Programmers vs. The Rest Of The World [modified]
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
I think my brain is wired similarly. And, I agree with the headphones, but I need white noise or something more consistent than most music. I purchased a cd with a variety of water sounds and found one that's perfect as it has basically no quiet periods. I tune to the lowest possible level until the environment get's noisy, then increase as needed.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
Get yourself some noise canceling headphones and an MP3 player. Even the cheap ones work (no need to go to Bose) with music. With my Logitech ($50) cheapies, I'm able to mow the lawn and hear music. Much better than cranking the volume to nerve damage levels.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
It is obvious to me that you are a total failure as a nerd. #1: As a nerd you should be the most annoying person in the office. I suggest that you go on the offensive. You could use a subtle approach, like picking your nose constantly, to get sound (and sight) reducing walls built. That way you aren't the one suggesting the expenditures to the bossman. If you want your own office with a door I'd suggest egg protien three times a day. It's a good way to gas your way into your own office with a door and separate air handling system. #2: As a nerd you should have the ability to control the make up of your office. If movies are to be believed it is only a matter of adjusting payroll files or the generation of a few creative emails and you've got all your noisy co-workers looking for a new job. Alternatively you could simply write software that eliminates a noisy co-workers job - I used that technique once to get rid of a guy who was a knock-knock joke afficinado. I hear he's a big hit down at McDonald's. The only way to win is to make your problem someone else's problem. Report back here when you've won.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
My cube is right outside the main conference room, where all the loud sales meetings, production training and pot lucks. And I can't leave out the noisy hallway follow up meeting just outside the door right after the main meeting. I tried putting up "quiet, people working" signs, the no cell phone sign, all of that. I would do the kick the door stop up and noisily close the door, None of it works. Seems that social boors can't or won't read, can't be bothered. One of the annoyed conference room users sent me this link when I complained, http://www.sarcasma.net/sarcasma_002.htm[^] I ended up using headphones like a lot of the posters here. I prefer the circumaural closed back type. Sometimes I don't even play music, just shut out the noise.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
Proper noise-cancelling headphones (i.e. the big "cans") would lessen the impact of their cacophony and perhaps help to passively signal to others how much of a pain in the arse it is. People will come to ask you questions and have to ask you to remove the headphones first, and you'll casually say "oh yeah sorry, it's just for the noise - what's up?", rather than you going to them and asking why the noise doesn't bother them so much. I find listening to music a bit distracting because I like music too much, and involuntarily start paying attention to it. Sometimes I listen to binaural beats which are less distracting (if you don't turn the volume up too far) and also help to dampen the external noise another bit. If nothing else works, I myself might consider quitting unless it was a superb job (but certainly, hating most days at work would not be superb). You don't need to settle for a lousy environment. :-O
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Ok, I admit it. On slow days I get too soft ;)
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
I get two reasons why we have moved to an open office environment and I think both of them are ridiculous. 1. For better collaboration. When I want to collaborate with a colleague I can e-mail, phone, IM, walk over there. Why would I need to sit in an environment where everyone can see what I am doing all the time and I am distracted by people, talking, walking by, snoring, whatever. I have been able to collaborate with people on the other side of the continent quite well. 2. To save money. That may be true in Tokyo or New York, but in most places, commercial real estates costs about $1-$2/sq. ft. per month. So, to obtain the additional space to make real cubicles with walls (6 ft high) it would only cost about 20 dollars a month. For offices it may cost 50 - 60 dollars more per month. Is my productivity so low that increasing it 10% isn't worth 1% of what I earn? What we need is a undercover boss to come and sit in these open offices and try to get some work done. Maybe then we could get back to the smart days where every developer was valued enough to get an office.
SS => Qualified in Submarines "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm". Winston Churchill "Real programmers can write FORTRAN in any language". Unknown
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I work in a similar environment and have done in the various companies I've worked for sinse I started work. I've always relied on headphones and music to shut everyone out, but it may not aide your concentration. I've used it for so many ears now I find it difficult to work without music.
me too - headphones - loud music - usually music and not songs... singing can mess me up like loud office folks on the phone. Sometimes I listen to songs too.. but ones that the words don't break my train of thought ....
