The open-plan office is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea
The argument of &quot;increased collaboration&quot; that I keep hearing is kind of negated when people have the soccer game on and you&#x27;re bombarded with constant cheering, which is my current situation.<p>Even when soccer is over, you have to contend with people playing grab-ass all over the office, or jerks (like me) with annoyingly loud keyboards.  The modicum of utility of me &quot;jumping into a conversation&quot; really goes out the window when I&#x27;m forced to wear headphones all day.<p>I really don&#x27;t have a good way of measuring or fully quantifying how much less productive I am <i>personally</i>, but haven&#x27;t there been a ton of studies that indicate anywhere between 1-1.5 hours a day is wasted per employee due to the open office?  I assume that labor is the most expensive part of any big-ish company, so it feels like the &quot;offices are cheaper&quot; argument shouldn&#x27;t work.