Conference 7.286::digital

    I strongly favor the wide availability of private offices....in fact
    it is a Digital myth that we don't already have a lot...we just could
    use more.
    
    To my experience most field offices are heavily "officed", and you
    should see Stow (OGO) is you really want to see a lot of 'em.
    
    It would also cut down in the proliferation of silly conference rooms
    which need to be booked everytime two people want to work or talk
    about something.

    
    One vote against private offices. I worked in one for a little while
    in a training group -- the isolation near drove me crazy.
    
    I'm convinced the information interchange within functional groups
    would decrease an order of magnitude if private offices were the
    norm.
    

RE: .0
You beat me to it.  After the conference room discussion I was in
the process of starting a topic on the same subject.

Anyhow, I find it ironic that given the concern within Digital over our
poor revenue to employee ratio that there is a complete and total
lack of interest in improving employee productivity.

I have read studies of programmer productivity in differing environments
and the ones I have read indicate improvements by a factor of four for
people who work in enclosed offices as opposed to those who work in
cubicles.  When you look at the poorly designed building Central
Engineering is housed in it is no wonder our software quality has been
going down the toilet over the past few years.

I could never get any development work done in a place like that.  How
can anyone concentrate when you can clearly hear every telephone
conversation within 50 feet, every discussion of last weekends' football
games, and the guy next door trying to connect cables to his machine.  
In my office we do all of our development at home out of necessity.

As far as other companies, I think that most leading edge software
companies put all there developers in offices.  It would be interesting
to compare what Microsoft and Borland are doing now a days.  Even IBM's
new facilities have offices for developers.  I bet that Wang, Prime, and
DG have their people in cubicles.

Digital is the first and last place I haved worked in a cubicle.  It is
easy for me to justify my salary and why I should be getting even more
money when I am working at my highest productivity.  In Digital's
environment they might not be getting their money's worth - but whose
fault is that?

Taday at lunch we were disucssing the conference room situation.  In the
two previous companies I worked for (both much larger than Digital), the
only conference rooms in the facilities were large ones for over 50
people.  In Digital when three people need to have a discussion you have
to track down a conference room.  In other the other companies I have
worked for all you did was go to someone's office.  In my last office
you could easily fit six people around the table, another at my desk,
and two or three on the couch.  If I needed for fit more I'd borrow my
boss's office.

When you try to improve the performance of a piece of software you start
by optimizing the sections that consume the most resources.  It seems
that Digital would get a lot more milage by improving the productivity
of its biggest expense (employees) rather than messing around with
things like staplers and bottled water.

    Don't expect your private office anytime soon. In fact,as we close
    facilities,and space becomes tighter,look for smaller cubes and even
    "doubling up" in some caes.
    
    Ken

    ref .-1
    >Don't expect your private office anytime soon. In fact,as we close
    >facilities,and space becomes tighter,look for smaller cubes and even
    >"doubling up" in some caes.
    >
    >ken
    
    i can see it happening allready.
    
    LOOP:
      close_facilities_to_save_money();
      squeeze_more_engineers_into_one_cube();
      IF productivity_and_quality_down THEN
         goto LOOP
      ENDIF
    
    no, iam not holding my breath, iam off to buy some ear caps.
    i heared of really good ones, once they are on your ears, you cant
    even hear yourself talk. that should do the trick. i think...
    

Clearly some people need the ability to concentrate in order to get their
work done and others need the ability to "network" in order to get their
work done, and varying degrees in between. I have to admit I am easily
distracted by hallway conversations, cube-mates' phone calls, etc. I
don't want to be easily distracted, but I am very sensitive to all the 
stuff that's going on around me.

Briefly I had an enclosed (but not floor to ceiling) office at my last
Digital job. What a feeling (to quote a certain ad). I don't know if
my productivity went up more than 25% or so, because by that time
many people were dropping in to see me, but it was the perception of
better quality working environment that made me happier. A little
after I left, they had to tear down the entire row of offices because
someone was complaining that non-consultants and non-managers were
getting to sit in doored offices. Oh my God, a breach of pecking
order protocol.

