Just shut up and let your devs concentrate, advises Joel Spolsky
I really don&#x27;t understand the sentiment against open floor plans. A little over 4 years ago, I switched from private offices and cubicles to an open floor plan. It&#x27;s... Just so much better.<p>I&#x27;m an introvert. I don&#x27;t really enjoy small talk. But I really appreciate being informed of what&#x27;s going on when someone enters my area or someone wants to open up a discussion. Is t an interruption? Possibly. But I consider learning from and teaching others to be part of my job, a career goal, and developing soft skills. It seems like there&#x27;s a tremendous and dangerous undervaluing of soft skills. I have learned so much and become so much more skilled technically by having these discussions. I&#x27;m able to remain in-tune with current project status, etc. this way without having to schedule meetings or get large groups of people together at the same time. I would spend so much more time in meetings if I were in a private office. I&#x27;m also completely at liberty to work in kitchenettes, common areas, patios and other places without any resistance. There&#x27;s plenty of room because everyone&#x27;s out in the open. We have occasional dividers between teams or different functional groups. But nothing is glued down.<p>Is it really that hard to focus in on some work? If you require complete silence and isolation, I&#x27;m afraid you are suffering from the development of certain technical skills at the cost of many other, equally valuable skills. For example, if you ever intend to pursue entrepreneurship or aspire to CTO rank, you can expect to be interrupted often. You will still have to do your work. What will you do then?<p>I see private offices and cubicles as a recipe for limiting your effectiveness outside of a narrow role. I think it hinders a person&#x27;s career as they are unable to obtain new skills. If you are deliberately avoiding developing these skills, it is your choice, but if management is trying to get you to work in a dark basement, slide a pizza and a deadline under the door from time to time, and expects you to be happy, just remember that they are getting more out of you than you&#x27;re getting out of your job.