Arguments against IT staff in open plan office

disruption,

Every bodies job has a level of disruption to it.  Get over yourself.

Disruption from what? That’s what they are there for.

That’s what most staff *think* they’re there for.

Because they have zero understanding of any of the actual work done like cyber security, network management, set-up of new kit, decommissioning of old…

Could you get yourself a big cloak like old school photographers?

im actually seeing the justification for a n apple headset now 😛

The BOfH was supposed to be satire, not a role model.

Locking away the computer geeks in rooms is a thing of the past…

And that past was a looong time ago! I’ve been in open plan offices since 1998! (had to check CV to see when it was)
Last time we had our own offices, you were allowed to smoke indoors. I remember having meetings in my boss’s office in the 90’s, room full of smoke.

I thing the rest of us have to fear from anyone working in IT being moved to an open plan office is a drop off in quantity and length of threads and replies on STW.

No one needs a seperate office nowadays. Even the bosses. It’s such an old school, I’m better than you attitude.

If you need a private meeting room, go to a meeting room or a specific quite room.

That’s what most staff *think* they’re there for.

Because they have zero understanding of any of the actual work done like cyber security, network management, set-up of new kit, decommissioning of old…

It’s just work – IT support doesn’t need any special dispensations. They have internal customers like many other parts of a business. If there aren’t enough folk to do the work, make the case for more, just don’t hide from your customers.

Be honest, you don’t want anyone seeing you on STW at work. 😁

@cougar will be along in a minute to put us right.

There’s plenty at least as qualified as me here.

I think this is very much an “it depends” question. I’ve worked in a larger team and I’ve been sole “IT Department.” What’s your bread and butter? Is WFH / Hybrid Working feasible?

For me personally, when they stuck me in an open plan office it was in a very real sense starting affect my mental health. The relentless noise, constant interruptions (“can you just…?”), some people thrive on that but as traildog alludes to my Aspie brain was going quietly spare. If you believe that you may be similar then (really you need a diagnosis but) this is something HR have to take into account.

I had tons of equipment. Tools, components and parts to get a dead server or laptop back up and running, multiple PCs on my desk. Get a faulty Proliant on your bench fired up in an open plan office and see how long it takes them to order you into a side office. 😁

And yes, of course there are security implications. I was dealing with sensitive data in my detail in SecOps and that was enough to argue against sitting in the middle of the NOC. But even as a regular Tech you’re doing password resets and suchlike, the risk is small but it is non-zero.

Finally, have you asked? The new plans will have been drawn up giving the Important People a cosy office and scant regard for the needs of an IT department. If you don’t communicate your requirements then you’ve no hope of getting it changed. The time to start coming up with reasons and excuses is if they kick it back.

just don’t hide from your customers

Likewise… have a professional way of managing the workload… don’t be put in a position where the loud obnoxious and downright useless person in your office is wasting so much of your time that other people don’t get a look in, even when their requests are more critical and more reasonable. All systems for managing requests and faults can fall apart fast when you’re in an open plan office.

It’s just work – IT support doesn’t need any special dispensations. They have internal customers like many other parts of a business. If there aren’t enough folk to do the work, make the case for more, just don’t hide from your customers.

That’s simply not true.

It’s possible to be too accessible, people will just rock up to your desk rather than use a managed ticketing system because it’s easier. There’s no prioritisation, no division of duty (“Dave’s doing password resets today, I’m assigned to something else, go talk with him”). I’m in the middle of a thorny problem which has taken out all of Sales, someone comes up complaining that the printer nearest their desk has run out of blue, that’s just cost me half an hour in broken concentration time.

When I did get an office (or more accurately, when I took one) I had a policy where door open = come in, door closed = bugger off and leave me alone. There were times were I had to concentrate and I wasn’t the only IT bod, just the nearest.

Ask if you can have a space made available for when you genuinely do have confidential stuff to do or if you need to be able to focus for a few hours.

