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Anyone's office moving to "Standing desks"? 8

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Careful

Careful

Mechanical
Apr 11, 2001
45
Sitting for most of the day is apparently really not good for you. When we design assembly cells at my new place standing and moving is now to a requirement, regardless of necessity (this caused some grumbling from the floor). Now there's kind of a "suggestion" that you can have a "standing desk" if you want one (I don't). I'm wondering how long until standing while working is a requirement for office personnel too. A company would probably reap health benefit rewards from implementing such a policy. Has anyone's company took the plunge yet?
 
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My career started in 2008, I had a cube with very tall walls. I really liked it. Then around 2011, my office went to the "open" floor concept. Cube walls were 3' tall, glass, and if my eyes deviated from my screen at all, I'd be in a starring contest with my colleagues. I did not like it. By 2016, I had changed companies and this firm took it even further, I was basically sharing desks with other engineers. I would routinely put on large headphones to block out conversations, etc..

2018, I changed jobs again and I now have an office. Based on my anecdontal opinions, I would say I'm far more productive in an office than I was in a cube.
 
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I was part of a limited experiment by a former employer to try a completely open, no walls, just big shared tables with a few assigned shelves concept. I believe 100% of the engineers found it ridiculous due to limited storage space and lack of anyplace to hang cheat sheets for quick reference. The "business" folks (sales, purchasing, etc) OTOH seemed to love it as they could freely bs with their neighbor, which they did often.
 
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" if my eyes deviated from my screen at all, I'd be in a starring contest with my colleagues."

LOL, you were supposed to be looking at your shoes...

No-wall just seems silly; there's always bound to be some movement in your peripheral vision, and as we are(were) hunter-gathers, that's like ,"Rabbit! Rabbit!" an absurdly distracting environment.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Not sure how you're supposed to think out of the box when you're stuck in a cube.




I used to count sand. Now I don't count at all.
 
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I get enough people through my cube that I occasionally sneak down the street to the Henry Ford Museum during lunch or early/late for a bit of both inspiration and solitude.
 
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I do have to wonder, how many Henry Fords are there? Enough to make a whole museum of them? Are they like wax figures, or mummified?
 
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:p There's been at least three. The founder of FoMoCo, his grandson the II, and his great great grandson the III whom I am professionally and mildly socially acquainted with - heck of a nice guy btw.
 
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About a third of our office, so 20 desks, are adjustable for standing with a strong preference for the integrated ones, not the type that sit on a standard fixed desk.

The whole office is open desks with just a 12-inch high partition. We have a few enclosed conference and collaboration rooms, but all have glass walls. Only one room, the lactation room, has solid walls. This makes it difficult to have sensitive meetings or to discuss projects that are NDA or 'top secret' For some reason we have a few clients that request super secrecy for their buildings during design. I can't help but think the general paranoia endemic in the people who work in the tech world is the reason.

If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.
 
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Facebook's Menlo Park facility is open space with computer desks. The hardwalled rooms are reserved for meeting rooms, and they all have at least one LARGE window. No way to hide secrets there. Can't remember actually seeing meeting rooms that are completely closed, but I've only been a visitor there.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Windowed meeing rooms... interesting that some companies apparently mistrust their own employees more than the outside world.

If open space were great, it would have been a senior management privilege.
 
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I don't know what Zuckerberg does now, but 4 years ago, he used the same computer stations as all his engineers, and typically camped out in one of the meeting rooms. As far as I know, all managers have the same computer stations. I think the meeting room windows are more seeing if the room is empty; I've been told that there's a chronic shortage of meeting rooms.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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