The open-plan office is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea
The argument of "increased collaboration" that I keep hearing is kind of negated when people have the soccer game on and you'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 "jumping into a conversation" really goes out the window when I'm forced to wear headphones all day.<p>I really don't have a good way of measuring or fully quantifying how much less productive I am <i>personally</i>, but haven'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 "offices are cheaper" argument shouldn't work.