There is a definite lack of equality at Digital regarding things like
offices. If you are a manager, you can have an office with a great view
or an enclosed office with a locking door. Consultants, same thing.
Below that, fend for yourself, worker-bee scum! Then there's the
inequality between organizations. I've seen an immense range of 
office environments from ideal to ghetto just on the west coast.

Since many of us we live in Stalinist organizations, status items 
like what type of office you have are decided more by your position/title 
than what you actually do or need. Yes, in a Stalinist-style organization, 
political survival at all costs, promotion based on who you know, 
arbitrary purges, distortion of the facts to make events match the 
idealogy/culture, control through fear/intimidation, and absolute 
avoidance of criticism of past management and past management mistakes 
are the watchwords to live by.

This is why working from home or a neighborhood network cluster
seems like such a great idea for some. You are no longer defined by 
what size office they give you. The fact that some one else has a
two line phone at their desk and you have a one line phone shared 
with two others doesn't give you an ulcer. You have more control
over your surroundings and what goes up on the walls (no more
rules about stacking paper on the cabinet tops).

Don't let anyone fool you into thinking democracy creeps past the 
corporate gates.

a view from the field,
          erik

About 10 years ago i was moved into an office with a door (but no ceiling--this
was DEC Manufacturing after all) after taking a different position in the same
department.  Sure enough, a few days later Plant Engineering showed up and
removed the door because i as a non-manager (at that time) could not be allowed
to have a door on my office.

In counterbalance to this somewhat humorous nonsense, i have seen managers with
offices (with doors and ceilings) get almost no work done because of the steady
stream of visitors they had (mostly bored or disgruntled employees looking for
a sympathetic ear with regard to their afflictions).

In my present job, my cubicle is right behind the building lobby and the noise
from people congregating to yap it up on their way in or out can be deafening.
In a previous job, i had a co-worker who complained that she could hear the
person in the cubicle across from her door boasting about his sexual exploits
on the telephone to one of his buddies (in apparently unnecessary detail).

Cubicles are probably relatively easy to reconfigure when groups move around a
lot or expand.  Hopefully when the current wave of building consolidations is
done, and given our efforts to downsize rather than expand, this will be less
of a factor and real offices can be built for the groups that really need them.
When it comes to employee productivity, you get what you pay for in every way.

									paul

    In the field we will never see offices, you people in Engineering could
    make a case for private offices and should have them if productivity
    goes up. 
    
    The premise of "networking" as the reason we have cubes leaves me
    somewhat confused. Do you mean because you can hear everyones
    conversation for 50 feet in all directions even without trying is
    "networking"?
    
    I thought that was evesdroping (sp). Networking is free open exchanges
    of ideas like notes or meetings. Now if you need a conference room for
    two or three people to network see the conference room rathole.
    
    Frank

    re .-1
    
    Codswallop... I know of several field offices that are predominantly
    enclosed offices, because that's they way they were when we leased
    them. And I doubt if "Engineering" would find it that easy to convert.
    The prospects of fully enclosing the 2000 odd cubes in ZKO would be a
    nightmare...
    
    q
    

I cast my vote for private offices. It's annoying to hear conversations from
3 aisles away, and have your own conversations overheard.
"Excuse me customer/boss/doctor/etc.. while I move my phone into the broom
closet so we can talk in private".

My previous employer (Stratus Computer) had private offices for virtually
every non-shop floor employee. 

With the door closed I felt I got much more work done. I was sure that if
anyone took the time to interrupted me, it was for a good reason, not just 
stopping by an "open cube" to say Hi. 

-Marc

    For software engineering projects, cubicles are lousy.  But the
    problems will be made worse by giving each project member a private
    office.  What (I think) is needed is one large office in which
    the project team can sit - maybe something about the size of 
    a conference room with half-a-dozen desks in it.
    
