How many of you guys work in a dead quiet office all day?

[SeductivePig]

I don't know if it's normal or not, but in my division there's like 3 other people in the office. My supervisor has a room, a senior engineer has his room (he only comes in 2x a week now), and another engineer works in a cubicle (I also work in a cubicle).

For the past 2-3 weeks it's only been my supervisor and I in the office every day. Dead quiet, minimal supervision.

Is it a reasonable expectation to be fully productive all day? There is minimal social interaction, no headphones allowed, the only saving grace is that I have a phone to surf the internet when I take breaks

My job would be so much better if I was in a crowded office

 

[StrangerGuy]

Me and a lot of us here would kill for a quiet office with as little people as possible.

 

[Crono]

For the past 2-3 weeks it's only been my supervisor and I in the office every day. Dead quiet, minimal supervision.

I'm at work right now, work the night shift (6PM to 2:30 usual hours, but it's flexible and some overtime).

There are maybe 20-30 people in the lab downstairs but it's dead quiet upstairs. I have one coworker in a cubicle next to me, but I rarely talk to her, and she leaves earlier than me most nights. Otherwise there's no one in the office.

The plus side is I can use headphones and I have Netflix on my phone and unlimited data (grandfathered 3G with Verizon). If I couldn't use my headphones or internet in between I would go mad. I can't stand the hum of ventilation at night with little other sound.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have quite a bit of social interaction at work. I have minimal supervision but quite a bit of interaction... most of it is people asking me for guidance or to solve problems.

 

[mmntech]

I work 1-9pm in a small studio with one other person. It's a soundproofed box where we record traffic hits all day long, to be published on our website. There's no demand for constant productivity because it's a reactionary job. We update as necessary. That can range from once an hour to shit hits the fan. Snow storms are fun. Some days we may have nothing at all and it's dead quiet. We have unfiltered web access to get us through those days. Supervision is minimal. Our boss stops by usually once a day, chats for a bit, then leaves. Some days I don't see him at all. After 5pm, all the paper pushers clear out. Just the productions staff are left.

I actually like it like that. I couldn't work in a cube farm.

 

[Anubis]

it would suck, mine generally pretty quiet but i get headphones

whats the reasons for no headphones. the no social interaction would not bother me provided i could just listen to some tunes while working

 

[Svnla]

We (about 10) all have our own offices with doors that could shut completely for privacy. We all have our own things to do with minimum supervision. Sometime it can be boring and quiet and tedious. I am glad that we all have windows (tenth floor) so we can see outside.

 

[sze5003]

No I wish. I used to sit in a cube where it was normally quiet. I sat by data developers mostly Cobol so they were old and kept quiet. Then my manager wanted me to be closer to my team and moved me right next to his cube. He talks so loud... Even other managers agree he needs his own office lol.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I work in the NOC within the regional CO so when I work weekend or nights I'm the only one in the building. It gets really quiet other than the random weird sounds the building tends to make. I sometimes walk around just to do a general check up on all the equipment. There is something soothing about walking between the rows of DMS equipment and hearing the hum of the fans, and clicks of relays. In the middle of the night, the click of relays is pretty much non existent, since everyone is sleeping.

I find it too quiet sometimes so I usually have the TV going, or a movie.

Durring the day there's about 20 or so people in the building so it's like a normal office. Not loud, but not quiet.

 

[olds]

Right now I have an office to myself. But I close my door so the radio or tv doesn't distract the 7 guys in the other room next to me.

 

[AmdEmAll]

Who the hell would want a crowded office?

 

[olds]

Who the hell would want a crowded office?

Lonely people that post on facebook?

 

[Chaotic42]

My office has several people in it and we all work well together and get along very well. From what I've heard, that's really rare and it's one of the reasons I'm inclined to stay there. We had one especially toxic employee who is fortunately gone.

A quiet office would be boring as hell. I'd take everyone of the people in my little cube farm as a family member any day.

 

[Chaotic42]

I work 1-9pm in a small studio with one other person. It's a soundproofed box where we record traffic hits all day long, to be published on our website. There's no demand for constant productivity because it's a reactionary job. We update as necessary. That can range from once an hour to shit hits the fan. Snow storms are fun. Some days we may have nothing at all and it's dead quiet. We have unfiltered web access to get us through those days. Supervision is minimal. Our boss stops by usually once a day, chats for a bit, then leaves. Some days I don't see him at all. After 5pm, all the paper pushers clear out. Just the productions staff are left.

