The bullshit the growth VP was spouting about “creativity through random interactions” has largely been disproven and really only matters if your only goal is to have random interactions. Once the random interactions are over and the novel ideas generated, you have to go execute. People that worked at the agency credited with the big open office book talk to this day about how much of a shit show that stuff is.
I’ve worked in two open offices and, yeah, I largely hated it. One was just to enable micromanagement and prevent you from taking any breaks. The other was the opposite, in a very small company, having far too many distractions from music to complete nonsense conversations.
I’ve now moved to a fully remote role and we get far more done. No distractions and a tidy environment (my home) to think. The “random interactions” occur in group chats and the odd meet-up. Mixing the right people is sufficient and the setting is largely irrelevant.
The bullshit the growth VP was spouting about “creativity through random interactions” has largely been disproven and really only matters if your only goal is to have random interactions. Once the random interactions are over and the novel ideas generated, you have to go execute. People that worked at the agency credited with the big open office book talk to this day about how much of a shit show that stuff is.
I’ve worked in two open offices and, yeah, I largely hated it. One was just to enable micromanagement and prevent you from taking any breaks. The other was the opposite, in a very small company, having far too many distractions from music to complete nonsense conversations.
I’ve now moved to a fully remote role and we get far more done. No distractions and a tidy environment (my home) to think. The “random interactions” occur in group chats and the odd meet-up. Mixing the right people is sufficient and the setting is largely irrelevant.