    If you don't like old-style desks, then use "half-height" cubicle-
    style dividers to mark out territory.   The important thing is that
    the project engineers can see each other.  I strongly believe
    that this encourages better software design and implementation
    simply because the team members are in constant contact.   Sitting
    in a cell with 5' walls discourages integrated thinking.
    
    Yes, I've worked in this environment.  I protested when they
    told me the 'good news' that they had found cubicles for
    us.

 ref .11 (Dave)
    >  style dividers to mark out territory.   The important thing is that
    >  the project engineers can see each other.  I strongly believe
                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    
    Dave, Iam not sure that every one can work well while someone looking at
    them . specially befor having the morning coffe :-)
    
    i think for some, work space is private area, and being seen while
    working, takes away from this privacy.
    
    there are many ways to keep communications open between team members
    on the project without them physicaly seeing each other while working.
    
    may be we can have offcies with walls that can move up and down
    with the push of a botton !  ( i wanted to be an architect once, but
    after my first design, i was strongly adviced against it, for the safety 
    of humanity )
    /nasser

    Some research I read about which took place in Great Britain concluded:
    
    1) Assignment of ANY office space is counter-productive in a
    COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH environment.  
    
    2) A variety of styles of work space is productive.
    
    I make no projections about how this could be transferred to an
    engineering, manufacturing, or sales enivornment.
    
    I will try to get the exact reference for anyone who is interested.
    
    In summary, what they did was abolish all private space.  Libraries
    were centralized, file systems were centralized, a variety of work
    areas were provided, including ones with doors.  Anyone could camp
    whereever s/he wanted to do their work.  Collaboration was made easier,
    destructive competitiveness was reduced, productivity went up.
    
    Dick

    
    
    No one has mentioned the space costs if everyone were in private
    offices.  A lot more cubicles can fit in one space than closed
    offices.  A dozen cubicles can be clustered in the middle of an office
    area, whereas only one or two offices could probably fit in a similar
    area.  Heating and lighting are also more efficient, I would think,
    when space is relatively open instead of a whole bunch of little closed
    spaces.  Additionally, the construction of offices is significantly
    more involved than putting together a few partitions.  With the dynamic
    nature of our company's culture, the partitions/cubicles allow for
    greater flexiblity so that the office environment can quickly and
    efficiently meet the group's needs, rather than waiting for
    re-construction of an area to accommodate a new reorg., addition of a
    new group member, or whatever.
    
    Just another viewpoint, FWIW.
    
    

RE: .14

Assuming that productivity went up by putting people in offices then the
costs you are refering to are trivial compared to the costs of the
employees themselves.  I don't want to sound sarcastic but I think that
that kind of logic is exactly that kind of logic that has put Digital in
its present situation.  How many times how you seen product team
struggling to get work done on time because they had 8 people trying to
do development on a uVAX II?  How many times have you seen people waste
hours for want of a piece of equipmenet that could be bought next door
at Radio Shack because the managaement would not pay $20?

As far as communications go, In one company I worked for all offices for
product teams surrounded a small common lab area.  Communications were no
problem at all.

The thing I think is so funny about Digital is how we have such a
rigidized code for offices that varies from place to place.  For a while
I had a cube with a door and I remember when another employee who had
identical accomocations complained to the management because only
consultants are supposed to have doors.  I thought the story in the
previous note about facilities removing a door was pretty funny.

On the other hand accomodations are not uniform throughout the company.
In my facility we have consultants with individual walled off offices.
In other facilities I have seen Vice-Presidents in cubicles!  Just think
of the rumors that probably emanate fro the cubicles next door.