We are a small business, I do the finance stuff and HR stuff alongside my normal daytime duties and my business partner does all the IT-related stuff. If I need to have privacy we have a meeting room and there are also soundproof booths (provided by our landlords) in some of the common spaces available in the building. We are ISO and Cyber Essentials accredited and they have never found an issue in us working in what is, for the most part, open plan. Unfortunately, there is no GDPR clause that’s going to help you win this argument.

have a professional way of managing the workload…

This is important – just make sure it’s transparent to the users.

Its literally day 1, first visit to the building, but want to be prepped with any valid points

I think i can cope, i will have headphones on or use my boss’s office

yes, i sometimes have multiple laptops on my desk, sometimes physically open being repaired

odds and sods that i will need to learn to put in drawers but still

You’ll just have to go to the disabled toilets for your Tommy Tank.

odds and sods that i will need to learn to put in drawers but still

So is your organisation ISO 27001 accredited?

If the new office is open plan only, then your options are limited, but having a hissy fit and demanding an office won’t work

yes, i sometimes have multiple laptops on my desk, sometimes physically open being repaired

Make sure you get the space – just don’t confuse the physical needs of the job (the abilty to 5s) with wanting to be closed off from the rest of the business. Good luck!

people will just rock up to your desk rather than use a managed ticketing system because it’s easier.

For the brief period of time that IT were accessible in a previous job I did, that was exactly what happened. All sodding day.

Didn’t take long for IT to get their own office again.

not currently 27001 i don’t think, we are working towards a an accreditation, what it is i’m not sure, i just get fed the “we must do this next” line

That’s simply not true.

Yeah it is, finance folks get interrupted, HR folks get interrupted everyone does, IT is no different, interruption is the work – alongside all the other stuff you need to do, the exact same as the rest of us drones. There’s nothing inherently special about the role of IT that means it needs insulating from it, except just that you don’t want to be, and that just describes the rest of us as well.

the exact same as the rest of us drones

There are plenty of roles where open plan working is less effective, and harder to manage. Hang on… in your field… you walk into any medical facility and there are multiple closed door rooms with work going on in them, and a gate keeper available on a public facing desk… no?

IT is no different, interruption is the work – alongside all the other stuff you need to do, the exact same as the rest of us drones.

Problems arise when the little IT drones are being assessed and there’s no paper trail and saying things like “oh I deal with a constant stream of idiot staff who need to be told to turn it off and on again” doesn’t really go down well in the “what have you done?” column.

Having a formal IT ticketing system provides a rock solid platform to say – here’s all the work I did, here are recurring problems, here’s where the main costs are, this area requires some staff training, here’s a breakdown of time spent on the network, on staff issues etc….

But as soon as you make IT accessible, all that goes down the pan as people wander over with their “can you just…?” and “oh have you got 2 minutes…?” requests.

Sure, there are for some roles, and TBH, its mostly confidentiality, the Drs interrupt the work of the admin/nursing/reception teams endlessly. My door however is open, and folks just walk in [the bastards]

There are plenty of roles where open plan working is less effective, and harder to manage. Hang on… in your field… you walk into any medical facility and there are multiple closed door rooms with work going on in them, and a gate keeper available on a public facing desk… no?

Really? You’re smarter than that.

My door however is open, and folks just walk in [the bastards]

You get how your door being open isn’t the same as being in an open plan office, yes?

Having a formal IT ticketing system provides a rock solid platform to say – here’s all the work I did, here are recurring problems, here’s where the main costs are, this area requires some staff training, here’s a breakdown of time spent on the network, on staff issues etc….

But as soon as you make IT accessible, all that goes down the pan as people wander over with their “can you just…?” and “oh have you got 2 minutes…?” requests.

Expectation management. And you know, maybe having some time set aside during the day to provide that walk up concierge-type service? And yes, even that kind of work can be logged for insights.

Having a formal IT ticketing system provides a rock solid platform to say

Ticketing systems are solely for the benefit of IT teams becasue in my experience they can’t actually prioritise or multi task.

