"The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched."
See also Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. Foucault uses the Panopticon as a metaphor for how those in power maintain control in modern society. Philosophize This has a really good intro on the topic.
This got me to think... even inmates have better privacy than it workers in their day life. Why can a prison have "cubicles" for 1 or 2 people but an engineer earning 150k a year can't?
Because inmates live and sleep there, whereas engineer (usually) go home at 5 pm? And the engineer can also just hand his resignation, doing the same thing in prison is slightly more complicated.
I feel strangely satisfying to see articles like these. Soon after I feel comfortable at my new work, it constantly agonizes me working in an open-plan office. It took me a while to overcome the feeling that I'm always broadcasting my screen to the entire company. And the colleagues who want "a second of your time" would no longer send emails, they come directly at you! Worst of all, when people were simply passing by, but you feel that they are coming for you.
At last, I find out that our new office is still an open floor, I should just quit already
I am currently one of two people working out of a 2000 sq ft office unit with 5 or 7 offices, boardroom bathroom, kitchen. It’s for sale so probably going to get the boot in 6 months but until then it is ideal.
I have a coworker two half-height cube walls away who will stare pointedly at me seconds before he calls out my name to molest my concentration.
I have come to find these events blood-curdling. It is simply unacceptable to me that a turned head cuts through my peripheral vision to warn me of what amounts to an assault on the mind.
The open office enshrines interruption and creates an environment whereby no moment of reflection is sacred. The neediest, most disruptive, and least productive employees are rewarded for behaving in the most antisocial ways thinkable.
Yeah, if you think it's bad in tech you should see what it's like in companies with less highly paid, less valued employees, especially in jobs that actually do benefit from constant collaboration.
In one of our colo buildings there is a call center for some online pet company. They not only have an open office plan they have fully transparent glass walls all the way around the outside of their office space! You can watch everyone at once even from outside. It's weird. Even more authoritarian is the multiple armed guards and the obvious undisguised metal detector at the front door. I think the management there is dreaming of a similar level of control as a North Korean party leader.
I work in a research institute that is moving towards bigger and bigger open offices. It’s maddening. It does make it fairly clear how much the higher-ups value “innovation” versus the actual work of discovering stuff.
I was thinking we could do rows of Stadium seats like this:
|\\\|
You can use the back of the person below you as a desk. Managment woild have the last row since it has extra room.
The best parts for me are the non-answers about Nest and Cell. And also referring to corporate surveillance as “compassionately evaluating your flow state.” Somebody read the dexterity with symbols chapter of Moral Mazes :)
A good satire of dystopian, anti-human 'design' ideology but... the sidebar promoting something that features HumansOfFlat design (visual newspeak)... is part of the satire right? 'iLLUSTORiA' is reading material in the Cells?
For context:
"The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
See also Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. Foucault uses the Panopticon as a metaphor for how those in power maintain control in modern society. Philosophize This has a really good intro on the topic.
Transcript: http://philosophizethis.org/episode-121-transcript/
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tcYLy2ILoRoDddvR56Kxy?si=q...
Thanks for this! I've been in the lookout for good philosophy podcasts, to no avail...yet. Definitely giving this one a try
Picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_Modelo#/media/File:Pr...
This got me to think... even inmates have better privacy than it workers in their day life. Why can a prison have "cubicles" for 1 or 2 people but an engineer earning 150k a year can't?
Because inmates live and sleep there, whereas engineer (usually) go home at 5 pm? And the engineer can also just hand his resignation, doing the same thing in prison is slightly more complicated.
Resigning to work in another cattle-pen, or none at all (not working), isn't much choice.
(There are a few who have the option of remote work. It's a very few.)
Prisoners can't go to a bathroom or book a conference room.
I feel strangely satisfying to see articles like these. Soon after I feel comfortable at my new work, it constantly agonizes me working in an open-plan office. It took me a while to overcome the feeling that I'm always broadcasting my screen to the entire company. And the colleagues who want "a second of your time" would no longer send emails, they come directly at you! Worst of all, when people were simply passing by, but you feel that they are coming for you.