John

    if engineers cant have offices, then at least supervisors and managers
    *must*.
    
    in my previouse company i worked at, every supervisor and manager
    had an office, with dooor, this made it very easy for anyone to go to their 
    supervisor, shut the door, and talk for few minutes, this actually 
    encourged more employee to go and talk to their supervisors much more,
    since they felt the privacy helped in this.
    
    i think a lot of pepole dont want all the floor to hear them talking to 
    their supervisor/manager in work related issues that they dont care for 
    others to hear. 
    
    why does this seem soo obviouse to me: every supervisor/manager (at
    least) must  have an  office with a door, for the sake of the employees !
    
    /nasser
    

    My note a couple back was giving just the 'con' side of the walled
    office argument.  (or at least one of many 'con' arguments)  "Pro"
    arguments include those already mentioned, plus let's not forget those
    folks who deal consistently with highly confidential information. 
    Let's face it; it's hard to ensure that all that stuff is locked up
    every day (particularly when we requisition filing cabinets that don't
    arrive for months, if at all!).  Examples being: lawyers and paralegals
    in the Law Dept. who handle personnel cases and other matters involving
    high sensitivity, secretaries who do work with salary planning and
    performance reviews, Personnel folks, etc.  Can't tell you how many
    times I've walked into a secretary's cubicle, for example, to see a
    person's performance review sitting on the desk.  [Disclaimer:  I'm not
    picking on secretaries--I am one myself--it's just that people tend to
    feel more comfortable using a secretary's desk to use the phone, grab
    a stapler, whatever, without understanding that the secretary may have
    confidential information on her desk as she just escaped to the ladies'
    room for a minute....]  While privacy for one's telephone conversations
    and meetings are valid arguments, don't forget the privacy needed for the 
    sensitive documents with which one deals on a daily basis.  I, for one,
    can't stand it when I'm right in the middle of a big project (e.g.,
    salary planning), have to leave my desk for a minute, and have to take
    half an hour to put everything away first and another half hour to
    re-organize it back to where it was before I left.  That, to me, is a
    terrible lack of productivity.
    
    

Re .11:

>Sitting in a cell with 5' walls ...

MR1 had 5' walls, but ZK, at least ZK[12], has 5'5" walls.  Makes a big
difference on how easy it is for people to converse over the top, as opposed to
having to walk into the office.  The 5' walls made it easier for a passer-by
to ask a question compared to 5'5", but at the cost of more ambient noise...

Some other places (HL?) have 6' walls, as I recall.
				/AHM

There are good reasons for managers to have the ability to close the door, but
this protection for managers-employees information works both ways...

It hides the times that a manager is favoring a particular employee over
everyone else.

erik

    ...and then we could get into the merits of those buildings where the
    secretaries are "encouraged" to have half walls.
    
    Want to get any work done quietly and privately?  Stay after 5:00 and
    work through lunch when no one else is around.
    
    Grrrrr-ump.                                               

     In HL[O],  Hudson, MA  it's mostly 5' walls.  The 6-footers that do
     exist are mostly on hallways. Even that doesn't reduce the click of
     heels on tile to any great degree. When we first moved in it was even
     suggested that we buy white noise generators to cover the general
     ambient.

     This is not an argument for or against 8^)

    I fully understand the desire of many to have enclosed offices that
    shield the occupant from much of the outside noise.  I also understand
    that I'm unusual in almost needing a steady din going on around me
    before I can concentrate properly.  I just hope what follows doesn't
    sound too much like "the angry old man" routine on Saturday Night Live: 
    
    Since I've come to Digital, I've been subjected to almost continual
    caterwauling on the part of my coworkers about office space.  True,
    I've worked at Digital about as long as all the other places I've
    worked combined, but I just don't remember hearing so much noise at all
    the other places I've worked.  By noise, I mean bitching about office
    space.
    
    This would be understandable if the other places afforded more space
    for each worker, but the fact is that Digital's worst is downright
    cushy compared to all of the other places I've worked.
    
    I came to Digital to find people in HUGE cubicles, complaining that
    they weren't big enough, and doing everything in their power to
    barricade themselves from the rest of the office place short of closing
    off the fourth wall.  Then again, by pushing their filing cabinets up
    against the entrance, they even manage to mostly close off the fourth
    wall.
    
