Photo by Giu Vicente on Unsplash
In the mid-to-late 1990s I worked as web developer at a major financial data services and publishing company which was an early adopter of the open workspace concept. We were seated two per desk, side-by-side, with another desk facing that one, with no dividers. I could see over the top of the monitor, looking directly at my office co-worker (who was my direct supervisor). The entire floor (there were two) was filled this way, with the desk arranged diagonally to maximise space usage. There were about two large team-sized conference rooms per floor each made entirely out of glass. Along the wall were a a half dozen smaller all-glass meeting rooms where one could meet to have a one-on-one conversations. None of these rooms were sound shielded.
Along the wall, we had televisions displaying the latests news broadcasts from employers cable TV channels. The restooms had speakers broadcasting the latest financial news form the employers AM radio station. The kitchen provided free food all day long but we had no place to sit and eat. I ate lunch at my desk. Or attempted to. Eating at your desk means working at your desk. I would dump most of my free mostly uneaten meals into the trash.
There were no breakrooms. There were no plants. No places to make private phone call. No areas to retreat to, to be by onself. To shut it all out, I sat alone in my car in the parking lot. Sometimes, another coworker would organize a 15 minute walk through the streets of the local neighbourhood.
This was in the days before smartphones and MP3 players. I had no music streaming services and headphones to blot it all out.
I loved the work. It was the early days of web commerce and publishing and I was doing fun work building templating systems and an early form of content management systen. But the work environment was wearing on me. After eleven months I quit and launched my first consultancy.
