Engineering Office Layout. 11

[Rodger Furey]

My company is going to renovate the engineering office (12 people) with new cubicles.
Currently, we have solid 61" high cubicles from the 1970s (at least, that's what they look like)
Engineers tend to recluse themselves in their hide-aways, which doesn't help with communication and collaboration.

The question is - high, mid or low cubicles?

Most of the engineers would prefer high, but that doesn't change anything. We're just updating the furniture.
The engineering manager (me) would prefer mid or low.

Any thoughts on the pros and cons of each configuration? (see attached file for some graphics)

 

[SWComposites]

Are people on audio calls a lot? if so, then high walls are best for sound blocking to reduce disturbances.

I've always preferred high walls; its not that hard to get up and walk around to someone's desks.

Managers like low walls so they can sit at there desk and see if people are present, as if that is a measure of productivity (grrrrrrr).

 

[JohnRBaker]

Managers like low walls so they can sit at there desk and see if people are present, as if that is a measure of productivity (grrrrrrr).

When I was working in hard-engineering (back in the 70's before I moved into software) our design office was open. Engineers and draftsmen worked side by side (this was before we had computers) most on drafting boards. Department heads had offices along one side of the room where they could look out at their people (the old joke was that when they looked-up, all they wanted to see was a##holes and elbows).

However, when I joined the software company we had high-walled cubes. Now there were some open work areas where testers worked as they tended to share between each other, but the programmers all had individual, high-walled cubes. Of course, the senior team leaders and managers tended to have hard-walled offices. For the first 10-years or so I had a high-walled cube, but once I moved to a manager level, even after I was no longer actually managing people, I had a hard-walled office.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

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[ctopher]

About 25 years ago at a large aerospace company I worked at, they did a study.
They changed all engineering walls to low walls, it became mostly more productive.
Supervisors had high walls (not to ceiling), managers had hard wall offices.
Other departments were separated away (sales, buyers, etc) because they are loud.
These days, to save space, they are closer together. This is why a lot of people wears ear plugs, headphones, etc.
High walls, less productive as a team. High walls also give individuals more time to hide to play on cell phones.


Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks
ctophers home

 

[GregLocock]

I have endured many forms of stupidity with office layouts. For the last decade I have put up with 4 person pods, with lowish walls. We all wore noise cancelling headphones, and I have walked up to loud people (managers etc) and told them to shut up. So you can stick your el cheapo open office space saving solutions where the sun doesn't shine. In my opinion.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[Rodger Furey]

My primary concern is the potential of a mini-revolt if we switch from high solid walls to mid-height walls (53") with 10" of glass.
I'm looking for feedback from anyone who works in this type of cube.

 

[SWComposites]

Well, people will just paper over the windows.

 

[rb1957]

there is an olde story about office management. When management consulted the "workers" nearly all changes lead to an increase in productivity.

my 2c ... low walls do not mean more communication ... you can lead a horse to water (but you can't make him drink).
Low walls may help communication, but there will also be a lot more noise and distraction and now everyone is going to hear the various work (and non-work) conversations. How many of your "workers" need quiet so they can concentrate on the problem they are trying to solve ? We have to recognise the personalities we're working with. Yes, most engineers would prefer not to be talking with others all day (we're not in HR !!??), but putting them in low walled cubies will only pi$$ them off !

We're going through the "non-sense" of co-locating the teams. My opinion on this is sub-dividing a small department into very small components (on each team) means that the department will lose it's identity, the various people won't support each other as they would if they were together. But t'was ever thus ... the pull between project or functional organisations; which ever way you organise, there'll always be problems and advantages, proponents, and opponents.

What with Teams and all the message apps, it should be easy for anyone to communicate with anyone else.

Maybe one way to deal with this is to have daily meetings ... department meetings if organised in projects, project meetings if organised in functions.

And, yes, the comment above "high walls mean more time playing on phones" ... well, that's an opinion (a low opinion ?) on how the people will react. if that's your opinion, then one open office, with desks arrayed so the manager can see the screens.

Do you guys have a "work from home" option ?

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[Stick.]

I've worked in an office that had been totally renovated (a few months before I got there) to both generally modernize it and also convert to a mostly open office plan. Everyone had fancy powered sit/stand desks with low walls around the back and sides of the desk. Some privacy, but still easy to talk to neighbors and "collaborate". By the time I got there, everyone had been issued noise cancelling headsets and wore them pretty frequently because the noise from everyone "collaborating" was distracting and made it hard to get any solo work done.

Generally, I don't understand the feeling that high cubes or even hard walled office with doors restrict communication, collaboration, or whatever buzzword tickles your fancy. Between the availability of email, your favorite corporate instant messenger, phone/video calls, and simply walking to a coworker's workspace to talk face to face, I have plenty of ways to communicate with coworkers when I need to. If there is ever something where there needs to be extended periods of back and forth between me and one or more coworkers, that's what meetings in a conference room are for.

