The Rant Thread

[jthig32]

This will be a bit long, I've been bottling this:

I freaking hate my company's decision to move offices. Our current location is 5 minutes away from 4 major highways. It's smack dab in the middle of the metroplex. Most importantly it's a 10 minute drive from my house.

But since we've moved up in position in our industry, we have to get new diggs. Fine, how about Las Colinas? Not trendy enough. We gotta go to the 35th freaking floor of one of the signature (maybe top 5 signature, anyway) highrises in downtown Dallas.

So good ol' Thig gets to add an hour+ to his daily commute, and that's IF I decide to take the light rail.

Some may say that's an over reaction. I mean, it IS going to be kind of cool to be in a spiffy new office. And according to all my sources, our floor looks pretty sweet. I've been to the building before they started construction, it's quite nice.

Well, not only are we changing buildings, but we're changing environments. Our parent company is based in the UK, and they want us to go with a more UK type work environment. You know what that means? "Open and collaborative".

What does open and collaborative mean you ask? Gone are the spacious cubes with 5' walls. In its place? Desks. Modern, trendy desks arranged a bit like honeycombs, with zero personal space and dividers that come up about 4" above the desk surface.

This is quite possibly the worst possible idea for a development environment I could ever think of.

So if I'm especially confrontational and grumpy Monday (first day in new office), you know why.

[Rhylan]

Originally Posted by jthig32

This will be a bit long, I've been bottling this:

I freaking hate my company's decision to move offices. Our current location is 5 minutes away from 4 major highways. It's smack dab in the middle of the metroplex. Most importantly it's a 10 minute drive from my house.

But since we've moved up in position in our industry, we have to get new diggs. Fine, how about Las Colinas? Not trendy enough. We gotta go to the 35th freaking floor of one of the signature (maybe top 5 signature, anyway) highrises in downtown Dallas.

So good ol' Thig gets to add an hour+ to his daily commute, and that's IF I decide to take the light rail.

Some may say that's an over reaction. I mean, it IS going to be kind of cool to be in a spiffy new office. And according to all my sources, our floor looks pretty sweet. I've been to the building before they started construction, it's quite nice.

Well, not only are we changing buildings, but we're changing environments. Our parent company is based in the UK, and they want us to go with a more UK type work environment. You know what that means? "Open and collaborative".

What does open and collaborative mean you ask? Gone are the spacious cubes with 5' walls. In its place? Desks. Modern, trendy desks arranged a bit like honeycombs, with zero personal space and dividers that come up about 4" above the desk surface.

This is quite possibly the worst possible idea for a development environment I could ever think of.

So if I'm especially confrontational and grumpy Monday (first day in new office), you know why.

Two thoughts...

1 - I'd feel better working for a company that chased cheap leases rather than showy locations, especially given you're in development.
2 - The best "open" environment is high-walled cubes with the openings facing each other down short aisles. The guys can roll out and talk to each other when needed, roll back in and keep to themselves when they prefer not to. Can't imagine how a bunch of developers are going to function if they don't have walls to tack things to.

My rant is a simple one. I hate refrigerator doors that close themselves. It's my fridge, and I should be able to leave the door open if I want.

[mary]

Dear Adminstrative/Security Guy that left me standing in a lobby for 45 minutes tonight, with no eye-glasses or shoes, while you figured out how to do your job,

Just because you are a tiny man, with a tiny bit of power, does not mean you had any reason to treat me like I was an inconvenient piece of crap on the bottom of your shoe. I can only PRAY that simultaneous, acute, and irreversible cases of ghonnerea, syhphilis, and herpes befall your dirtiest of parts. Amen.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by Rhylan

Two thoughts...

1 - I'd feel better working for a company that chased cheap leases rather than showy locations, especially given you're in development.
2 - The best "open" environment is high-walled cubes with the openings facing each other down short aisles. The guys can roll out and talk to each other when needed, roll back in and keep to themselves when they prefer not to. Can't imagine how a bunch of developers are going to function if they don't have walls to tack things to.