But as soon as you make IT accessible, all that goes down the pan as people wander over with their “can you just…?” and “oh have you got 2 minutes…?” requests.

My HR teams are busy, they are constantly interrupted by folks saying “have you got 2 mins to help with this member of staff…” My finance team is busy doing their work, they’re constantly interrupted by staff saying “have you got 2 mins to look at my expenses..?”

Like I said, IT is no different, you just think you are.

So many old tropes being wheeled out!

First and foremost, the only people who like open-plan offices are the last people you’d want to share one with, but it’s part of working life these days. I hate it too.

Sorry, IT you don’t have greater GDPR risk than HR, Finance, even Sales.

As for distracting them / “that’s what they’re there for” complete sympathy with that. In case no one has noticed, IT support has changed massively. Password resets, printer set-ups and the like are mostly automated now (or should be) and IT shouldn’t be doing end-user training. We have to use an self-service ticketing system and call a answering service to make sure end users don’t distract them. It sounds like you’re trying to manage some low level mental health conditions, but no one can really be effective if they’re being stopped working constantly by people asking them to concentrate on something else.

[Insert IT Crowd Roy GIF here]

I had the opposite of this. Was open plan, then got put in a data centre with no windows. Left very shortly after. Most infra people I know are crap at infra, even at some pretty sizeable co’s. If you’re half decent work somewhere else and grab a pay rise while you’re at it. If you don’t fancy moving just book out a meeting room for the day or build a shed on the roof, or in the basement, maybe even at the end of your garden. Negotiate to expense building materials.

Get a faulty Proliant on your bench fired up in an open plan office and see how long it takes them to order you into a side office.

I did that with a 2U ThunderX2 box. HR rushed out to site facilities to get a dB meter, the result was 100+dB when the fans span up!

My HR teams are busy, they are constantly interrupted by folks saying “have you got 2 mins to help with this member of staff…” My finance team is busy doing their work, they’re constantly interrupted by staff saying “have you got 2 mins to look at my expenses..?”

Like I said, IT is no different, you just think you are.

Actually, they aren’t busy.  They are all just working really inefficiently.

Which is a kind of busy, I guess.  It’s the kind of busy that management seems to like because if everyone looks busy then everyone must be really motivated.

In reality they hate their jobs, they hate their lives, and most of all they hate the managers who won’t implement a system to deal with the constant interruptions because they think that’s just the way a busy work environment is.

100% that!! ^^

Ticketing systems are solely for the benefit of IT teams becasue in my experience they can’t actually prioritise or multi task.

You havent actually worked in IT have you?

Like I said, IT is no different, you just think you are.

Is anyone saying IT are different vs that open office is shit for anyone who does a job which requires lengthy periods of concentrating on something. Interruptions come with a cost beyond just the “five minutes” if you are half way through thinking through a schema rewrite.

Lots of people who seem bitter about IT folk, for some reason.

If any job was moving from a long term dedicated office to open plan, I’d have some sympathy regardless of what it was.

Which is a kind of busy, I guess. It’s the kind of busy that management seems to like because if everyone looks busy then everyone must be really motivated.

Some management. Generally those who are professional managers and have absolutely no domain knowledge. So cant actually assess peoples work beyond they have their heads down.

finance folks get interrupted, HR folks get interrupted everyone does, IT is no different,

This may be true, but it is in no way to the same degree. Not even remotely. How often do you see someone hovering around a random bod’s desk in Finance demanding their immediate attention? I’d be surprised if it was more than daily. The sole IT bod in a large office, it’s every ten minutes.

You don’t even get your lunch in peace, “I know you’re on your lunch but…” but you don’t care?

Ticketing systems are solely for the benefit of IT teams becasue in my experience they can’t actually prioritise or multi task.

If people aren’t using ticketing systems, they’re not prioritising, they’re just doing the task of whoever shouts loudest/has the highest rank/last bought them cake/is the prettiest.