How office spaces have changed, degraded or become irrelevant...
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Interesting thoughts on a Friday morning.... I spend most of my time at home these days coding in a converted dining room. It's just off the kitchen at the front of the house, has two large 6 foot windows facing the front yard (THAT OPEN - think fresh air), and full of furniture. 20 years ago, I got a deal on a large solid oak lawyer style desk plus a credenza (new would have been $4k+, I got it for $800). At the time, I had a 6' folding plastic table and an itty bitty metal workstation for the monitor. Setting aside the fact that I'm dancing with retirement, I'm in the planning stages of turning it into a real work area. Suitable for s/w and engineering development with the necessary desk space to spread out various pieces of hardware, sufficient network connectivity and power. Lawyer desk is going... As a side part - since I'm dancing with retirement, I want to be able to use it as a hobby space. For a home office, probably the most expensive issue is power (means running a couple of dedicated circuits from the breaker box). Anyway... I dusted off this old article from Joel on Software written in 2003 - Bionic Office – Joel on Software[^] and I'm using it as a general guide as to what I want. I'm working with 120 square feet. It's a 10x12 dining room. So you know, when I bought this house, I had seven children, so a formal dining room was out of the question. Even so, when I go into customer locations, I am APPALLED at cubicle sizes and overall conditions. Maybe 8x8, and the only way they get away with it is modular furniture. The s/w area I go to on occasion is actually better - we need more room to spread equipment, but the entire design is "office" and not workspace. It doesn't help that the building manager who did the redesign was a cheap bas$$$$$. 15 years after this, a memo just came out asking if anyone wanted new chairs. Is it any wonder why people don't want to go back to the "office"? My plan is at least 2 walls with large floating work surfaces, outlets flush with the surface as well as a strip outlet under each surface. Wall mount locations for monitors to keep the work surface clear, under surface drawers and a couple of rolling file folder cases for the paperwork I cannot seem to get rid of and a place to put one printer. Did I miss anything? What one thing would you change in your home o
For me the most important piece of equipment is a really good office chair. Don't skimp on that. Beyond that I'm minimalist. No printer - why would I want to print stuff, when I can see it on my monitor. No fancy power stuff - just a 6-way extension lead. And my desk is 24" x 48". That minimalist approach, means I can easily move between my summer and winter offices. In the summer, I use a large, west-facing, unused dining room, which overlooks my back garden. The concrete floor means that it is always cool - even on the hottest of summer days. In the winter I move up to a tiny bedroom - which means I can keep warm without breaking the bank.
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Yeah, like mine used to be, until the cooling bill became to expensive. :cool:
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Interesting thoughts on a Friday morning.... I spend most of my time at home these days coding in a converted dining room. It's just off the kitchen at the front of the house, has two large 6 foot windows facing the front yard (THAT OPEN - think fresh air), and full of furniture. 20 years ago, I got a deal on a large solid oak lawyer style desk plus a credenza (new would have been $4k+, I got it for $800). At the time, I had a 6' folding plastic table and an itty bitty metal workstation for the monitor. Setting aside the fact that I'm dancing with retirement, I'm in the planning stages of turning it into a real work area. Suitable for s/w and engineering development with the necessary desk space to spread out various pieces of hardware, sufficient network connectivity and power. Lawyer desk is going... As a side part - since I'm dancing with retirement, I want to be able to use it as a hobby space. For a home office, probably the most expensive issue is power (means running a couple of dedicated circuits from the breaker box). Anyway... I dusted off this old article from Joel on Software written in 2003 - Bionic Office – Joel on Software[^] and I'm using it as a general guide as to what I want. I'm working with 120 square feet. It's a 10x12 dining room. So you know, when I bought this house, I had seven children, so a formal dining room was out of the question. Even so, when I go into customer locations, I am APPALLED at cubicle sizes and overall conditions. Maybe 8x8, and the only way they get away with it is modular furniture. The s/w area I go to on occasion is actually better - we need more room to spread equipment, but the entire design is "office" and not workspace. It doesn't help that the building manager who did the redesign was a cheap bas$$$$$. 15 years after this, a memo just came out asking if anyone wanted new chairs. Is it any wonder why people don't want to go back to the "office"? My plan is at least 2 walls with large floating work surfaces, outlets flush with the surface as well as a strip outlet under each surface. Wall mount locations for monitors to keep the work surface clear, under surface drawers and a couple of rolling file folder cases for the paperwork I cannot seem to get rid of and a place to put one printer. Did I miss anything? What one thing would you change in your home o
We took our home office space and put in a built-in desk wall to wall on one side (14 feet long). Printer at one end, network stuff at the other. I have three monitors, work laptop, and a small stack of instruments on the desk. I am so happy to not be in the office (I got remote status and moved away). The new office cubicles (company got a new building) are only wide enough for two monitors with walls only to the top of the monitors and the cube depth is enough for the monitors and a keyboard. Still that's better than the original plan of long tables with monitors and no walls. Anyway, being in the office would not change how I work. My coworkers are in Malaysia and Poland. Project manager is in Austria. Product manager is in Brazil. I am not collaborating with local workers, anyway. I am much more productive at home.
