You really think Home Pod is the only new thing apple engineers are working on? They likely have dozens of products all in various stages of development , most of which may never be released. I would think an open flexiabkle floor plan is ideal so the space can adapt to whatever is being developed, or changed around to accommodate different tasks, that is not easily done with individual offices.
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Some Apple Park Employees Said to Be Dissatisfied With Open Office Design
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You really think Home Pod is the only new thing apple engineers are working on? They likely have dozens of products all in various stages of development , most of which may never be released. I would think an open flexiabkle floor plan is ideal so the space can adapt to whatever is being developed, or changed around to accommodate different tasks, that is not easily done with individual offices.
Open offices are a terrible for work. In our offices we try to always give everyone some private space, with a door. Then they can make the space their own with their decorations, and are not bothered by, or be bothering, their co-workers.
Yes and no. It is very costly due to its scale but most of the cost seems to be in the building's appointments and such. Not necessarily employee-facing stuff. Imagine how much more costly it would be if they did a layout other than this open one? My position is: did they spend the money on the right things instead of what Jobs wanted in his usual "never mopped a floor before" aesthetic desires?
It's clear here that Jony Ive had a huge part in the campus design. In designer world collaboration and openness is encouraged. In other departments, that private space is needed. Not sure why they didn't just make each department suited to the needs of those people. The fact that an entire building had to be made to accomodate the chip team shows Apple's typical stubborn streak. These people create the brains of millions of devices. Im sure they would have done the same for Jony's team had the situation been reversed.
Man, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Srouji let loose. I'll bet some underwear needed to be changed. 
HAHA Idiots. Open floor plans for offices are NEVER better. They save money, etc. but are never conducive to employee comfort. Hey, let's put large groups together in one big room so they hear every word, cough, fart and sneeze from everyone else. That will increase productivity because of "collaboration". LOL, yea right.
During a new episode of The Talk Show on Daring Fireball, John Gruber touched on the topic of the open floor plans that Apple has implemented within its new campus, Apple Park. Unlike office spaces at One Infinite Loop and other Apple-owned buildings -- which give most employees their own office -- Apple Park sports a large open floor plan with long tables for programmers, engineers, and other employees to work at.
Apple Park's open office spaces have been highlighted in numerous profiles on the campus, most recently by The Wall Street Journal in July, and now Gruber has reported that he's received emails from numerous Apple employees who are particularly dissatisfied with the design (via Silicon Valley Business Journal).
Standing desks within one of Apple Park's open offices
One source is said to have been with the company for 18 years. They emailed Gruber, telling him that they're working on something that is "going to blow people's minds when we ship," but before that happens their team is transitioning to Apple Park. Gruber noted that the email was very level-headed and had a "perfect Apple sensibility," but the source nevertheless said that if they don't like the Apple Park workspaces, they're likely to leave the company after the product ships.
Gruber said he got a "couple of similar emails," with employees stating that they won't outright quit before they move to Apple Park, but if it's as bad as they think it's going to be then they will consider leaving Apple. During the podcast, Gruber and special guest Glenn Fleishman pointed out numerous disadvantages to an open work space, particularly for coders and programmers who aren't used to a lot of foot traffic and noise in their vicinity while they work.
Gruber went on to mention Apple vice president Johny Srouji as one of the employees dissatisfied with the Apple Park office spaces. Srouji was allegedly so against the changes that Apple "built his team their own building" outside of the main spaceship building.
The idea that open work spaces at Apple Park could potentially "irk" employees goes back to some of the original profiles on the building. Last year, Bloomberg explained that there will be "few traditional offices" at Apple Park, and management will have to be at a vice president level or above to get their own formal office space, although there is reportedly potential for employees below this level to be eligible. During the company's presentations to the Cupertino city council, Apple's viewpoint indicated an open floor plan is "conducive to collaboration between teams."
In other Apple Park news, some Snapchat users have recently noticed that a handful of construction workers and visitors at the campus have been taking enough snaps to accumulate into a Snapchat Story of its own. If you're on the app, you can search "Apple Park" from the main screen to find the Story. The new "Snap Map" also shows an increase in picture-taking activity at Apple Park.
