Open office arrangement with non-programmers (sales, etc) talking all day?

Question

Just curious about this, I'm about to leave this job for a variety of reasons but one thing is that the office I work in is a full open office with a few non-programmer employees in close proximity talking nearly all day on the phone, making sales calls etc. This is obviously terrible for concentration and in my opinion laughable that someone thinks this is a proper way to run a business where the core aspect of the business is software development.

I'm just curious how common this would be, if anyone else has had a situation like this. It seems to me this is an obvious sign of a bad employer, I should have probably realized this earlier but I needed a job right away so I took it. I understand that programmers may have a shared room or space, but I would think that it would be the norm to keep things separated as far as people who talk on the phone for a living vs those who have to concentrate on a programming task.

Answer 1

It's very common for open plan offices. In fact quiet working conditions for programmers is quite uncommon, even amongst software companies.

A lot of employers and managers just don't get it.

Answer 2

That's the norm, unless you work at Microsoft, Fog Creek, or a Peopleware-inspired company.

I get around it with Noise Cancelling headphones (even though there are studies that show that listening to music short circuits creativity).

Your best bet? Either work at one of the Peopleware-inspired companies or create your own software company.

Answer 3

In my experience, most companies have some level of separation. Not normally separate offices, but at least not mixing in sales and programming teams together.

If an employer doesn't at least provide somewhat quiet working conditions they most likely aren't going to care much about other good practices that increase productivity and programmer satisfaction.

Answer 4

My current working conditions are similar... Meh, might as well go into a bit of detail...

I worked in open air office for first 2 years at my current job. Constant phone calls going off literally right next to me, since there were two salesmen there. No earplugs or headphones allowed, ya know, since I couldn't possibly hear the phone when the boss or his wife wanted to call me for misc unrelated projects.

After the first two years here, I was moved 5 feet to the left and into my own "office" after the boss finally got around to taking his old desk out of here.

You'd think everything was great from the looks of it... There's a door to the outside in here and there's a door to the office separating the noisy part from my little space. Sounds good, right? Well, no. The outside door has been screwed shut for "security" since before I even started here, I learned. Also the inside door is not permitted to be shut. The reason? Not a direct quote, but essentially, this office "has the most heater register in the building and everybody gets cold if the door is shut, so you can't do that in here."

So I moved 5 ft. to the left and actually wound up worse off, cause one of the walls to my office has the bathroom behind it, and there's this 1 inch gap between the two walls creating a gap opening directly between my office and the bathroom... not to mention the 5 inch gap at the ceiling... Not only does the smell just seep right through, when the door is open, all the noise from every room in the office, not just the sales dept I was formerly stationed in, just funnels right into my office and it's actually noisier than ever here.

No complaining, though. Many have gotten fired for that before. Criticism not allowed!

---

tl;dr I've only worked one place before, and as far as I know, it's normal. Also, anyone out there have a replacement job for me? :P