[Closed] Open plan offices

We have dirty look penalties applied to those who transgress.

Speak to him and ask him not to?

Controversial....

Ah, now druid, you're making the assumption that this is a normal, reasonable human being...

druidh - Member

Speak to him and ask him not to?

i tried this with some of the many 'shouters' in my office.

they tend to look at you blankly, and say something like "...er, o-kay..."

and then carry on shouting.

Yep, there are some people you can talk to, others need to be approached in a different way...

I love people who take a call on their mobile, get up from their desk then go and stand next to someone elses desk while they're on the call 🙄

stick a note on his desk saying:

"stop shouting when you're on the phone,

sincerely

EVERYONE'

Do you not have rooms tasked for this purpose? Or kitchens etc?

We used to have a fake Oscar-type award with "loudest phone-talker" inscribed on it. Usually got the message across.

Paul

Had this in a previous job, I decided the best approach was full on rude confrontation- waited til she started a loud conversation with a friend, then I got on the phone to a colleague and walked over to her while more or less screaming my end of the conversation.

I can't say it worked particularily well but at least it was satisfying.

[i]Do you not have rooms tasked for this purpose? Or kitchens etc?[/i]
For what purpose?

[i]"Dear C0ck,
stop shouting when you're on the phone,

sincerely

EVERYONE"[/i]

File-> Print.

I mean rooms where private/sensitive calls can be taken, rather than being made in public. No "break out" areas?

Of course.. some people don't think their phone calls are private though. In fact quite the opposite: "LISTEN EVERYONE! I'M GREAT ME!"

perhaps he's trying to attract your attention.... you know.... sexually.

"yah yah... 1 million.... uh huh, yeah the villa in the alps, oh no puff daddy arrived late and didnt even bring flowers for the missus... yah.... yah... nahh a cheeky half trillion"

type thing?

You need phone rooms! We have an open plan office (for CEO down) and lots of breakout rooms/meeting rooms.

If she's annoying you just MTFU and tell her to shut up. Works in our office!

[i]type thing?[/i]

*Nods. In a sad way*

dont be sad debz, you're coming to my wedding and the DJ has just got back from playing the VIP area at global gathering... there might be some more accessible stuff earlier on but you should get to hear some decent music.

EDIt -- the kids wont be bored either 😀

🙂

hopefully I'll go deaf

Wtf is a "breakout" room ?

Is it just another pointless adopted Americanism (I've not worked in an office for a while)

IS DEbZ COMING TO THE WEDDING?!?!?!

Thanks for the heads up.

Re the OP... just ask them if the person at the other end has a phone they could call them on?

*Andy McNabb voice*

Utlise your environment to its full potential. If its open plan, you'll get a clean head shot

[img] [/img]

don't listen to douglas adams on head phones, sudden uncontrolled laughing doesn't go down well, others don't like it when looks like you're enjoying yourself at work.

debz and family are coming to the evening bit yah. as is mr poddy and wife i believe.

We are in pig pens here so its not quite so offensive, so I shout extra loud. 🙂

[i]Thanks for the heads up.[/i]

*blows a kiss*

Binners has an idea.
There are 2 Nerf machine guns at my house. 😆
Bloke is ex-army too... That would be awesome!

Cue cards.

A laminated A4 sheet with "STFU" on it an as big a font as the paper will allow. Hold in front of face of offender.

Wtf is a "breakout" room ?

[img] [/img]

We don't have a breakout room, but there's one or two that pong.

Break out room/space - informal spaces with chairs and/or table to chat about work etc but away from desks and email.

Had this for couple of years ago. Mrs Doubtfire sleazing it up with the customers at high volume accompanied by hooting laughter.
Tried politeness, tried rudness, tried manager intervention, tried manager with some balls intervention, tried extreme rudness, tried sarcasm.
Gave up.
Left.

Thanks molgrips, looks like I'm missing out on 80's fun by not being an office bod anymore 🙂

Thanks molgrips, looks like I'm missing out on 80's fun by not being an office bod anymore

Well kind of. In the 1980's the "typing pool" often had an open plan office and people with important jobs who needed to talk to people had offices. Now everyone is just a typist of some sort so are in an open plan office. When they actually have some 'real work' to do they use a 'break out room' (which is what in the 1980's was called an office - but doesn't "belong" to anyone.

Worst are those in their own offices that think its ok to have their desk phone on loud speaker & leave the door open...WTF. Get a bloody life. If I'm trying to do manual calcs headphones are usually the only option sometimes.

Well kind of. In the 1980's the "typing pool" often had an open plan office and people with important jobs who needed to talk to people had offices. Now everyone is just a typist of some sort so are in an open plan office. When they actually have some 'real work' to do they use a 'break out room' (which is what in the 1980's was called an office - but doesn't "belong" to anyone.

Poly, I was referring to Molgrips picture of "breakout" above.

(being a 1980's computer game) 😉

takisawa2 - Member

Worst are those in their own offices that think its ok to have their desk phone on loud speaker & leave the door open...WTF. Get a bloody life. If I'm trying to do manual calcs headphones are usually the only option sometimes.

Generally our lot are pretty good but we occasionally have muppets joining a conference call hands-free or watching a training video on laptop speakers, the rest of the office does a good meerkat impression combined with excessive throat-clearing when it happens as we don't seem to go for the confrontational approach...

