How does your team sit?
As in many UK offices we don’t exactly have cubicles in my office, more like bays lined with, in our case, three desks on each side facing outwards, and between each bay is a partition which, unless you are particularly tall, you can’t see over when sat down.
Typically a bay is assigned to a team so they can all sit together. However, what does it say about the importance of team work and communication that the way the office is set up you actually sit with your back to your colleagues? That’s just wrong.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I’m not so sure. I quite like being able to swivel my chair to see what anyone’s up to, and to scoot across to ask a question without having to stand up and walk round a desk. Impromptu conversations mean everyone turning inwards, which beats talking across a desk, and also avoids splitting your attention between the conversation and what’s on your screen.
It’s definitely less than ideal when the team doesn’t fit in one bay though, and you have to go round the partition (or talk over it) to speak to people in the next one.
Either way though, it’s infinitely better than being in a different building, town, or even continent!
[footnote] Just before hitting submit, it occurred to me that because I’m out on the end of the bay, angled inwards, people are more to the side of me than behind, and still in my field of vision. I guess it’s worse in the middle!
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Like cars everyone knows the worst place to sit is the middle