Moving to an "Office of the Future"

[envirotex]

Does anyone have any experience in these type of settings and how have they worked out? 

Uh, Starbucks?

 

[ruggercsc]

Uh, Starbucks?

Our coffee is free though.    

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I worked in this one "open" environment where we had mobile desks (except the phones were still tied to a stationary port????).  It was noisy as hell.  No one really ever moved.  Totally counter to being productive. 

I told my boss at the outset that I wouldn't thrive in that environment (we switched to it several years in to my tenure with that company) and said "don't be surprised if you see my productivity fall off".  He laughed.  But then wouldn't you know it, he left the company and my new boss gave me one of the worst performance reviews I've ever had.  I left shortly thereafter and told them one of the reasons was the ridiculous environment in which I was expected to work.

 

[P-E]

why bother with the tables?  or the chairs?   cushions on the floor would save your clients lots of cash 

does everyone get their own recycling bin? 

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Sounds like an absolute nightmare.  Our office had a couple PMs, a couple Engineering Managers, and one VP and they were all constantly on the phone for conference calls.  It would be an absolute disaster if they didn't have offices and were out in the open.  I'm with @Audi driver, P.E., no way in hell I would have thrived in an open office environment.  When I'm doing calculations or drafting letters, both for vendors or internally, it drives me crazy if there is too much surrounding noise.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

Sounds like an absolute nightmare.  Our office had a couple PMs, a couple Engineering Managers, and one VP and they were all constantly on the phone for conference calls.  It would be an absolute disaster if they didn't have offices and were out in the open.  I'm with @Audi driver, P.E., no way in hell I would have thrived in an open office environment.  When I'm doing calculations or drafting letters, both for vendors or internally, it drives me crazy if there is too much surrounding noise.

Worst part about it was they invested all this money in the new mobile desks that were rickety as hell, were too cheap to buy carpet so we had an old unfinished concrete floor (as you can imagine, that contributed significantly to the noise factor) and brought people through bragging about how it was the best thing since sliced bread.  I was one of only maybe 3 people that thought it sucked unwiped ass.

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Not that it matters, but why is this in the "After you pass the exam" forum?  Maybe in the Shoot the Breeze forums @knight1fox3 @ptatohed

 

[ruggercsc]

I think of "Shoot the Breeze" as more of a time killer and place where you can discuss items not particularly related  the practice of engineering (politics, games, sports, etc.).  This Topic touches on the following: 

1. Social Engineering
   
2. The office environment
   
3. Productivity
   
4. Team Dynamics
   
5. Other buzzwords that sound important  
   

I felt it was different than just killing time and water cooler talk (I may be dating myself with this phrase)  That was my thinking of why it should not be In "Shoot the Breeze".

Anyway, I will post some pictures of our new office in a week or so wherever this thread is.

 

[ptatohed]

Not that it matters, but why is this in the "After you pass the exam" forum?  Maybe in the Shoot the Breeze forums @knight1fox3 @ptatohed

Thanks Ram.  I had already thought about it too.  But I couldn't think of a perfect fit forum.  It is related to work (engineering) so it isn't quite Shoot The Breeze, but it also isn't After You Pass or General Engineering I don't think.  Arrgghh.  So, here it stays I guess.   

 

[ruggercsc]

It was like some of those test questions we had that was not quite A,B,C,D but we had to make the best choice.    

BTW, as a Manger of Group of Design Professionals (engineers, architects, landscape architects) I sometimes have questions I would this forum's advice on .  Where would be the best place to start a thread on "Office" or "Management" type issues (office setup, developing training opportunities, recruitment questions, in etc.) on these type issues?    

Thanks everyone.   

 

[ptatohed]

It was like some of those test questions we had that was not quite A,B,C,D but we had to make the best choice.    

BTW, as a Manger of Group of Design Professionals (engineers, architects, landscape architects) I sometimes have questions I would this forum's advice on .  Where would be the best place to start a thread on "Office" or "Management" type issues (office setup, developing training opportunities, recruitment questions, in etc.) on these type issues?    

Thanks everyone.   

Perhaps General Engineering?  http://engineerboards.com/index.php?/forum/7-general-engineering/ 

 

[cupojoe PE PMP]

My girlfriend's company tried to do this because they had way more people than they had space for desks. So the idea was that you wheel your file cabinet over to an open space do your work then pack it back up and put your file cabinet back along the wall. In reality people just stopped moving their stuff so there still weren't ever enough seats for everyone. Ultimately they built a new building.

 

[ruggercsc]

The theory behind our "office of the future" is that 100% of you space is never filled (i.e. you never have 100% of everyone in the office at the same time).  For instance, plan for enough space for 75% of your office because at least 25% of your office staff is always out.   The occupant load will be tracked and notifications will be sent if the occupant load is nearing capacity.  If that happens and you are not yet at the office,  then the you may want to consider working from home.  Which brings up another issue.  In order to be fair, flexible, recruit, and retain the best talent, managers are encouraged to be flexible with work arrangements (hours and working from home).  However, our company did not spend a ton of money for our new "office of the future" to have it empty and have lots of people work from home, so you are expected to be there.

We will be moving in this week, so I will post pics.

 

[Road Guy]

Although we call this the "office of the future" I think this is more like the office of the 60's / 70's...

When I worked at a state government in the 90's most of the really old design departments were drafting tables and a few pc's but there were no cubes or dividers.

 

[ruggercsc]

Had a tour of the new workspace.  We move in Thursday.  Apologies for double posts but I want to share photo's of the new place 

View attachment 8794

 

[ruggercsc]

 

[ruggercsc]

More workstations

 

[ruggercsc]

Second Picture is our lockers.  They are about the size of a bankers box.

 

[Road Guy]

That's worse than our set up... condolences...

the overlords will use words like collaboration and free flowing ideas; but what they really mean is less office space to lease per square foot & less overhead...

 

[ruggercsc]

In our office they are called collaboration areas, focus areas, social hub, and meditation areas.