Know way too many languages... master of none!
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
megaadam wrote:
how do I make these people understand?
1. bring getthoblaster 2. play this 3. ??? 4. profit (evil laugh) But seriously, get good headphones and tune in to chronixradio.com or plough through some metal blogs for mp3s and start listening to Arch Enemy, Rammstein, Meshuggah, Hypocrisy, Cannibal Corpse, God Dethroned, Dimmu Borgir, Lacuna Coil, Kataklysm, Static-X, Disarmonia Mundi, Napalm Death, Bloodbath, Vital Remains, Nightwish, Allegaeon, Neuraxis, Soulfly. All killers, no fillers. :cool:\m/
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
Hi megaadam In my experience I have found that the companies who don`t provides developers with quiet working conditions, to be the firms that you generally don`t want to work for. It commonly means that the people who manage you don't view you as important enough. They want you to produce code, but they are not willing to provide you with the means to do it. Unfortunately we do seem to be in a profession that most businesses want, but don’t want to pay for. If you are faced with deadlines and managers who complain about your development speed (or that of your team), then I would seriously consider leaving as soon as possible. There are companies out there that will understand that you need quiet working conditions in order to concentrate. If they know that the noise slows you down but they do appreciate your work and are very chilled when it comes to deadlines, then seeking other employment might be less of a concern. If it’s the latter then you can hopefully steadily swing things your way by suggesting working from home or maybe setting up a small office somewhere else. Just be sure to explain to your employers that your level of output is seriously hindered by the chattering crowd. If however I where you, I would start patiently looking for better places to work. Try a brown-, pink or white - noise media file played through your headphones for the moment. It worked for me way back when I was faced with a similar problem. Keep it tight
Christiaan Laubscher
modified on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 1:32 PM
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
I am also a person who can be distracted by environmental noise. You can get noise-cancelling headphones (Philips makes a set that are way cheaper than the Bose noise cancelling 'phones you see in magazine ads). These give you the choice either to play music or to just have quiet. Beyond that, take note that you get paid the same wage whether your boss cares about your ability to work effectively or not. If you complained and he wouldn't do anything about it, then he clearly doesn't mind if your output is diminished. Maybe you are one of those people who takes pride in their work and is uncomfortable when they cannot do their best. If your work environment is noisy and distracting, then you are probably working at a company that doesn't respect, value or compensate that kind of person. There are a lot of shops that don't seem to care much about your output. You have a choice whether to work for such people or not. If there are other signs that the company doesn't care (inattentive management, sloppy or nonexistent development process, poor delivered quality, deadlines that are unreasonable and/or that constantly slip), then it's time to move on.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
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Hi megaadam In my experience I have found that the companies who don`t provides developers with quiet working conditions, to be the firms that you generally don`t want to work for. It commonly means that the people who manage you don't view you as important enough. They want you to produce code, but they are not willing to provide you with the means to do it. Unfortunately we do seem to be in a profession that most businesses want, but don’t want to pay for. If you are faced with deadlines and managers who complain about your development speed (or that of your team), then I would seriously consider leaving as soon as possible. There are companies out there that will understand that you need quiet working conditions in order to concentrate. If they know that the noise slows you down but they do appreciate your work and are very chilled when it comes to deadlines, then seeking other employment might be less of a concern. If it’s the latter then you can hopefully steadily swing things your way by suggesting working from home or maybe setting up a small office somewhere else. Just be sure to explain to your employers that your level of output is seriously hindered by the chattering crowd. If however I where you, I would start patiently looking for better places to work. Try a brown-, pink or white - noise media file played through your headphones for the moment. It worked for me way back when I was faced with a similar problem. Keep it tight
Christiaan Laubscher
modified on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 1:32 PM
Excellent points Christiaan, and in general I do agree with you. However, my workplace is quite special, and you might find it interesting. We are just four in my company, as I said, sharing the space with twenty other people (same management). The other two programmers, accept the fact that the noise hinders them a bit, but they appreciate (and prefer) such a social environment to "sitting in a noiseless bunker". One of them is the founder who sold out and stayed on, and he did just that for years. And also, they are clearly much less hindered than me. And management is not at all "shut up and give us code", absolutely not! On the contrary, they are happy entrepreneurs who are a bit inexperienced with technically advanced R&D. They are not at all Dilbert-style malign. And they are extremely flexible regarding working hours and generous regarding private needs. I am 40++ and I have never seen kinder bosses. But our company simply is too small to make large adjustments for the four of us, especially as the three other guys will not fight for it! So working from home is a way out, but that has drawbacks as well. Impaired communication with the other engineers, and boring in the long run. But I think I could force them to give me two days a week... Cheers, Adam
..................... Life is too shor
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With my last job I had a similar situation. Earphones and Judas Priest helped a lot.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
CDP1802 wrote:
Earphones and Judas Priest helped a lot.