My rant is a simple one. I hate refrigerator doors that close themselves. It's my fridge, and I should be able to leave the door open if I want.

The best environment you just described is the one we have now. Not only will we not have anything to tack things to in the new building, we were told not to bring any kind of tacks at all to the new building. Even our tiny dividers are made of glass, so putting anything on them is going to require sticky tack or something of that nature. Also no place to put individual white boards, which is another ridiculous decision.

On the showy location part, I at least understand where they're coming from. We're not a consulting firm. We make software for a specific industry, and we service major companies in that industry. When you have IBM and Sprint rolling in to talk the sales guys or just to check out he place, I get that they want a spiffy place rather than the warehousy feel we have now. So that I can at least understand, even if I don't agree with it, at all.

But the desks are just a horrendous idea, and it's going to cost them a major chunk of productivity.

[Flacolaco]

Originally Posted by jthig32

But the desks are just a horrendous idea, and it's going to cost them a major chunk of productivity.

Not to mention extending common courtesy to your employees. People need at least a little bit of privacy in the workplace. That just doesn't sound very humane to me. Especially for developers.

The amount of S I have on my wall is incredible. I share an office with one other guy, and we have a 6' half cube wall in the middle of the office. It sounds to me like people will inevitably piss each other off in that situation you described.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

Not to mention extending common courtesy to your employees. People need at least a little bit of privacy in the workplace. That just doesn't sound very humane to me. Especially for developers.

The amount of S I have on my wall is incredible. I share an office with one other guy, and we have a 6' half cube wall in the middle of the office. It sounds to me like people will inevitably piss each other off in that situation you described.

Well, we're working against the UK working environment unfortunately. From what I hear, people in similar jobs in the UK are used to this sort of thing.

I know that our parent company's home office in UK pretty much just has tables with computers on them, with no dividers of any kind. And this is a major corporate software company.

*sigh*

[Flacolaco]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Well, we're working against the UK working environment unfortunately. From what I hear, people in similar jobs in the UK are used to this sort of thing.

I know that our parent company's home office in UK pretty much just has tables with computers on them, with no dividers of any kind. And this is a major corporate software company.

*sigh*

Well I hope your co-workers like the large colorful graphics I'm going to start posting in every thread. Get a 30" wide screen.....and your popcorn ready.

[Rhylan]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Well, we're working against the UK working environment unfortunately. From what I hear, people in similar jobs in the UK are used to this sort of thing.

I know that our parent company's home office in UK pretty much just has tables with computers on them, with no dividers of any kind. And this is a major corporate software company.

*sigh*

That's like The Office, man. I never understood how sales people could sit four feet from each other and be on the phone all day. It makes for great shenanigans between Dwight & Jim, but still.

It's just European culture, I guess. They're used to being crammed in on top of each other in all aspects of life.

[MavsX]

Originally Posted by jthig32

The best environment you just described is the one we have now. Not only will we not have anything to tack things to in the new building, we were told not to bring any kind of tacks at all to the new building. Even our tiny dividers are made of glass, so putting anything on them is going to require sticky tack or something of that nature. Also no place to put individual white boards, which is another ridiculous decision.

On the showy location part, I at least understand where they're coming from. We're not a consulting firm. We make software for a specific industry, and we service major companies in that industry. When you have IBM and Sprint rolling in to talk the sales guys or just to check out he place, I get that they want a spiffy place rather than the warehousy feel we have now. So that I can at least understand, even if I don't agree with it, at all.

But the desks are just a horrendous idea, and it's going to cost them a major chunk of productivity.

sucks man. sorry about this. Sometimes you have to do some personal business on company time...be it at lunch or during the day..some privacy would be nice.

what are they gonna set up a pay phone somewhere, so you can make phone calls? what a bunch of sh*t