Also, I'm with SWComposites on the glass. Looks like a great height to ergonomically post lots of hard copy quick reference materials to help increase my productivity . The cynic in me also thinks they're really good at communicating to your employees "I don't trust you to actually do your work if given a shred of privacy, so I need to be able to monitor you at all times." Maybe your employees aren't as cynical as I am though.

 

[LittleInch]

I've only occasionally been in a cubicle farm and have mostly worked in blocks of four desks with little between them. The mid or level barriers are best and nowadays most people have two decent sized monitors so you're no staring straight at someone else or get distracted by stuff happening.

However I have done two office relocations / redesigns and it was by far the worst job/ task I was ever given.

No one, like NO ONE, says well done, that's great / better... At best you get a "well it could be worse" and then 2 or 3 you will swear have made you into a little voodoo doll and stick pins in it when they get home.

I would go with Low, but allow somewhere for people to go and have all the Teams meetings you get into now. It's a nightmare sitting anywhere where someone is on one 4 hr/s day and even worse if two of you are on the same call due to the slight delay between them speaking and it coming out of your headphones. So institute a NO TEAMS mtg rule at the desk and that will withdraw a pin or two from the voodoo doll.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[rb1957]

or we could have a room for meetings ?

or maybe a "cone of silence" ?

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[3DDave]

The best layout is with the manager at the same sort of desk as everyone else directly in the middle where they are available to communicate with their team members; the subordinates are arranged in concentric circles facing the supervisor.

 

[ctopher]

Cost is a big one. Some companies will go with used low wall cubicles to save $.
Rodger Furey, I like your pic, but they are rarely seen in an engineering environment. They are also more expensive.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks
ctophers home

 

[Orange_kun]

I worked in an office that went from high cubes + lab space on the same floor, to lab space downstairs and the office became the low/mid cubes. We had mid height walls on the sides of our desks, but the front was low. Then we were organized opposite who we collaborated most with. You could just tilt your head and wave to get the person's attention and ask them a question. Which, for critical team members was quite useful.

THat said... the mid/low cube layout was far noisier than even the shared lab space we had before that. We installed a white (pink?) noise generating system to be always on. That helped a bit. But even with admittedly quiet co-workers (everyone at that company was pretty soft spoken), we all wound up wearing noise cancelling headphones most of the time.

Having worked in a couple open offices as well as high cubes, I think the best bet for productivity is to make groups of 4 or so that have almost no separation, but keep the office itself "high cube" style noise abatement. You can do this with lower walls... but you need to spend the money for the acoustic ceiling panels, wall panels, and put in some cool plants etc that also block sound and break up the space. Otherwise it will almost certainly become a echo space, easily dominated by anyone who has a strident voice or doesn't tend to whisper.

Now I work from home, and I am way more productive, even without headphones. The ability to think in near complete silence for a couple hours is fantastic.

 

[Brian Malone]

When the office I work in was remodeled from high cube walls to mid-high with 10" frosted glass tops, many women who are 5 feet to 5 feet 4 inches said they really liked the change because they no longer were walking through 'canyons'. Most of the guys really had not noticed the isolation issue because most of us are around six feet or taller and could see somewhat over the top edge of the older high cube walls.

 

[CWB1]

I vote for option 4 - Walls connected to the ceiling, no windows unless placed in an exterior wall, and a door.

My favorite cube had 6' walls on 3.5 sides and an easel that blocked most of the entryway. It was quiet, private, and free of distractions. I could easily walk down the aisle for questions or conversation, and also enjoy a lunchtime nap, pinch of chew, or put my feet up without hearing busybody comments.

The worst office I've worked in was an open-office - no walls, just shared desks and tables. In the morning and evening you set-up/tore-down everything and either hauled it to/from home or put it in a locker. On a good day you'd waste 20-30 mins doing so, on a bad one you'd waste more and be thoroughly pissed jumping desks bc some a**hole butchered the desk's chair/monitor/keyboard/mouse/dock/cables the day prior. The noise was horrible and the needless conversation and other distractions constant. I rarely wore headphones at work prior but have had music or audiobooks playing almost constantly since. You also couldn't work on any secretive projects bc literally everybody heard and saw everything done by others.

A good rule of thumb is that anything done in the name of improving collaboration generally has the opposite effect. A second worth remembering is that if the restroom is quieter than your office then you have an issue.

 

[SWComposites]

If the engineering staff prefers high walls, then give those to them. What is the point of deliberately pissing them off?

 

[IRstuff]

Department heads had offices along one side of the room where they could look out at their people (the old joke was that when they looked-up, all they wanted to see was a##holes and elbows).

Did you ever visit Bldg 15 in Huntington Beach? When I was there the first time, we had the classic hard/high-wall cubicles, except on the 2nd(?) floor of aforementioned building. They had low-wall cubes and the entire bay was visible from any spot in the bay. I asked someone why the walls were so low; they replied, "Have you ever seen our GM?" Our GM was about 5 ft tall

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[EdStainless]

Ours were three walls high, one with glass panel at the top.
The door panels were mid height.
It blocked enough sight and sound to work but open enough to feel open.

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[3DDave]

I recall the creator of reconfigurable cubical wall systems apologizing for how terrible they turned out to be.