Would you say they're a bit of a Painkiller?
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me too - headphones - loud music - usually music and not songs... singing can mess me up like loud office folks on the phone. Sometimes I listen to songs too.. but ones that the words don't break my train of thought ....
Know way too many languages... master of none!
I find music in a foreign language works well - far less distracting as my mind isn't trying to process the lyrics.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
enigma and anything like gregorian chants swallows me into my own divine code, and keeps the world out :)
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I find music in a foreign language works well - far less distracting as my mind isn't trying to process the lyrics.
My co-worker likes the noise. I don't. I sit as far away from the help desk cacophony as possible. I use headphones a lot. Mostly classical and jazz. Much more productive this way, but then, some days I don't need to be.
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Never felt that way, have you! So here is my problem: My office environment is unbearable. Work is technically challenging and enjoyable. I like my co-workers, and I would not like to quit. (And yes, there was a similar post by Josh Gray recently, but this is my pain.) We are three programmers and one support kid in [this office of] my company. Nice and cosy? Well… We share an open office landscape with another company of 20 people (same owners, more or less). They do completely unrelated stuff. And their main skills are communication. On good days, many of them are out of office, and the remaining ones make a decent effort to talk really quietly. On such days the office is quite pleasant. On bad days, it all turns into a painful cacophony. They are constantly on the phone, if not chatting with each other. They get carried away they forget completely to keep their voices down. If I have to concentrate on a really tricky debugging problem, all that chatter drives me absolutely crazy. On such days vivid images enter my mind. Maybe you remember William 'D-Fens' Foster (a.k.a. Michael Douglas) losing it completely in Falling Down[]. Or when short on baseball bats: the alternative of leaving our 7th floor offices through the window becomes frighteningly attractive... The other two programmers do not mind the noise [too much]. To be more precise: When the boss asks them “Do you mind the noise?” they say “Nope”. And the boss walks off happy. But when really pressed (by me) they admit that the noise does indeed harm concentration “a bit” but they still think it is more fun to be in larger group. So, my hearing is probably neurologically differently wired from theirs, but the fact remains: For me the effort of concentrating in such noise is almost physically painful, and extremely exhausting. After my complaints, the powers that be were kind and responsive, and installed noise absorbers on the walls. Things got better. But then they hired a morbid amount of sales people and jammed them into the same room. Two steps forward, four steps back. What to do? Change my attitude? Seek mental counseling? Re-wire my own brain? Earplugs?(tried them) Ear muffs?(have them) Noise screens ? Build a solid wall? Relocate? Work from home? Public flogging of the noisy ones?? A hard sell, but a personal favourite! All these have many aspects their own. But really: Being the apparent odd man ou
If you ever find a new place to work chances are there's going to be loud people. i say learn to cope with it on your own, bitching about it would just make you "the geek with an attitude". personally, i listen to electro music get all hyped up and in the zone, but fortunately the office right now is made up of only IT people so no loudness whatsoever. Have sat with HR staff, it kind of amazed me how they get anything done, headphones still work like a charm.