There's a wedding?

I've spent the last 9 months in an open plan project office which is fine except that when I actually need to concentrate and get some work done I stay till 9 or 10pm. The cleaners bring me a coffee most nights - how sad is that?
Which reminds me, I have a 10,000 word report to write by Monday morning - which I'm doing at home because I don't get interrupted, I've let my mobile battery run down and although the internets works the phone line doesn't.

if we didn't have shouty phoners in the office, who would we pour scourn over? the noisy typers? the noisy printers? those who incessantly talk about weddings? those who come over every 2 minutes to ask dumb questions?

in our office, having headphones on means F*** OFF! I'M BUSY/ have a hangover/ PMT.

[i] the noisy typers?[/i]

Someone did have a go at a chap for typing too noisily once - his response "Well.. your... AIR CONDITIONING vent is noisy!" (complainer had a vent above his desk)
how we 😆 ed

Wtf is a "breakout" room ?

Is it just another pointless adopted Americanism (I've not worked in an office for a while)

Wtf is a "breakout" room ?

Is it just another pointless adopted Americanism (I've not worked in an office for a while)

What it is, right, is where you knock down walls and that, then everything too noisey for meetings and stuff plus people can hear you slagging them off so you get another room put back in, except it's still open plan because you call it a breakout room. And shit.

It would only be pointless if there were an existing well-understood synonym.

"room" ?

Room isn't a synonym of breakout room.

A breakout room is a type of room, but it's a specific type of room for a particular function. You could insist on referring to dining rooms, control rooms and bedrooms all as just "rooms"', I suppose.

Why "breakout" room though ?

Dining Room- For Dining - spot on.
Bedrooms- Have Beds- spot on.
Control Room- For Controlling (whatever)- spot on.

Breakout room- ???

A training room for escapologists maybe.

Stop!
We just call them Meeting Rooms. OK?!

Breakout rooms aren't bookable. You don't have to reserve one for a meeting at a specific time, they are for impromptu discussions that arise (break out) from some other chat.

Distinct difference.

Would you prefer to call them 'unbookable meeting rooms' instead? Not sure why you care tbh 🙂

Why "breakout" room though ?

Works well in legal context.

If it's impromptu then saying you need a "breakout room" is understood to mean "I need somewhere private to work out a way to backtrack from the crappy position I've just accidentally agreed to".

Useful from a planning perspective too. If we have a meeting where there are multiple parties and their representatives, you often need to leave that meeting room and go somewhere private to discuss things you don't want the other parties to hear. We call those other rooms "breakout rooms", i.e. you are breaking out from the main meeting.

You could argue that it's easier to call them "other rooms" or "another room", but the term is really just for the purpose of actually arranging meetings. For some transactions you need quite a few rooms (board rooms, completion room, document rooms, breakout rooms etc). It might seem a bit OTT to a lay by-stander, but with the amount which can, and often does, go wrong when you're trying to close something, being properly organised is key. So it's just a bit easier to put a name to something.

Not saying I think it's a great choice of words, but it means the same thing to me and everyone else in my job, so it fulfils its purpose. It could be called a "Dog Poo Room" for all I care, so long as people know what and where it is 🙂

I don't care particularly 🙂

Just seems odd when people accept (and defend) a description that makes no sense that's all.

Might as well call them Table Tennis rooms and just accept it makes no sense, at least that sounds like fun 😉

break-out rooms? that's so 2011.
we have a collaboration area 😀

Please! I'd rather listen to walkaroundshoutyman than have you lot argue about what a bleedin room is called!

Just seems odd when people accept (and defend) a description that makes no sense that's all.

life would be rather dull if everything was so utilitarian

🙂

Presumably all those people who only ride at trail centres actually own Trail Centre Bikes rather than Mountain Bikes?

the bleedin room is where shoutyman ends up when he doesn't STFU

😀

life would be rather dull if everything was so utilitarian

That's why I suggested "table tennis room" as a fun sounding alternative 😉

Dont do it now as im not a project manager any more but for about 6 years me and just about every other PM paced and shouted our way round the office, often passing each other and sometimes employing a one way system so as not to collide.
The ones who didnt seemed to slope off into the side offices and conduct covert conversations...i think it has something to do with having to get round all the problems on site and not really wanting to let the management know how you are doing this so a quick walk down the office away from ears and then back again when when the topic is a little less sensitive seemed the way forward?
Even now when a call comes in i'll pace a little....dont know why?? but at home the wife gets enraged by it.

That's why I suggested "table tennis room" as a fun sounding alternative

A few years ago I had the priviledge of working with some amazingly bright and funny guys who were joining their consultancy businesses. There were multiple transactions happening at once and, as is often the case, each was assigned a project name to identify it.

Normally directors pick something descriptive, catchy and easy. These guys picked the most obscure, difficult to pronounce and spell project names imaginable (some were the names of chemical compounds for example). 🙂 It was the source of a lot of outbursts from frustrated lawyers/sectretaries/other advisers as they struggled with the names in meetings

[i]but at home the wife gets enraged by it.[/i]

She has got a point.

Pacing while on the phone is the modern version of "walking the talk" - for those of you who did management training courses in the 90s.