At last, I find out that our new office is still an open floor, I should just quit already
I am currently one of two people working out of a 2000 sq ft office unit with 5 or 7 offices, boardroom bathroom, kitchen. It’s for sale so probably going to get the boot in 6 months but until then it is ideal.
I have a coworker two half-height cube walls away who will stare pointedly at me seconds before he calls out my name to molest my concentration.
I have come to find these events blood-curdling. It is simply unacceptable to me that a turned head cuts through my peripheral vision to warn me of what amounts to an assault on the mind.
The open office enshrines interruption and creates an environment whereby no moment of reflection is sacred. The neediest, most disruptive, and least productive employees are rewarded for behaving in the most antisocial ways thinkable.
This is pretty great. I gotta admit the horribly undirected layout of my work’s cafeteria leads me to fantasize about authoritarian architecture.
Someone should write something that more obviously lampoons the digital surveillance of employees that is commonplace within corporations.
This is so spot on it hurts. Get out while you can! I switched from tech startups to consulting and have never been happier.
I also do consulting, but the clients whose offices I visit still have open plan offices :p
Yeah, if you think it's bad in tech you should see what it's like in companies with less highly paid, less valued employees, especially in jobs that actually do benefit from constant collaboration.
In one of our colo buildings there is a call center for some online pet company. They not only have an open office plan they have fully transparent glass walls all the way around the outside of their office space! You can watch everyone at once even from outside. It's weird. Even more authoritarian is the multiple armed guards and the obvious undisguised metal detector at the front door. I think the management there is dreaming of a similar level of control as a North Korean party leader.
I work in a research institute that is moving towards bigger and bigger open offices. It’s maddening. It does make it fairly clear how much the higher-ups value “innovation” versus the actual work of discovering stuff.
> What else will be in Synergon besides our workspace?
> There will be a Jamba Juice.
This was so ridiculously on point.
I was thinking we could do rows of Stadium seats like this: |\\\| You can use the back of the person below you as a desk. Managment woild have the last row since it has extra room.
The best parts for me are the non-answers about Nest and Cell. And also referring to corporate surveillance as “compassionately evaluating your flow state.” Somebody read the dexterity with symbols chapter of Moral Mazes :)
> Will I be able to see you in Nest, watching me work?
> No. Nest will be coated in one-way mirrored glass. And we are not “watching you,” we are compassionately evaluating your flow state.
You know what? Sound-proof prison cells sound great.
Was not familiar with McSweeney's before. This is hilarious! I will have to check out more
This might be a good starting point: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-50-most-read-mcsween...
This is one of the all-time classics though: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-decorative-gourd-sea...
Fond of https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/alternatives-to-resting-...
Try this one: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/choose-your-own-corporat...
Oh good, you're just in time for decorative gourd season!
> What will we wear then? > Cool jumpsuits! Each suit has a unique configuration of colored bubbles serving as your team member identifier.
In Japan people use salaryman uniform, available in the color blue and white!
McSweeney's never fails to deliver.
A good satire of dystopian, anti-human 'design' ideology but... the sidebar promoting something that features HumansOfFlat design (visual newspeak)... is part of the satire right? 'iLLUSTORiA' is reading material in the Cells?
I'd take it over an opem office if it's sound/germ proof and has free food.
> This sounds terrifying and dystopian. Is it?
> No.
That's me sold then!
What a terrible website, can't even get a summary, or a sentence, without subscribing?
Really? It worked fine for me and I'd never heard of it before tonight. I'm running NoScript, that might be the difference?
Best line in the article IMHO
This sounds terrifying and dystopian. Is it?
No.
Weird, I’ve always found McSweeney’s one of the better – I just opened in Chrome and Firefox, both normal and Incognito, can see the article all ways.