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How do you change the date?
Gus Gustafson
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We took our home office space and put in a built-in desk wall to wall on one side (14 feet long). Printer at one end, network stuff at the other. I have three monitors, work laptop, and a small stack of instruments on the desk. I am so happy to not be in the office (I got remote status and moved away). The new office cubicles (company got a new building) are only wide enough for two monitors with walls only to the top of the monitors and the cube depth is enough for the monitors and a keyboard. Still that's better than the original plan of long tables with monitors and no walls. Anyway, being in the office would not change how I work. My coworkers are in Malaysia and Poland. Project manager is in Austria. Product manager is in Brazil. I am not collaborating with local workers, anyway. I am much more productive at home.
Greetings! I have a laptop with an Amazon Basic Docking station running 2 27" monitors. also have a wireless keyboard (Logitech K350), wireless mouse, multi-function printer /scanner/fax/copier, a couple of moveable shelves, a stand that the keyboard slides under that supports the two monitors and the docking station. An amazon echo for background music, 2 power bars plugged into an APS unit (650 watt) plus a PC-100A multi-switch to control the flow of power from the APS to the rest of the equipment. Also have a Linux (Mint 21.1) box as a backup for all the stuff (3 PC's) with 8TB of storage and 16GB Ram. All in/on a built-in desk that is 8 feet long (2.8. meters) with drawers and storage space. Pretty? Not Really Functional? Yes
Cegarman document code? If it's not intuitive, you're in the wrong field :D Welcome to my Chaos and Confusion!
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Interesting thoughts on a Friday morning.... I spend most of my time at home these days coding in a converted dining room. It's just off the kitchen at the front of the house, has two large 6 foot windows facing the front yard (THAT OPEN - think fresh air), and full of furniture. 20 years ago, I got a deal on a large solid oak lawyer style desk plus a credenza (new would have been $4k+, I got it for $800). At the time, I had a 6' folding plastic table and an itty bitty metal workstation for the monitor. Setting aside the fact that I'm dancing with retirement, I'm in the planning stages of turning it into a real work area. Suitable for s/w and engineering development with the necessary desk space to spread out various pieces of hardware, sufficient network connectivity and power. Lawyer desk is going... As a side part - since I'm dancing with retirement, I want to be able to use it as a hobby space. For a home office, probably the most expensive issue is power (means running a couple of dedicated circuits from the breaker box). Anyway... I dusted off this old article from Joel on Software written in 2003 - Bionic Office – Joel on Software[^] and I'm using it as a general guide as to what I want. I'm working with 120 square feet. It's a 10x12 dining room. So you know, when I bought this house, I had seven children, so a formal dining room was out of the question. Even so, when I go into customer locations, I am APPALLED at cubicle sizes and overall conditions. Maybe 8x8, and the only way they get away with it is modular furniture. The s/w area I go to on occasion is actually better - we need more room to spread equipment, but the entire design is "office" and not workspace. It doesn't help that the building manager who did the redesign was a cheap bas$$$$$. 15 years after this, a memo just came out asking if anyone wanted new chairs. Is it any wonder why people don't want to go back to the "office"? My plan is at least 2 walls with large floating work surfaces, outlets flush with the surface as well as a strip outlet under each surface. Wall mount locations for monitors to keep the work surface clear, under surface drawers and a couple of rolling file folder cases for the paperwork I cannot seem to get rid of and a place to put one printer. Did I miss anything? What one thing would you change in your home o
How old are you?
Behzad
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How old are you?
