So the only groups that get to continue working in 1:1 flex offices are the people who made the decision to turn 1500 into a watered-down version of a college library (the Implementation team) and the reorg henchmen in HR. How poetic.
Because no one else in the corporation has any need for a quiet workspace. Or as they said in the HMP townhall: “you think you can’t focus in an open environment, but the truth is, you can focus anywhere!”
Why this persistent myth that our “tasks change” so we should move to a different chair. Office workers are either talking to someone or working on a computer. We’re not stopping to do arts and crafts. I’m not packing up my stuff to go sit in a booth to chat with a coworker. Both email and geotechnical work require the screen, keyboard, mouse, and my brain so I need an ergonomic, properly fitted workstation for like 95% of my day.
God, I’m glad I got laid off in July.
@OP you can focus anywhere , just not the place we were all used to working
you missed the point
they did achieve that… here at this company… which then took it away.
use your brain
I like how we go to the office and have teams calls with our coworkers located on the same floor. It’s so face to face
Also, imagine the amount of money saved by no longer having CBRES pack up offices and move people. Chevron will never go back to assigned offices for that reason alone.
HR loves open office, but the genesis of the idea was silicon valley where startups rented huge warehouses in which people could move between a number of creative work space options and their tasks changed. Where it always fails in corporate settings is that management also wants to save money so it packs as many rats in the cage as it can fit. Sheets of continuous desks and low height cubes always fell like working in an airport (with all the associated distractions) and high wall cubes lead to a prairie dog towns with works hunkered in their burrows until some sounds causes all the dogs to pop up for a look. The whole open office concept appeals to HR types because their jobs are all about interactions, meetings, and quick task flips. Ask any technical worker, who needs to really focus on hard tasks, and you will find universal unhappiness with an open office setup. Last I looked, however, the real value creators in Chevron offices are the more technical workers (and obviously those that do hands on work in the field). The rest are just support staff, which begs the question as to why management continues to optimize the tail waging the dog instead of letting the big dogs run.
@fr, If you've worked that hard and have that good of an education, work ethic and experience then it should be absolutely no problem finding an employer that you are happy with, no?
I refuse to become a cubicle employee. I’ve worked too hard for my education and career to be demeaned in this way.
The 4 days in the Modern Workspace is the perfect formula to get employees to quit, so next round of layoffs will result in less severance.
I've worked in different open environments. Key is cube height. If you can see your neighbors movements and faces, it is next to impossible to focus without exerting a lot of extra energy to block it out. Getting to "Flow" is impossible. If the cube height is higher, focusing is possible, but still challenged if your neighbors are in teams meetings. Comfortable noise canceling headphones could help, if the cube height is high enough.