    The trouble is that I've yet to see the benefits of all this office
    space.
    
    I can remember working in "bullpens" and feeling a strong sense of
    community with my coworkers.  You saw who was there, who wasn't.  You
    knew what they were working on and when they needed help (or they knew
    when you needed help).  There wasn't a lot in the way of privacy, but
    then again, people were pretty good at respecting each other's space.
    
    What I find at Digital is an ever-increasing feeling of isolation from
    my coworkers.  The cubicle walls keep getting higher, there are more
    and more barricades against everyone's cubicle entrances, and the only
    real sense I get of the people inside are the things hanging over their
    cubicles or the cartoons posted to their outside walls.  And, more and
    more, I find it to be the rule rather than the exception to walk into
    an engineer's office and see some sort of game up on the workstation's
    screen.
    
    I for one would see a move towards offices with walls just one more
    contributing factor to this isolationism.  I don't see that
    isolationism as a very good thing.  I'd like to think of my workplace
    as a community of coworkers, but what I get instead is an anonymous
    apartment house of people.  About the only time I hear from any of them
    is when they complain about office space...

    About offices: I can remember working in Santa Clara (only last year)
    and wondering why certain people had offices when they had absolutely
    no need for one yet my personnel rep. had a cube which precluded any
    confidentiality.
    
    Ken

Maybe the best compromise would be enclosed offices with glass walls!
That way one could minimize the noise nuisance while maintaining visual
contact with fellow team members...

							;-)  paul

	De Marco and Lister's great book "Peopleware" (should be required
	reading for all members of this conference and all managers) has a
	chapter on the effects of office environment on programmers'
	productivity (*and quality*). From memory, some of the highlights
	were:

	* There is a distinct relationship between space/person and
	  productivity. Some successful IBM teams investigated had
	  something like 150 sq ft per person. At the opposite extreme,
	  some companies gave each programmer an office smaller than the
	  total area of the IBM programmers' work surfaces. De Marco and
	  Lister emphasize the point that any significant gain in
	  productivity far outweighs (by a factor of 10 or more) the
	  cost of extra floorspace.

	* There are different requirements for "individual" and "group"
	  work. (Here "individual" work is *defined* as solitary creative
	  effort, while "group" work is *defined* as work which involves
	  interaction and communication... thus a person sitting alone
	  at a desk can be doing "group" work if (s)he is on the phone
	  much of the time). Group work requires open space and shared
	  territory, where it is easy to talk and hear. BUT individual
	  work suffers in these conditions, because "flow" (concentration)
	  typically takes about 15 minutes to establish. Thus, an interruption
	  every 15 minutes (an announcement, ringing phone, or offer of
	  coffee) can ensure you get to the end of a 10-hour day having
	  accomplished... nothing. (I felt great relief when I read this
	  accurate diagnosis of a problem I had often suffered).

	* The efforts of what De Marco and Lister call the "furniture
	  police" (do I see some smiles already?) are seen to militate
	  powerfully against initative and motivation. If someone wants
	  flowers, a poster, a rubber Godzilla (as in ZKO), or a special
	  kind of bookshelf, LET THEM HAVE IT! Yet in most companies,
	  Purchasing rams uniform furniture down everyone's throat -
	  often at great cost. (I was told each "Bulo" storage unit in
	  our British offices costs �600 or about $1000 - could you do
	  better?)

	One of our most experienced and successful development managers
	in the field is often called upon to talk about the "non-technical"
	aspects of software development. He usually starts with the
	office environment, and it's something like this: each team
	member retains their "cube", but a project office is set up in
	one or more medium-size meeting rooms. All telephones and other
	sources of distraction are removed from these rooms, and messages
	must be left outside (as at a seminar). Terminals and/or workstations
	connected to the project cluster are available. Team members can use
	these rooms as much or as little as they wish. It is also up to
	the team leader to handle all contact with the outside world, so
	that the developers can operate free of any hassle or pressure.