I actually like it like that. I couldn't work in a cube farm.

What are traffic hits?

 

[Matthiasa]

I've done it like once ever. The work that is done where I work involves a large amount of social interaction from everyone. If communication is not kept up things fail.

 

[skim milk]

Get on gchat and chat with your buddies to pass time

 

[Engineer]

I have an office and actually moved to a roll-around desk on the shop floor. Dirty but I wouldn't trade it.

 

[El Tigre]

It is never quiet in our office. There is constant interaction with the people around you. People always yapping on the phone or talking across the room. Printers and copiers going almost constantly. When I really need some quiet time I slip on the headphones and crank up the tunes. LOL I have seen everything from screaming matches to near fist fights, to the president of the company having a meltdown and slamming his calculator against the wall and putting a hole in it.

It is a great place to work!

 

[Leros]

I've worked in three environments:

1) Everyone had their own office
Pros: quiet all the time
Cons: sometimes it feels too isolated. Any sort of in-person communication requires walking around to someone's office.

2) Two people shared an office
Pros: pretty quiet, but you had one person to ask questions and bounce ideas off of
Cons: you still had to move around to talk to most people

3) Open floor plan where I sit near the rest of my team and near related teams
Pros: I can talk to most of the people I care about without moving much
Cons: Can be a bit loud at times

I very much prefer option 3. I was hesitant about the open floor plan when I started at this company, but I've learned to love it and I never want an office again. There is so much more communication.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Nope, pretty busy at my cube farm. Thank God for a modded X-Fi, good pair of cans and 700GB of FLACs to drown out the screams of the damned.

 

[Jeff7]

Me and a lot of us here would kill for a quiet office with as little people as possible.

Quiet: At least if there's a ventilation system or something like that running, for some white noise. If that's about people talking, I'm fine with quiet. If I'm on a vacation day or weekend, I can go a day or more without speaking to anyone.

Productivity: I'd consider myself to be productive throughout the day, with the exception of the designated break and lunch periods. No wandering throughout the building doing social visits and small talk about nothing, no 5 minute trips to get coffee every hour, and so on.

The best days at work are when no one calls in with issues, no one comes in the office with the emergency-of-the-day, no meetings - just us in the engineering office, working on our ever-growing list of interesting projects.
Those days don't happen very often though. :\
It's amazing how often and how easily an "absolute top priority" project can get taken down a notch.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I don't know if it's normal or not, but in my division there's like 3 other people in the office. My supervisor has a room, a senior engineer has his room (he only comes in 2x a week now), and another engineer works in a cubicle (I also work in a cubicle).

For the past 2-3 weeks it's only been my supervisor and I in the office every day. Dead quiet, minimal supervision.

Is it a reasonable expectation to be fully productive all day? There is minimal social interaction, no headphones allowed, the only saving grace is that I have a phone to surf the internet when I take breaks

My job would be so much better if I was in a crowded office

Productive, yes, but efficient, too. While I am being productive, the employer is no where near utilizing me to my full productive potential.

Efficient? Only about 400% so. Employer has no complaints about my work (flawless, often finishing early, etc.), but they do have complaints about where I do my work from. So much for equipping employees with cellular data cards and laptops--only to be complained at if used in a mobile fashion.

 

[Demo24]

My 'office' is really just a big room I share with a coworker, if they aren't there its just some ambient server noise. No window, or anyway to see out since its smack dab in the middle of the building. Conveniently I can listen to whatever I want without disturbing anyone. Most of the time I'm not there and really consider my work vehicle as my main office since I spend so much time there driving around.

 

[nageov3t]

mostly.

my area used to be really noisy (to the point where I'd have to wear headphones just to drown out the chatting to concentrate on work), but the two departments that surrounded mine got relocated (the big problem was our legal department -- pretty much the only females in the office, and guys come over to them nonstop all day to chat/flirt. it got nauseating to have to overhear all day)

now me area is just my department (me + 3 other cubicles) surrounded by empty quads of cubes on each side.

 

[SP33Demon]

A quiet office is a blessing, not sure if serious.