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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?
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday August 16 2017, @07:40PM (2 children)
Having more collaboration is good. But you don't get there by sticking everyone in the same building. You get there by implementing Agile practices, i.e. building minimum viable product, soliciting feedback from stakeholders early and often, and iterating the solution based on feedback with rapid turnaround. These things benefit from colocation, but do not require it.
I would suggest that instead of fighting the change, you tell them how to better meet their goals. Salespeople don't know what makes developers productive; developers do. Tell them that your process needs to involve stakeholders. Then, after spending months working out the kinks in your corporate culture to accommodate these changes, it might make sense to put everyone in the same building together.
Of course it's always possible that this is really about "cost savings". If that's the case, well, there's plenty of advice for finding a sustainable job elsewhere in this comment section.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 17 2017, @01:04AM (1 child)
Yeah, Agile... That's it.
NO. Agile is the tool the Sales type beat you over the head with to make it clear you work for them - even if it means you turn out shit all day long.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:43PM
Agile is a loaded term that was invented by developers but became a management sensation. I'm sorry you are somewhere that heard it as a buzzword and cargo-culted it.
Look into Extreme Programming [extremeprogramming.org]. Development does not need to be adversarial.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?