Moving to an "Office of the Future"

[P-E]

We moved into a sort of open office.  Sucks.   I have to use a conference room to unroll a set of drawings.   Barely no place for reference books.   Designed by the accountants in our office.  The accountants got to keep the old cubes and large offices.   

 

[wilheldp_PE]

Well, at least you have a nice view...

Seriously, though, what do you do at your computer?  Your discipline is listed as "construction," so I would assume that you work with drawings/CAD a good bit.  I know when I did CAD work at an A/E firm, I always had large drawings sprawled out on my desk doing markups and referencing other peoples' work.  Also, it looks like your workstations are just monitors which I assume are tied into a central server.  If you do anything processor-intensive, I can see that being a non-starter.

I second RG's condolences.  

 

[ruggercsc]

Well, at least you have a nice view...

Seriously, though, what do you do at your computer?  Your discipline is listed as "construction," so I would assume that you work with drawings/CAD a good bit.  I know when I did CAD work at an A/E firm, I always had large drawings sprawled out on my desk doing markups and referencing other peoples' work.  Also, it looks like your workstations are just monitors which I assume are tied into a central server.  If you do anything processor-intensive, I can see that being a non-starter.

I second RG's condolences.  

I work in in our Construction Group on Design-Build Projects on the Design side and we are constantly developing/reviewing drawings and specs.  I am on the computer everyday working on proposals, contracts, RFI's, submittals, drawing comment reviews, resource planning/leveling, scheduling, budgets, etc.  Somedays I need space to have a large set of drawings next to me, while other days I need less space (basically just my laptop/monitor). We will have to go to other areas to spread out out plans/specs and work.  We are supposed to sit in a different area every day and not claim any particular seat/workstation.  We also have a clean desk/area mandate so when you leave an area, you have to pack up everything and leave nothing.  

Our individual laptops will plug into the monitors at the workstations.  If you look at the locker photo, you may notice that we been provided with a new wireless keyboard/mouse that gets locked with our stuff up every day.  

We still have a couple of people who hand draw everything by hand (a lost art in my opinion, but that is another issue), so they be challenged in this environment.  We also have an estimator who still uses a digitizer, so he will be challenged trying to find space for that.         

It will be definitely take some time to get used to. One of the big issues is that our space is designed to be never be fully occupied.  Just in our  group, we have 24 spaces for 40 people.  The sales pitch is if everyone does show up, they may not have a workstation, but they will have a space somewhere (collaboration areas, social hub, focus areas, training rooms, conference rooms, den, etc.).  

 

[Supe]

Sorry, rugger.  I'd be jumping out that window if I had to work in that environment.

 

[P-E]

R, where do you store drawings and any paper files and reference books you need?

 

[ruggercsc]

We have a "studio" with bookshelves for reference books.  We have a small file for paper but we are basically paperless.  The idea is to scan it, file it in its proper electronic folder, and either shred it or archive it in storage if we are required to keep it.  On active jobs under design, we keep a half size paper set of drawings for everyone to share.  When it gets to permit/AFC's, we shred that set and keep the 1/2 size paper permit/AFC set with all revisions until the project is done and record documents are produced.  We then shred that and put the Record Documents in electronic storage.

We have been trying to go paperless for some time, but I need a paper set of drawings/specs for review.  I also need paper copies of references, codes, standards.

 

[willsee]

Where are the light sabers?

 

[Maji]

Sorry, rugger.  I'd be jumping out that window if I had to work in that environment.

I won't go that far... I will just jump ship

 

[ruggercsc]

Where are the light sabers?

There are no light sabers (sorry KnightFox) but there is a Captain Kirk Chair  (seriously, the William Shatner version).  There are also very large "balls of yarn" stools to sit on. 

 

[matt267 PE]

Sorry ruggercsc, but you're new office sounds very childish and just dumb.

 

[ruggercsc]

Agreed, but I will make the most of it.  

Thanks everyone for their support.

 

[ruggercsc]

First day on the new office.   Some positives and negatives as already discussed but there are two big observations:

1.  HVAC Noise - There is a constant HVAC noise that is pretty consistent everywhere, even if you are not located anywhere near a supply/return.  We have open ceilings and after careful observations, we noticed multiple small speakers spaced evenly through out the floor.  We deduced, and later were confirmed, that a constant background HVAC noise is being played as white noise over the observed speakers.  Anyone else have this in their office environment?

2.  In our new location, we can see most of the interstate system around the downtown area.  At 3:00 pm it started backing up. A lot of people started thinking about leaving for the day and many left shortly soon thereafter.  Traffic was no worse than usual and I am sure they would have stayed later at our old location, where one could not observe the interstates backing up.  An unintended consequence of our new office may be that productivity takes a hit because people will leave earlier by being able to observe the traffic patterns that they could not observe before.  

 

[matt267 PE]

Hahaha, we play white noise in the babies room too.

 

[ruggercsc]

White Noise, A couch, and Fish-n-Chips for lunch (had to pass on the Guinness, but it was tempting) made for less the productive afternoon than usual.

 

[SE_FL]

If the goal was to "make working there more enjoyable", looks like it works. Go home early, fish'n chips and Guinness, what's not to love? 

Unless of course you still have dead-lines to make.

 

[ruggercsc]

I still have deadlines to make and I have been enjoying Guinness and Fish-n-Chips long before I moved into our new surroundings and longer than some members of this board have been alive.  I enjoyed my first Guinness in 1984 and my first job out of college I had a company paid country club membership would have a Guinness and Fish-n-Chips at lunch on many occasions and would at come back to work and be productive. 

After being here a week, it is like moving from a 20 year old 3000 sf house in the suburbs to a brand new 600 sf  condo in the urban core or into a brand new 300 sf tiny house.  You sacrifice a lot of your personnel space for more open areas and communal space.  It sucks in some areas but works in others.  

It will be interesting to see if this concept works.  Our office is the first in the U.S. that we have rolled out this concept, but it is in use in some of our European, Asian, and Australian offices.  

 

[MetsFan]

Seems interesting, but how would you be able to do any type of spamming in that office? 

 

[snickerd3]

I hate white noise...our hvac system is old and loud and always a blessing on the ears when it turns off.   I would go nuts with it on all day.  Our building is an old factory turned into office space

 

[Supe]

They pump white noise in here, too.  My biggest grip is that the aluminum blinds rattle when the air kicks on...

 

[ruggercsc]

Seems interesting, but how would you be able to do any type of spamming in that office? 

Very difficult.  I am in the corner of the kitchen hoping someone is not looking over my shoulder.

I may have to work from home on Cyber Monday.