Apple Park opened to the first round of employees over the summer, and the campus will eventually house close to 12,000 workers. Over the past few years, drone footage has consistently documented construction on the site, originally referred to as Apple Campus 2, with more recent updates focusing on the advancements made to the area's landscaping and the Steve Jobs Theater.
Article Link: Some Apple Park Employees Said to Be Dissatisfied With Open Office Design
Man, I'd work there. I'll build you what you want. You can put me in a room with a digger, a guy on a drill and someone else machining metal loudly. Will be a total of zero difference to me.
It's a very simple act to shove ones AirPods into my ear holes and crank the volume like I do everyday in my current open plan studio to block out the hooting and hollering.
It's a very simple act to shove ones AirPods into my ear holes and crank the volume like I do everyday in my current open plan studio to block out the hooting and hollering.
Johnny Srouji is vastly more important to Apple's current success than Ives can even dream about. Can you imaging Apple without the A-Series Silicon?
I worked in an open office for about 2 years. It was hands-down the worst sitting experience of my life. It's important to note there is a big difference between an open office, and a cube farm. Cube farms at least cut down some of the noise.
The open office I worked in was pretty much the worst case of the open offices. We were 10 people to a side. We had about a 5' "desk" with a quarter height partition wall in front of us. A single file cabinet. There were about 4' aisles between the rows.
The company I worked for did not do this as any part of collaboration or team building, or any of the other baloney you hear. They simply needed to cram 500 people into a space designed for 200. Of course they didn't take parking into account, and if you weren't at the office by 7am it was like trying to find a spot at the mall before Christmas. There were no phone booth areas where you could take a private phone call. The conference room layout was geared for the 200 person layout. You had to reserve a conference room 3 weeks in advance.
Man it sucked. It was like the day room at general population in prison. I felt like the guy in office space muttering under his breath. If the person next to me spread out their papers and they inched into my space, it was disturbing. Your 6' of space were treasured. You had zero privacy. For anything. I know, I know, "don't surf the web at work," but a lot of what I did at work contained confidential data. I could hear the conference calls from people 4 rows over. You got so used to there being no privacy you overheard incredibly personal phone calls because there wasn't anywhere else to have them. Go outside? It was winter in New England.
I was a technical writer. I didn't collaborate with anyone. In some cases, where a creative team is working and bouncing ideas off each other because they are all on the same project, or a bunch of coders all working on the same app, maybe. If you were a true individual collaborator like I was, it was hell on earth.
The Apple Park plan at least looks a little better since the people aren't quite as clustered. I think if you design the entire space around the open plan, and take into account the privacy needs people have and provide small areas where you actually talk to your doctor privately, and not cluster 20 people around a table, it might work a little better.
The open office I worked in was pretty much the worst case of the open offices. We were 10 people to a side. We had about a 5' "desk" with a quarter height partition wall in front of us. A single file cabinet. There were about 4' aisles between the rows.
The company I worked for did not do this as any part of collaboration or team building, or any of the other baloney you hear. They simply needed to cram 500 people into a space designed for 200. Of course they didn't take parking into account, and if you weren't at the office by 7am it was like trying to find a spot at the mall before Christmas. There were no phone booth areas where you could take a private phone call. The conference room layout was geared for the 200 person layout. You had to reserve a conference room 3 weeks in advance.
Man it sucked. It was like the day room at general population in prison. I felt like the guy in office space muttering under his breath. If the person next to me spread out their papers and they inched into my space, it was disturbing. Your 6' of space were treasured. You had zero privacy. For anything. I know, I know, "don't surf the web at work," but a lot of what I did at work contained confidential data. I could hear the conference calls from people 4 rows over. You got so used to there being no privacy you overheard incredibly personal phone calls because there wasn't anywhere else to have them. Go outside? It was winter in New England.
I was a technical writer. I didn't collaborate with anyone. In some cases, where a creative team is working and bouncing ideas off each other because they are all on the same project, or a bunch of coders all working on the same app, maybe. If you were a true individual collaborator like I was, it was hell on earth.
The Apple Park plan at least looks a little better since the people aren't quite as clustered. I think if you design the entire space around the open plan, and take into account the privacy needs people have and provide small areas where you actually talk to your doctor privately, and not cluster 20 people around a table, it might work a little better.
