Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!dduck!duncan
From: duncan@dduck.ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Office Survey Results..................
Message-ID: <17376@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 10 Aug 89 11:45:09 GMT
References: <10440004@hp-lsd.HP.COM> <6474@pdn.paradyne.com> <17357@bellcore.bellcore.com> <6478@pdn.paradyne.com>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: duncan@dduck.UUCP (Scott Duncan)
Lines: 55

Hi George...yes folks, George and I knew one another (over the phone and by
email) when he worked at Bellcore.

In article <6478@pdn.paradyne.com> reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach) writes:
>
>              People type loud, cough and sneeze, talk constantly in a
>loud tone, etc......  All sorts of machinery emit noise, eg. PC printers.

An important point about my experiences:  they were before PC's and locally
attached printers became popular so there was no printer noise.  Local cul-
ture tended to reduce the amount of exposure to people standing around talk-
ing much (or too loud) since people WERE sensitive to the noise level poten-
tial.

>>Has anyone ever worked where the offices are glass from about midway up all
>>around
>
>Yes, I have.  Typically the materials that the walls were made of were not
>sound absorbant.  In addition, the floors were linoleum so that if the 
>secretary in high heels came down the aisle you could hear her from a mile
>away.  We also have five button hand sets which were constantly ringing.
>The terminals were the old Teletype 43 paper type.  There were four or five
>people to a cubical.  World War II surplus furniture, etc......

My esperience at the DP shop was far better:  decent walls, rugs, very little
phone interruption.

>                                           Furthermore, if a technical 
>discussion is taking place then perhaps the people involved in the
>discussion *don't* want your participation!  I mean, time management
>may dicatate that people not get involved in each and every technical
>discussion that pops up during the course of a day.  If I have a
>technical question, I know who the appropriate people are to get in
>touch with.  I don't necessarily need all sorts of people joining in.
>Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Well, local culture also too care of that after a while.  If you did NOT want
people to pop into your conversations, you didn't stand up around other folks'
cubicles!

Like I said, I had very positive experiences in the open arrangements, but am
very willing to believe that others have not.  My only reason for posting was
because I assumed there would be lots of negative reactions to open office
architectrures and I knew I had positive experiences.  So, for contrast, I
thought it would be worthwhile to respond.

>George W. Leach					AT&T Paradyne 
>(uunet|att)!pdn!reggie				Mail stop LG-133
>Phone: 1-813-530-2376				P.O. Box 2826
>FAX: 1-813-530-8224				Largo, FL  USA  34649-2826

Speaking only for myself, of course, I am...
Scott P. Duncan (duncan@ctt.bellcore.com OR ...!bellcore!ctt!duncan)
                (Bellcore, 444 Hoes Lane  RRC 1H-210, Piscataway, NJ  08854)
                (201-699-3910 (w)   609-737-2945 (h))