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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 16 2017, @05:13PM   Printer-friendly

When I was hired, my firm had its main office in the suburbs. I felt pretty good about the location and environment and purchased a house nearby. At that time, many employees and managers lived in the area. Since then, the firm has changed hands, and the original office space, as part of an ineffectual cost-saving move, has been reduced in half. Ineffectual because the new lease no longer included utilities. The "savings" were spent opening a new office in the city, and a bunch of young sales hires were made for a small bullpen type office. There are no cubicles in the city, and the few offices are reserved for a handful of lucky first movers. Now they are looking for cost savings again. The firm's plan is to shut down the office in suburbia because "having everyone in the same location inspires the best ideas."

Can someone point to some research (e.g., from HBR [Harvard Business Review] or similar) indicating that R&D teams may be best served by being in distraction-free environments separated from the gossip and hubbub of sales? Or that accommodating workers who want to be away from the city may save on labor expenses and employee turnover?


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  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday August 16 2017, @07:02PM (2 children)

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 16 2017, @07:02PM (#554867)

    The solution is simple. Kick out the few people in the city offices and move your teams in. Not crammed in. They just need a door to close. Make cute/silly signs to put on the door like "shh, creating the secret sauce".

    I doubt you'll convince management to keep the suburb office. Resisting what management wants when they have total control over you is a waste of effort. Instead, use them to your advantage as best you can. Get them to kick those people out of the few offices and move your teams in.

    Slightly OT


    Mixing sales and development is a really bad idea. I have seen is sales people selling things that are still in development because they overheard you talking about it. The client gets pissed and calls support because a must have feature is missing. Business tries to convince you to work weekends to get the new feature out because "we already sold it". fffuuuu

    Oh, and the cowbell. Sales loves to bang on some cowbell : / If sales is allowed to bang on a cowbell near development then you should be allowed to wear flip-flops, cargo shorts, and hawaiian shirts everyday.

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @07:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @07:56PM (#554901)

    If someone put a sign on their door saying "shh, making the magic sauce" it would quickly find itself relocated on the toilet door.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 17 2017, @01:02AM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday August 17 2017, @01:02AM (#555048) Journal

    Kind of like that Spoiler tag. Probably developed by Sales types, and just about nobody ever uses it in real life. But boy did it feature in the sales blurbs a few months ago.

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