live love code

Today I considered sitting down with the nice people who work in operations at our company to kindly tell them to leave the tech team alone. The problem that we suffer from is a lack of division between teams. A lot of places brag about how their offices are open and how conducive the environment is to open communication. All that open communication often comes with a price. If people are talking, chances are they are not distracting someone from work. When a person from operations decided to make travel the 7 and a half feet over to the tech cubes, they almost always do something terrible.

“Hey, do any of you guys know…”

Immediately all of us are no longer working, and worse yet, we were all in the middle of something. Two sins have been committed here. First, each of us must recommit to the work we were doing, and second three of us are now engaged in a conversation that is really only meant for one. That question is costing the company upwards of $300/hour. Now what to do?

Recently I really considered converting my office into a fort. Then I could put up a sign to let everyone know whether or not I was available. There has to be a reasonable solution for cubicle-style offices that allows employees to work without distraction. Maybe if we did actually build forts that would keep the outside world at bay while we slowly slip into a life of seclusion. For now, that is the best idea I have… but I am open to new ones.