You know, I've never worked in nor seen an office that wasn't "bullpit" style with people grouped onto many desks.
Maybe this is just NZ. Is having your entire development team each having their own private office something that actually happens in America (bar the amazing fantasy land that Spolsky's office sounds like).
Also, it's worth mentioning that this is just a survey, and just addresses how people "feel", not efficiency or anything like that. My ideal "work" environment (i.e. a beach) doesn't necessarily line up with my most productive.
Yes. I am in my own office. I've more or less been in a single office since, oh, 95 or so.
It's impossible to think in bullpen/cubes. Well, that's hyperbole, but it is both wearying and distracting. I'm sure there are personality types that thrive in that situation, but it is just really hard for me to be in an environment like that for long. There's a reason there's a "no talking" rule at libraries, after all.
Heh, so the music I listen to tends to be pulsing non-vocal quiet electronic music (currently listening to: Done by Robot Science) because it's not music I'm going to sing or sitting-dance along too, and it's entirely ignorable, but it also cuts out the noise of everything around me.
I can still see my coworker hacking SQL into some XML (wtf is he doing) out of the corner of my eye, but I'm not sure wearing horse blinkers to work would be socially acceptable.
Doesn't help with the visual distraction though. People are walking towards me all the time, or towards the people behind me, or next to me, and they are jumping around and waving their arms around and shooting nerfguns at each other and I don't know what.
Even after rearranging my desk such that I mostly look towards the windows, the hardest part I tend to concentrate on is staying focussed, and by now, maintaining that for more than half a day is extremely hard.
It's also making me sad. I can go long durations with intense focus. Given the right problem and atmosphere, something like 6 - 8 hours of intense focus and progress is possible, my high score is somewhere around 15 hours with minor breaks at a ludum dare. This is just not going to happen in this environment.
I had my own office, complete with door, the entire time I was at Apple. It was fantastic. I've worked in open plan offices before and since, and I vastly prefer individual offices.
Maybe this is just NZ. Is having your entire development team each having their own private office something that actually happens in America (bar the amazing fantasy land that Spolsky's office sounds like).
Also, it's worth mentioning that this is just a survey, and just addresses how people "feel", not efficiency or anything like that. My ideal "work" environment (i.e. a beach) doesn't necessarily line up with my most productive.