Oh definitely not the only new thing they are working on. I'm sure there are dozens of products in the pipeline, most of which will never be released. It was just the comment from the engineer about them releasing this new item and then him leaving.
Some people would complain if they were hung with a golden rope!
Definitely, it certainly doesn't help for most jobs. I mean, something like shared offices would probably be fine but this is taking it to another level. As said in the talk show, you would think Apple would know this. Apple should be different, not a company that is obsessed with collaboration.
As Steve Jobs said, "It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."
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You would imagine that would be less of a problem at Apple
First world problems.... This seems like a bit of a OTT response...
Guys there are things call Noise cancelling headphone....
Guys there are things call Noise cancelling headphone....
I work in an open office, and the thing that makes a night & day difference are noise-cancelling headphones. Apple should supply these employees with something like a Bose QC 30/35 until they modify the design of the floors.
It it weren't for the headphones I would've gone insane and worked in a closed door conference room all day.
It it weren't for the headphones I would've gone insane and worked in a closed door conference room all day.
If people treated the office environment like a professional work place and not try to make themselves at home, then it wouldn't be as much of an issue. Think of sitting in coach vs. first class, it's the people that make the most difference not the layout.
I rather like what they've done at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Functionally very different, of course.
I'm at a company that transitioned from offices and full-height cubicles to an open workspace. At first I hated it but over time I grew to appreciate it. However, it can be difficult for designers and coders who may need multiple machines and monitors that might not fit on their assigned desk (I'm using 2 desks because fortunately the one next to me isn't assigned), and glare can become a large problem as the open space lets a lot of outdoor light bounce around (the fact that they give us Apple displays that no longer have a matte option only makes it worse). Noise canceling headphones help with distractions from noise when you need to lock into something.
But we do tend to interact with each other more than we did and I think that's a good thing.
But we do tend to interact with each other more than we did and I think that's a good thing.
Its the worst. First of all you feel watched even though you are not doing anything bad and second of all you cant understand s on both ends.
Also it makes you feel even more like a chicken waiting for its death on a groundhog day
Also it makes you feel even more like a chicken waiting for its death on a groundhog day
From a cultural standpoint Jony Ive has a lot of power, thats been knows for years. But yes the chip team is also very critical.Johnny Srouji is vastly more important to Apple's current success than Ives can even dream about. Can you imaging Apple without the A-Series Silicon?
Erm...No, but I have seen much nicer buildings, are those building I saw the nicest....I don't know, somewhere there might be nicer ones.
(I have seen a lot more than most people on this planet though, that's one thing I know for sure)
I am pulling this out of my butt for now, but as someone who's worked in open office settings, many times, I despise open office open cubicles
Great for employers or so they think, from their short-sighted perspective of transparency: seeing what employees are doing and that they're working, or rather not working.
But really not because a lot of people so I've read as well (introverts for sure, but a lot of people in general) thrive better having their own space and the option to go to others vs. be around others all the time needlessly, especially when their daily tasks don't require collaboration/teamwork and are rather silo'd to begin with, resulting in talking over one another, etc.
In other words, the spaceship look may eco-freidnly and beautiful on the outside, but open office is at the very least a double-edged sword if not outright detrimental to both employer and employee.
...But what do I know?
---
Also I wasn't aware Apple is now on board with "Open Office"
https://www.openoffice.org
(a joke)
Great for employers or so they think, from their short-sighted perspective of transparency: seeing what employees are doing and that they're working, or rather not working.
But really not because a lot of people so I've read as well (introverts for sure, but a lot of people in general) thrive better having their own space and the option to go to others vs. be around others all the time needlessly, especially when their daily tasks don't require collaboration/teamwork and are rather silo'd to begin with, resulting in talking over one another, etc.
In other words, the spaceship look may eco-freidnly and beautiful on the outside, but open office is at the very least a double-edged sword if not outright detrimental to both employer and employee.
...But what do I know?
---
Also I wasn't aware Apple is now on board with "Open Office"
https://www.openoffice.org
(a joke)
Very well put. When I've worked from home I can get a full days work done in a few hours because I can take smaller breaks and then just go pedal to the metal for a couple hours straight and get tons done without the distractions.