<story><title>Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open Office</title><url>https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-you-can-focus-in-a-coffee-shop-but-not-in-your-open-office</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tritium</author><text>The power differential implicit in the voice of managers.&lt;p&gt;The competitive aspect of operating alongside co-workers.&lt;p&gt;The fairness of slacking off, letting one&amp;#x27;s mind wander, contemplating a hard problem while staring off into space and refraining from typing at a keyboard, maybe running late in the mornings, versus doing &amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; work, ass in chair, on time, contributing ideas in meetings and phone calls, producing visible progress...&lt;p&gt;Whether or not people (who can affect your ability to put a roof over your head) &lt;i&gt;ARE NOTICING YOUR EVERY MOVE&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;This is what an open office is does to me. The anxiety induced by others, and their potential for influencing where the rubber meets the road.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tapanjk</author><text>&amp;gt; Whether or not people (who can affect your ability to put a roof over your head) ARE NOTICING YOUR EVERY MOVE.&lt;p&gt;I think what matters is whether I think I am being watched by my coworkers (superiors or otherwise). This uses up some part of my brain that needs to focus on my &amp;quot;visual performance&amp;quot; and thus creates stress. But when I do not think I am watched, my creativity goes up and stress drops. For example, I contribute much better in an audio conference or Slack (just text) meetings, than in a video conference or a face to face meeting. In the former case, I am more relaxed and am able to focus on the problem being discussed and in the latter case, not so much. This might be specific to certain personality types but is true for me for sure.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open Office</title><url>https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-you-can-focus-in-a-coffee-shop-but-not-in-your-open-office</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tritium</author><text>The power differential implicit in the voice of managers.&lt;p&gt;The competitive aspect of operating alongside co-workers.&lt;p&gt;The fairness of slacking off, letting one&amp;#x27;s mind wander, contemplating a hard problem while staring off into space and refraining from typing at a keyboard, maybe running late in the mornings, versus doing &amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; work, ass in chair, on time, contributing ideas in meetings and phone calls, producing visible progress...&lt;p&gt;Whether or not people (who can affect your ability to put a roof over your head) &lt;i&gt;ARE NOTICING YOUR EVERY MOVE&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;This is what an open office is does to me. The anxiety induced by others, and their potential for influencing where the rubber meets the road.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>southphillyman</author><text>I can probably count on my hands the amount of times I browsed HN&amp;#x2F;non work related sites when I worked in an open office environment. Much like Agile, it&amp;#x27;s an effective tool to micro manage white collar workers.</text></comment>