017-05-01 03:51 am (UTC)
ravan: by icons r us (flamethrower - from icons r us)
From: [personal profile] ravan
The BIG problem is that these are never full time spaces - they are places you have to reserve and move to temporarily to get any work done. Thing is, if I have to pick up and move to get anything done, I might as well work at home.

I literally lose 50% productivity in open plan. I lose 10% just sharing an office with a trainee.

A place that maybe I can reserve once a week? Doesn't fly. I get stressed and sick in open plan. Last one I was in gave me pneumonia, and my sleep was only ~5 hours a night. In an office I get 6.5 hours.

I get really, really bitchy in open plan, especially if I have a) people sitting behind me looking at my monitor, b) walking behind me, c) sitting next to me close enough that I can smell them or touch them, d) talking on the phone near me loud enough I can make out what they're saying, e) close enough that I can see them eat or smell their food (two words: microwave popcorn.)

Last one I was in, 55 dB was the constant "quiet" noise level. Will all seats filled, it regularly spiked up to 95 dB. Yes, I bought a sound meter.

Places that have these introvert havens only have a few (nevermind that introverts are half or more of all knowledge workers) that have to be reserved and that you are bullied if you spend "too much" time in them actually working instead of "interacting" with your cow okers.

Sorry for the rant but throwing the introverts a chicken bone by putting in two or three "quiet" spaces in an office with a couple hundred people just fucking doesn't cut it. You know damn well the big wigs will camp out there, and everyone else just suffers.

Re: Well...

Date: 2017-05-01 09:58 am (UTC)
ravan: by icons r us (flamethrower - from icons r us)
From: [personal profile] ravan
In general I've found that tech companies don't accommodate introverts well. I'm speaking from experience and talking with my fellow tech geeks.

They'll pay it lip service with a quiet room or two that do double duty as nap rooms and mom's rooms, and than wonder why their people are sick all the time - "But we have quiet rooms for the introverts to go to..." - if the people who need them on a daily, constant basis can't have them, they are only for show. If I have to pick up and move half or more of my workspace every day to get peace and quiet, I'm not being accommodated, I'm being patronized and abused, made to feel like I'm some sort of freak for simply needing peace and quiet to work in.

The Steelcase quiet workstations are nice to look at, but no company that I've ever worked for has assigned an individual contributor to work in one.

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