I hate open offices. They suck and they must die.
Today, the people around me are having a large number of very loud, multi-person conversations. Also, someone on the other side of this table keeps doing *something* that makes it shake. I can't tell what, because there's enough of a partition to keep me from seeing their hands and the table in front of them. But their table has sufficient structural connection to mine that I can feel the thuds and jostling.
Tired 😑: The problem with RTO is that we're all in online meetings anyway.
Wired 🤩: The cool thing about everyone being in online meetings in the same open-plan office is, everyone has to shout to be heard in their own meeting over all the background noise around them!
/s
#OpenOfficesSuck #OpenOfficesMustDie #ReturnToOffice #RTO #office
You know what's super-awesome about open-plan offices? When the guy who sits next to you needs to have a conversation with the guy on the other side of the table, across from him, so the two of them stand up to talk to each other over their monitors, both of them gesticulating at each other in your peripheral vision.
Wait, did I say "super-awesome"? No, I meant that other thing. Rage-inducing.
In other news, I'm currently in a meeting, and there's a conversation going on in my cube row, and another one in the next row over, and there may be others; I'm not 100% sure, because I'm trying to tune them all out. 3/3
To be very clear: I don't mind Teams giving me that message; it's helpful when I'm alone. My ire is in fact directed at the people making so goddamn much noise in a shared office. They remind me of how much I hate open offices, and one of the reasons why (because they're manifesting that reason). 2/3
I'm not sure why it bugs me so much, but I really hate when I'm in an online meeting, I have my mic muted, and then I keep getting notifications from Teams that my mic is muted.
Those mean that there's someone else in my environment (fucking open office) who's making enough noise that my mic is picking it up and teams wonders if I'm trying to accidentally talk on mute. 1/3
I kind of want to tell the guy 3 cube-rows away that if he could turn up the gain on his mic or headset, maybe he wouldn't need to bellow into it so loud. But of course if I did that, *I'd* be considered the rude one, instead of the guy who's ensuring the whole office hears his side of his conversation. Why? 😖
Then again, I suspect he just talks that loud all the time...
Want to make everyone else in your #OpenPlan office hate you? Be a group of 3-4 who have decided to all cluster around one person's computer to have a video call with someone. So that you need to speak out loud for the remote person to hear you, and you've got the computer's speakers up so you can all hear that person.
So that *all of us* can — and *must* — hear all of you.😠
Seriously. Get a room. One of those little rooms that are *just for this purpose*.
Kagan MacTane (he/him)
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