	/Tom

    
    	re: .24 - say paul, remember six tables with 2 telephone numbers
    for 6 people?  I remember going from WMO to Tewksbury, and the quiet
    (no fork trucks buzzing around, and real office cubicles) was
    absolutely deafening and distracting.  Way back when in the mill we
    had 8 foot cubicle walls with doors, and it was still hopelessly
    noisy.  Considering the state of the economy and the company, i think
    we really don't have anything to complain about!
    
    	bob
    

    Maybe the solution to some of this office space problem would be to do
    what some other companies (and some DEC organizations) are doing. 

    For those people who have jobs which could be completed SUCCESSFULLY
    from home, for the most part.... Let those people "Telecommute" at
    home, coming into the office (say) once per week, to pick up mail and
    attend staff meetings and such.

    This concept has saved real estate costs and productivity, on a grand
    scale, for those companies who have adopted the program.

    There are some jobs and groups which could not take advantage of such a
    program, but there would be enough that could, which would make such a
    program successful.

    Bob G.

    See DELTA_IDEAS #452 for a related discussion about fitting three
    people into a space where two persons currently fit, but tempered
    by the wisdom to do this only where warranted, not on a blanket
    basis.

    Well, here in ABO they just moved engineering into "mini cubes".
    I'm not sure of the dimensions, but if I stand in the middle of
    one, and raise my arms, I can touch both walls. I'm not sure of
    the logic behind this. They opened up a bunch more space, rearranged
    the manufacturing floor, and will now have a large area of the plant
    un-utilized. The funny part is the mini cube area has this huge
    isle that runs down the middle of it, and now with the recent layoffs
    here, they could probably add another couple feet onto each office
    bye shrinking the isle and absorbing the unused offices.
    
    Marty

re: .26

Hey, those fork-lifts added some, uhh, "atmosphere" (yeah, that's it!).
Plus the rock music piped in over the plant public address system!

Unfortunately (or maybe not from an evolutionary standpoint) people have
a way of adjusting their "pain thresholds" for noise and other nuisances
based on whatever the local conditions are.  That means adjusting those
thresholds up in some cases and down in others! ;-)
								paul

    Hey Grover,didn't you just say that you'd be a read only noter now?
    What happened,your manager quit,or what?
    
    Ken (just over a cube)
    

    My favorite story :  a Field Service manager took a leave of absence.
    Facilities wanted to move a unit secretary into that space.. but first
    contracted out the task of tearing down his former office and putting up 
    a cube where the office had been, on the grounds that a secretary
    shouldn't have a desk with a door ?
    
    Guess what happened when the Field Service manager returned a year
    later ?
    
    karl

I also can't concentrate well with talking going on around me, but music does
not distract me. So, my solution is to use a Walkman. If someone does call me,
I can usually hear, but I don't hear conversations in other offices.
For those of you who are distracted by music, perhaps an environment tape
(seashore, rainstorm, etc.) would be the solution.

and those of half of the Techies here.

What I need more then an office is room.  Here in the field,
until you get to be a peer with an Account Group Manager
(Sales Unit Manager for those who don't remember the new
titles, peer to a Consulting Engineer II) you are stuck in an
8'X8'  (2.4MX2.4M) cube.  Most of us have workstations 
as well as documentation sets (I have Ultrix, Ultrix SQL,
Rdb, Rally), catalogs like the SOC and TandN Buyers guide,
Price books, Project documentation (or should I say Sales
Opportunity documentation, one opportunity is about 9 
3" binders), presentations, files ...  Sales Execs (I don't 
remember what they are called now) who are peers with 
AGMs, have 12'X12' (3.6MX3.6M) cubes, and most of them
have no documentation, an idle VT220, Pictures of the kids
and some files.  Why does Digital feel that as you move up
in the organization, that you need more space when just the
opposite is closer to reality.

