Working Environment

[Josh Greenaway]

This is something I was thinking about last night while I was rearranging my home office, and thought it might make a decent discussion.

Personally, if I worked for another company, I'd like to have my own room with nobody else working in it. I feel I'd be better off that way as I wouldn't have any distractions, plus I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to organisation and keeping things in their place. Having somebody else in the room wouldn't work, especially if they're untidy.

So, how would you like to work (if you worked for an employer)? On your own, in a room of 2-4 people, or with everyone together?

I'd like to get your views as this would be a vital part of opening a business in my opinion, I'd like to offer all three options, so employees can choose where they work, but I think that'd be too expensive, especially right at the beginning.


Thanks,
Josh

 

[tim]

Depends TBH. I don't like being distracted, otherwise I'm not gonna do work for hours.

If I had cool people to work with, I'd say everyone together in a big room, as it feels more like a team and I'd have to work, whereas 2-4 people seems a bit like there's little groups inside the business, which would annoy me.



BTW, If I type like a douchebag, it's because I am. Ideas seem good until they're out of my head.

 

[rossnorthernunion]

Fulltime studio its a big studio - at the moment theres six up there - which is good for 'bouncing ideas and concepts around' - and general design 'craic'. Cant be doing the in thing of having everyone - sales, projects, designers in one big room - thats an accident waiting to happen!

But when im on my own - i like to work on my own - me, my mac, my tunes, my way (i did it my.....).

Personal preference really aint it?

 

[Gavinb]

When getting stuck into coding I would have to say alone everytime - with door locked and phones on silent. For me, the slightest distraction can set me back an hour.

 

[VertigoSFX]

Ideally I prefer a small group...where I work now, we're a large national company but we only employ 5 people, 4 that work in the office, 1 at home. I love the environment because the office is small, but my boss has made it open, so I can turn my chair around and see the other 3 behind me and I can say "hey so and so" to get their attention...no yelling, no standing up...easy.

We can have a lot of conversations this way while working and we have almost seem to have a system to where when we really need to get work done, we stop talking and can get our work done...no problem. It works out. I think that is the ideal environment.

But like Gavin said, when it comes to coding, it is nice to be alone that way I can have 100% focus...otherwise I lose my place easily

I've never had experience working in a big room with lots of people so not sure how that would work out.

 

[scotty]

I've worked for a newspaper in the corner of a big room full of sales people and account managers which was a laugh to be honest. More recently I worked in a room with about 10 designers that were so meek you could have heard a mouse fart. That REALLY did my head in.
These days I work for myself in my own space, in my own mess with my own tunes and I really like it.
Plus I get bad gas so it's better for everyone all round

One thing I couldn't stand is to work in a cubicle hell.

 

[tim]

Depending on the size of the cubicle (obviously), I wouldn't mind working in one TBH. I like my own personal space to do my work but still be able to talk to the rest of the group about something.

I worked at Birmingham Airport for a while, and loved working in a joint environment, but still being separated at the same time. Made me work.