There seems to be always at least one "special person" in every openplan office that thinks walking around with their bluetooth headsets while on the phone is a good idea.

That would be okay if these people

a) would hang around the vincinity of their own desks while holding their extended phone powows with whoever about whatever, so they would only annoy their own teams (and the poor sods sitting next to their team).

b) wouldn't at the same time be unable to modulate their voices to a normal volume so that not the whole 1000m2 office has to overhear their chatting

c) would just sit down in a chair in the coffe corner while waiting for their coffe to be ready when they CANNOT WAIT for after the call to get another cup of their caffeine injection, instead of walking around the coffe corner like an animal in a cage and going on the nerves of everyone that has to sit next to the coffe corner.

Really, some days I wonder if these people really are blind to how obnoxious they are to everyone else in the office. I have had at least 3 people that did it in my openplan office room, and when one of them leaves (I always hope its because his manager got annoyed of him, and not because his colleagues "disposed him"), another one pops up within weeks.

Maybe they do it on purpose?

Yes, I have my big fat overear headphones to drown out office noise when I need to. But having to wear them all day because of some F***ers who cannot respect that other people also need to work is quite annoying. I could tell them they annoy the shit out of me of course... but by the time they have annoyed me enough, they usually already zipped by... and hunting these guys through the whole office, interrupting their oh so important call just to tell them to lower their voice or not move around while on the phone sounds like a lot of hassle for something that should be dead clear to everyone.

Am I the only one out there that is annoyed by that? Or is this common practice? Are there Bluetooth Headset addicts in every openplan office in the world?

Lack of privacy is one of the biggest drawbacks to an open plan. Any conversation distracts neighbors, and those frequently on the phone forget that others are being distracted.

The few times I've seen open plans work, it has been for highly collaborative work where the entire group frequently communicates with each other. For one, it was a group of producers, designers, and people-managers that sat together and were frequently talking about work tasks, like deadlines, schedules, and planning. For another one it was a group of level designers and game designers who were constantly going back-and-forth about ideas, where new ideas needed to be quickly incorporated into everyone's work.

I've never seen an open plan work well with programmers. It tends to end up with nearly everyone wearing headphones and individuals placing bulky items around their monitors to reduce visible distractions.

I've never seen an open plan work well with programmers. It tends to end up with nearly everyone wearing headphones and individuals placing bulky items around their monitors to reduce visible distractions.

Hear, hear.... that is exactly how it turns out in my expierience.

It was a running gag in the yearly kick-off meeting held by our management for many years that at least one person would ask when the company would stop putting people into openplan offices so they could start working efficiently again... which by then it was clear would never happen. That made the most coolheaded manager rage after the fourth year in succession with the same stupid questions being asked

I really admired these persons perserverance even though the whole thing was quite futile and in the end a little bit silly/childish... still, they had a point.

I had one workplace where management rejected programmer's requests for privacy, but the programmers fought back.

Some of us were in cubicle areas, but others had an open area. They rebelled intelligently. After talking it over they found everyone in the group wanted a barrier to reduce distractions. They got a bunch of cardboard boxes and put up their own barriers between all the workstations. It was tastefully done, the boxes were cut open and flipped so they were solid brown. People decorated them in typical cubicle fashion. Management didn't like it. There was one attempt to take them down, the boxes re-appeared the following day, with renewed feedback that they could not work with the distractions and needed a proper working environment.

A few weeks later cubicles were ordered and installed.

That made the most coolheaded manager rage after the fourth year in succession with the same stupid questions being asked

Given how large of an impact it can have on people's actual productivity... It really wasn't a stupid question.

Different people work in different ways, and it is kind of management's job to sort things out such that everyone in an office is working effectively.

As for the people wandering around loudly talking on phones: Best 'solution' I've seen is an office that had 'phone pods', semi sound proof phonebooth type things that you could step in. (Some libraries have them.) When a few people failed to take advantage of them and did the 'wander the office while talking and thinking' thing, a few of the engineers disassembled one of the booths so it was in two halves, put it on wheels, and anytime someone did the walk-and-talk and wasn't headed for a booth, then a few of the guys would grab a half and chase after the loud talker till they caught him.

Depending on how secure you feel in your job, Air Horns may also be an option.

I had one workplace where management rejected programmer's requests for privacy, but the programmers fought back.

Some of us were in cubicle areas, but others had an open area. They rebelled intelligently. After talking it over they found everyone in the group wanted a barrier to reduce distractions. They got a bunch of cardboard boxes and put up their own barriers between all the workstations. It was tastefully done, the boxes were cut open and flipped so they were solid brown. People decorated them in typical cubicle fashion. Management didn't like it. There was one attempt to take them down, the boxes re-appeared the following day, with renewed feedback that they could not work with the distractions and needed a proper working environment.

A few weeks later cubicles were ordered and installed.

Best 'solution' I've seen is an office that had 'phone pods', semi sound proof phonebooth type things that you could step in. (Some libraries have them.) When a few people failed to take advantage of them and did the 'wander the office while talking and thinking' thing, a few of the engineers disassembled one of the booths so it was in two halves, put it on wheels, and anytime someone did the walk-and-talk and wasn't headed for a booth, then a few of the guys would grab a half and chase after the loud talker till they caught him.

The cubicles in my office don't address the problem. I've had daydreams of asking people to lower their voices, or at least talk about something interesting, but I always think it'll cause more problems and not necessarily even solve the phone problem. Lately I've been thinking about getting an audio spotlight and blasting harsh noise at the talkers, but I probably won't really do that either.

The cubicles in my office don't address the problem. I've had daydreams of asking people to lower their voices

Even so, sometimes with cubicles communication gets a little loud. Other times everyone is dead quiet around the office.

The key thing is that work gets done. If the group's work involves removing all distractions, that's important. If the group's work involves communication and frequent discussion, that's important. Needs change between groups and between times in the project. If your individual needs are different than most of the group, that's more your problem. If most of the group has the same needs, the smaller part of the group needs to take action to accomodate it.

Even though we've got cubicle walls, I've got a box of bright orange earplugs ($20 for 200) for when I need them. On rare occasions I've used ear plugs, over-the-ear headphones, and a big sign on my cubicle wall asking people to be quiet and not distract me.

Since I quit my day-job and went indie, I've now got a tiny office with 4 walls and a door... It's amazing. Why don't normal companies ever give me a door!?

I share ~10m² / 100ft² with 2 other people, and if the office itself gets rowdy (we're neighboring the open-plan lunch / kitchen area), we can *gasp* close the door!

Revolutionary.