Comments on: Those wide open spaces

By: Lynn

Lynn — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:08:27 +0000

Jane, I can see both Dave and D.C.’s point of view. I think it all depends on the person. Some people work better surrounded by colleagues in a noisy atmosphere where they can bounce off ideas with one another. On the other hand, there are those who need silence to be able to think, to concentrate, and to get any work done. I’m sure many at HarperCollins will be happy with the changes, but there will be just as many who will not be.

I do hope this downsizing will benefit authors in the long run.

By: D. C.

D. C. — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:39:29 +0000

I’ve had the private office (the glass wall of which faced a blank wall, so I couldn’t actually see the team-members I supervised). I’ve had the cubical. I’ve had an open desk facing out into other open desks. I’ve had a desk behind a makeshift wall, on the other side of which my subordinates were changing out engines and transmissions. And I’ve had a home office in my bedroom suite, behind three sets of looked doors.

My work was always interesting enough that I never really noticed where I was.

By: Dave Sosnowski

Dave Sosnowski — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:04:47 +0000

I’ve worked in a private office, bullpen, and cube farm and I have to say that I felt most productive in the private office while the bullpen was the most disruptive layout. That said, it really depends on the kind of work we’re talking about. If the work is collaborative by nature including a fair amount of information exchange and brainstorming in groups, I can definitely see the benefits of the bull pen. If, on the other hand, the work involves a lot of reading, editing, and writing individual work products, both the bull pen and cube farm are poor fits. Unfortunately, my work involves the latter and is conducted, currently, in a cubicle, surrounded by people whose work largely involves talking loudly on handsfree headsets, so that when I really need to get something done, I need to wear headphones cranked up to hearing-damaging levels. (As a side note, when we were being sold the cube farm — so to speak — we were told there’d be a white noise generator that would take care of all the ambient chatter. Seems that never really happened, though, while we’re still stuck with the cubes and the noise.)