NORMALIZE 👏 DEVELOPERS 👏 GETTING 👏 THEIR 👏 OWN 👏 OFFICE 👏

(I 👏 might 👏 settle 👏 for 👏 a 👏 shared 👏 office 👏 but 👏 no 👏 nevermind 👏 I 👏 want 👏 my 👏 own 👏 workspace 👏)

It used to be normal. Then it became cubes. Then it became a desks. Then it became tables. We need violent revolution.

👏 These 👏 claps 👏 look 👏 like 👏 sandwiches 👏 in windows 👏 on firefox 👏 ... :O 👏 👏 👏 👏

@SortOfTested As a youngling, this is depressing to hear...

i want this rant ++ed to infinity

@123username I do not have a desk wide enough for three regular screens. Luckily I only have two, and my laptop display.

But where I am now I share room with two other guys, it's nice and quiet. My old job did the open office plan bullshit so I was in room with operations, sales operations, planning, region managers and supply chain. It was great... To get away!

I bought my own pair of super sound reducing headphones that I could put on when it was too loud. Saved my hearing, sanity and relationship. Nowadays I put them on when the office is too quiet - I'd go for that any day of the week!

@SortOfTested HELL YEAH LETS GO

Simple, you just get promoted to the point you don't write any code, then...

...oh, wait.

@AlmondSauce that happened to my uncle.

And here’s me, using my 4yo’s desk in his room because it’s the only relatively quiet place in the house.

Why don’t I have an office?
• House is too small
• Can’t move yet — no credit because I’ve never bought anything I couldn’t afford
• Regus is a giant sack of dicks
• Employer is in California
• Their office is closed anyway

Wheeee

Also, with the exception of renting an office from Regus (a large mistake, fyi; don’t do it), I have never had my own office, ever, over the many jobs I’ve had. Trainee, junior, web jockey, deli girl, domain admin, network admin, game dev, lead dev, dev manager, senior web dev, ....

Why isn’t it the norm?
Knowledge workers should have peace and quiet. Subjecting them to noise adds stress and costs the company money. So why is it normal to shove them in the same room with freaking sales and their telephones and bells and bloody air horns?

@Root HOW CAN ONE HAVE SO MANY JOBS HOLY SHIT

@OmerFlameI had a career in game dev until I became the metaphorical spent charcoal. After that (and during, for some of it), I jumped around between other jobs when their drama/spaghetti/idiocy/burnout got too much to bear, or I learned all I could from them.

After all, why stay somewhere if you’re not learning anything? You don’t owe the company anything, and they certainly won’t reward your loyalty. So jump around and learn what you can. If that’s not reason enough by itself, new employers typically pay more than your previous salary, so it’s a raise and a fresh start, too! So the better question is: why wouldn’t you have that many different jobs?

———

( The exception was the deli; I had just moved back in with my parents (long story) and they’re controlling and abusive fucks. I needed someplace to go as often as I could, and a job is as legitimate an excuse as you can get. )

Isn't it getting more and more normal to be in an office with two or three people who work on the same project?

And they ain't loud either in my experience, when someone gets a call they go to a meeting room. When someone comes in with a question it's relevant for all.

I'm work on project base for customers and in 4 years time I have only had an open floor plan but even that was decently quiet with 30 people.

@Root I am now interested in your parents... how abusive are they exactly? This actually sounds scary... share with us only if you want to of course... and thank you for the tips! I will take them to account when I think of future jobs.

@OmerFlame Feel free to read my previous rants; I’ve ranted about them many times in the past.

Probably under the tags #parents and/or #frustration ?

@Root alright, thanks! Also I have been on a huge hiatus from DevRant and I’m glad to be back in the saddle.

@OmerFlame Always glad to see people returning ^^

@Root I have been working on pretty challenging hardware when I was absent and I was talking about it in my post saying that I returned and someone already wants it in his setup LOL

Preach son

@Codex404 I’ve experienced working in a room of three other people who also happened to be my real life friends, and we also had a chin up bar. It was amazing, but every place I’ve been at since has had open office plans. 🙁

Am I the only one okay with cubicals?

@Bubbles I've never even seen a cubicle in real life. Can't imagine how it would be to work in it.

@Codex404 they honestly look comfy to me

@Bubbles
I'm fine with cubes as long as I'm not sharing it with 5 people who somehow sweat at 20c

@SortOfTested agreed, I’d prefer my own cubical but I don’t mind sharing with one more as long as they’re productive and have basic hygiene

@Bubbles
I shared my last one with two vegetarian guys.

And by vegetarian I mean that everything they ate was overspiced microwaved starch slop covered in spice gravy full of garlic that made them reek 24/7. They also were unaware that is is possible to chew without exercising your jaw in an orbital fashion producing a sound akin to a wet boot in mud.

Needless to say, I worked anywhere else most of the time.

@SortOfTested yeah I can understand that, I know people that are also just disgusting to be around. In those cases it’s awful, but if you have someone who is clean and isn’t a sloppy dumbass it’s not bad

@SortOfTested im sorry, I wish I didn't sweat at -2C but I do. I can't help it. I'm just always hot and always sweating. I've heard a lot of times I don't smell bad and I also always tell my colleagues to tell me.

But I can't control my body.

why? randomly scattering tables everywhere is cheaper, and therefore always the best option.