Larry

    I sit in a heterogeneous area -- that is, folks with various kinds of
    job responsibilities from several very different groups.  I've had
    offices with doors, work areas with windows and cubicles. Frankly, it's
    the noise that is the worst problem not the space.  Right now I would 
    settle for soft (fabric) partitions to help muffle the noise to replace 
    the metal walls in my cubie.  Short of that...permission to throttle the 
    loud-mouths in the vicinity.
    
    Regarding offices for managers...some good reasons listed but why
    bother?  In our area, the managers are mostly travelling or in some
    conference room in another of an endless stream of meetings.  Seems 
    like a shameful waste of prime real estate to me.
    
    
    Judy

    RE: .22
    
    An interesting perspective on the need for background noise.
    
    A couple of years ago when I worked in the Burlington plant, the office
    areas were completely redone section by section.  As each section was
    remodeled, the occupants were moved to a temporary location someplace
    out on the plant floor.  At the time, I was working on some rather
    intense projects and was more than a little annoyed that I was going to
    have to be out in the relatively noisy environments for something like
    3 weeks.
    
    Strangely, the background sounds from the fork lifts, conveyors, and
    machinery didn't interfere at all.  Rather, I was considerably LESS
    distracted than I was by having to listen to spurious telephones,
    conversations, and other BS that I tended to take for granted in a
    standard office environment.  The only annoyance I did have was that I
    was parked directly under the conveyor alarm that blasted out the three
    firehouse-like alarms whenever the conveyor restarted.  However, even
    this became tolerable after a while. 
    
    At the end of the three weeks, I didn't want to move back and had a
    much more difficult time adjusting back to the "quiet zone".
    
    Larry

on noise and concentration:

 these just my own views on this:

 i think that there are certain activities that needs very quite surroundings
 to be effective in doing. when you'r analyzing and thinking , noise will 
 distract, even very low easy music is no good, very low background sounds is 
 no good either, your concise mind think that the sounds are not bothering,
 BUT your  sub-concise mind can hear the background sounds and that will be
 distracted and that will take away from the concentration ability of the mind,
 without you realizing so.

 BUT when you are doing another certain activities, that is more mechanical
 and procedure and systematic oriented, low background sounds that are
 harmonic in nature and pleasant, i find that it is not distracting, and
 could more work more enjoyable. 

 so, when your brain is in the first mode of operation, you need absolute
 quite, when you'r in the second mode, some background sounds might be OK.

 example of what i mean: first mode is when your trying to analyze an 
 algorithm, or come up with new algorithm or study some complicated piece of 
 code , or analyze some design or study some theory, or come up with proof 
 for fermat last theory etc. i.e. analytic/critical thinking type of thinking.

 second mode: implementing the algorithm (code it), paint a picture, 
 assemble some mechanical system etc.. i.e. more mechanical, procedure
 oriented type of activities.

 iam sure i'll be corrected if my theory is just full of hot air.
 
 by the way, i came up with this theory when i was in first mode. which
 proofs my theory. QED

/nasser

    
    

    Back when I was in college, one of my professors gave me an article on
    study technique.  One thing it mentioned was that an environment had to
    be either full of noise or completely devoid of it.  In other words, if
    you can have it quiet, fine;  however, if it's quiet with one or two
    small noises (conversations, buzzes, footsteps, etc.), then the smaller
    noises are going to be enormously interruptive to thinking. 
    Conversely, if there's a steady noise factor in the background, then
    the brain can go into "block-out mode" and block-out ALL background
    noise.  Personally, I could study while everyone around me was having
    a loud party with loud noise, but I could NEVER study well at the
    library because there'd always be one whispered conversation or someone
    dropping a book, or some small thing that would distract me in all that
    quiet.  The book recommended a cassette tape of "white noise", just
    static-type noise, to keep on if one can't adjust one's study location
    to something with either continuous noise or no noise at all.
    
