Ok got me started on my pet subject, won't derail again on it...My company wants people to come to "collaborate" and "bounce ideas off each other." Then they put signs everywhere that say "Shhh... this is a work area."
I'd say "run away!" Monty Python style, but it's pretty hard to find a company not into this fad/trend. At least yours actually acknowledges it's a distraction... The big reason why this fad is so huge, nothing to do with collaboration--it's cheap. No expensive dividers needed, lots more people in a space.
Our entire row of developers had to wear noise-cancelling headphones to get any work done. Not provided by the company, mind you. That still doesn't help with visual distractions. They can take "open and collaborative" and stick it. WFH is the way if you can find it, or at least it is for me now that my kids are grown. (Kinda sucks when they are little, talk about distractions!)
Here's a crazy thought--when you want to "bounce ideas off each other" provide these new-fangled things called "conference rooms"....it's all a crock. Movies and shows don't help....the private-looking cubicles in the Matrix? Oppressive I guess (looked freaking great to me...) The cool people are always seen in open environments, lots of hustle and bustle, and nowhere do they show the poor administrators, developers and dbas hunched over their screen trying not to fuck up a query that might delete a million rows from the db because they got distracted
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