Behzad
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We took our home office space and put in a built-in desk wall to wall on one side (14 feet long). Printer at one end, network stuff at the other. I have three monitors, work laptop, and a small stack of instruments on the desk. I am so happy to not be in the office (I got remote status and moved away). The new office cubicles (company got a new building) are only wide enough for two monitors with walls only to the top of the monitors and the cube depth is enough for the monitors and a keyboard. Still that's better than the original plan of long tables with monitors and no walls. Anyway, being in the office would not change how I work. My coworkers are in Malaysia and Poland. Project manager is in Austria. Product manager is in Brazil. I am not collaborating with local workers, anyway. I am much more productive at home.
Now that is a distributed team. Where are you located? And what type of software do you develop? Just curious. I have one 12 foot wall that is begging for a floating desk. Power is on this wall and next to it, so I can easily wire everything I need. The wall to the left has two 6 foot windows in it, so a bit of a design challenge there. I went in to the "office" - customer space where I have worked for the last 20 years, and the conditions are sad. Very skilled people working in a junky space. At least there are cubicle walls, but there is no daylight, the lighting is overhead fluorescent (yuck), no fresh air, etc. I know I'm whining, but I am excited about re-doing my home office.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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Greetings! I have a laptop with an Amazon Basic Docking station running 2 27" monitors. also have a wireless keyboard (Logitech K350), wireless mouse, multi-function printer /scanner/fax/copier, a couple of moveable shelves, a stand that the keyboard slides under that supports the two monitors and the docking station. An amazon echo for background music, 2 power bars plugged into an APS unit (650 watt) plus a PC-100A multi-switch to control the flow of power from the APS to the rest of the equipment. Also have a Linux (Mint 21.1) box as a backup for all the stuff (3 PC's) with 8TB of storage and 16GB Ram. All in/on a built-in desk that is 8 feet long (2.8. meters) with drawers and storage space. Pretty? Not Really Functional? Yes
Cegarman document code? If it's not intuitive, you're in the wrong field :D Welcome to my Chaos and Confusion!
concur on the chair. 10+ years ago I got tired of the crap the customer was supplying and bought a posturpedic for that office. I have a high end gaming chair for the home office. The other thing about workspace is high quality displays.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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Now that is a distributed team. Where are you located? And what type of software do you develop? Just curious. I have one 12 foot wall that is begging for a floating desk. Power is on this wall and next to it, so I can easily wire everything I need. The wall to the left has two 6 foot windows in it, so a bit of a design challenge there. I went in to the "office" - customer space where I have worked for the last 20 years, and the conditions are sad. Very skilled people working in a junky space. At least there are cubicle walls, but there is no daylight, the lighting is overhead fluorescent (yuck), no fresh air, etc. I know I'm whining, but I am excited about re-doing my home office.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Hi Charlie, I am on the east coast of Florida. The company's head office is a 4 hour drive away. I haven't made that trip since I moved here (very happy to be where we are now - great community). I develop and maintain our test software (hardware testing - thus the stack of instruments). Power is good on my new desk. Under the desk (screwed to the side wall of my sitting location) are 2 surge protector/power strips. One for items that are always on (the aforementioned network gear) and one with the switch near the front so I can easily turn the monitors/laptop power/etc. on and off. There is another surge protector on an other circuit for the printer and instruments.
--- Rob Cole Programming long enough to have built processor boards with wire-wrap.
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Hi Charlie, I am on the east coast of Florida. The company's head office is a 4 hour drive away. I haven't made that trip since I moved here (very happy to be where we are now - great community). I develop and maintain our test software (hardware testing - thus the stack of instruments). Power is good on my new desk. Under the desk (screwed to the side wall of my sitting location) are 2 surge protector/power strips. One for items that are always on (the aforementioned network gear) and one with the switch near the front so I can easily turn the monitors/laptop power/etc. on and off. There is another surge protector on an other circuit for the printer and instruments.
--- Rob Cole Programming long enough to have built processor boards with wire-wrap.
Is not that amazing? I've been supporting a customer in Mexico, their server is in the NE USA, and I have a meeting with people from Connecticut, Iowa and sometimes India weekly. It almost becomes surreal at times. A very long time ago, I really, REALLY wanted to move to Melbourne, FL (I like to sail). I spent a week in Coco Beach at a training class and fell in love with that place - I love the old times kind of homes. I don't need or do fancy.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