    As for work, I like it moderately noisy.  I remembered when I worked in
    Stow, we could hear ANYTHING going on within fifty feet.  Yuch.  I
    personally didn't want to hear the private life of the person next to
    me, and I certainly didn't want them hearing me making a doctor's
    appointment or something equally as private.  But, if it were a louder
    area (PKO is a good example, from my experience), then everyone pretty
    much goes about their own business.
    
    FWIW
    

Another thing to consider regarding background noise is that random
noise such as fork-lift trucks is probably less distracting than
half-heard speech since your brain will stop what it's doing and
try to understand speech, while the random crashing of trucks will
disappear "early" in the understanding process.

I've also found that a walkman and J. S. Bach organ preludes are so
effective at blocking my surroundings that people can walk into my
cubicle and drop packages next to me without my reacting.  (I couldn't
have been sleeping, it was too early in the day.)

Martin.

    
    re: 22 I thought I met someone who worked in 36-bits (long ago) who 
    had a cube with four walls; the only way in or out was over the wall.
    
    CQ

    ...that could only have been Bill McLaughlin {:^)..........

    re:-1
    
    Does he still work for DEC? He was an instructor,right?
    
    Ken

  Re white noise: I have found that a fan does the job well, is cheaper than
a white noise unit, and keeps you cool to boot.
  A tape player with a white noise tape is good if it has auto reverse and an
A/C adapter. 
  I have a white noise unit at home. I've used it for 10 years and can't live
without it. If the power goes off, I wake up immediately because the quiet is
unnatural. This also means I have to bring it with me when I travel. An A/C
unit in a hotel does the job well, except that a lot of hotels have units
where the blower shuts off when the compressor does. Ugh!
  I can't stand having a radio playing if I'm trying to concentrate. But if
I'm in a state of forced idleness (such as driving alone), I can't live without
a radio or tape.

    Wow, Bob!  I have trouble working around here on days like today when
    no one else is in because it is too quiet and feels like working on a
    weekend or something.  But white noise really grates on me.  I can't
    get to sleep when something like an air conditioner is rumbling away in
    my hotel room or whatever, and, in the summer, I put the exhaust fan at
    the other end of the house to shove out hot air and bring cooler air in
    through the bedroom windows, because I don't like the constant noise it
    makes if it is in the bedroom.  I even have trouble sleeping if the
    washer or dryer is going down in the basement - I like quiet when I am
    resting.  But at work, it feels too quiet if there is no noise at all.
    
    /Charlotte

    where i work, they are very nice, they gave me those ear things
    that you put around your ears (naturally), they cut the noise
    level about 50%, not bad, and are comfortable to wear, still i wish i can 
    find one that cuts the noise 100%, my old workstation i inherited is 
    noisy machine.

    i tried shutting down the machine altogether, which at first, i must
    admit, i thought was a brilliant and simple idea, but i found that if i
    do that i cant sethost to the main cluster from my workstation to do
    any work because my workstation was not alive...small detail..so i
    have to live with my noisy workstation and keep wearing the ear plungers.

    now , if can figure what to do with my leaky kitchen faucet, i'll be
    a very happy man. (my temporary solution , which i think is quite
    original, is to put a large sign on top of my bed to remind me to
    tighten it before i go to sleep, but sometimes i forget to read the sign,
    and end up getting up again to tighten the stupid thing), ..may be i
    need an even bigger sign..humm..

    to moderators, this might not look like it is directly related to 
    Digital way of life, but i claim that there is a subtle relationship, 
    for if one gets a quite sleep (i.e no leaky kitchen faucet) ,they'll 
    be better prepared to do a good job next day, with the far reaching results
    such as higher DEC stock prices among others, and in  this sense the 
    above is related to the purpose of this notes file.

    thank you,
    /nasser

    Put the turkey carcase under the faucet to deaden the splash.
    
    Good for about a year, I suppose.