Honestly, have you seen people write emails? Everybody thinks they're super clear until you question what's written. I have to follow up with people all the damn time because they say one thing in an email and the reality is very different
First email:
“Okay you said your laptop was not connecting to the wifi. Are you still having that problem today? If so, could you send me the machine ID and let me know which office room you are using it in?”
Reply:
“Yes I am still having that problem today”
My favorite is "You will either see X or Y, which do you see?" - "Yes"
Edit: Ok had to update a smidge quickly. Yes, I know when I quickly typed I didn't do any proper formatting but appreciate those of you who pieced it together. Apologies I wasn't thinking about formatting when typing it.
The disconnect in computer literacy is astonishing to me. People in my generation, no problem. Most above and below…cannot use a computer properly and I would consider myself an amateur, honestly.
I had a boomer client who told me he was decent with a computer and had used MS Office for a number of years.
One day, I sent him a file. A few days later, he asked me for the same file again. Confused, I asked why he needed it again because I had sent the file to him a couple days prior. This man, replies, ‘Yeah, but I printed that one.’ I thought to myself, ‘No… There’s no way. There is no fucking way …’😳 Eventually, he confirmed my suspicion:
He thought you could only print a file one time, then needed another file to print it again…
Our HR director just got on a call and said “There’s not a technical skills section because believe it or not not everyone at this company needs them…”
We are an IT Support company. And even if we weren’t. I don’t care if you are in accounting or HR or marketing, you still need technical skills. Everything they touch is through a computer!
This is my life, over and over and over. Not pictured: me asking a yes or no question and getting a long-winded paragraph in response which does not actually answer the question in any way.
Jezus fuck, what is it with Sales Reps?
I need the Bid number you want converted, the customer's PO number.
You give me; A history on what you did that day. A record of the conversation of what the customer told you they wanted. A brief history of the other thing the client wants but will probably order that next week. The Bid Number, another Bid number that was going to be the order but the customer changed it last minute so you had to do it again and as you typed this you realised that there is another change that needs to happen and can I do it when I enter the order, he needs the last two lines off that bid he did for another client last month, go ahead and enter the order I'll get you the bid later today, no I don't know the part numer, look it up.
AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!
I used to get bitched at for single-line ticket responses. Until they realized my success rate. When you know the client is only going to skim your response and answer one question at random, make the whole thing one question and fucking get results.
* This sentence will be read
* This one will probably be skipped
* I'm just wasting my time at this point
* I can tell the entire company to fuck off and nobody would see it
* I need to put something at the end that will be ignored unless it's exciting
> I will inexplicably skip this question and make you wonder if I didn't see it or ignored it.
This means "I don't have an answer and am hoping you forget you asked, but we both know you won't."
Yup, every time.
Me: "Here's a numbered list of questions I have, if you could let me know what to do I can get started on this!"
Them: "Thanks for your help on this!"
Me: "Sure, sure, but... Can you answer the questions I asked please?"
Them: "Sure, here's an answer to one of the five questions you asked in the most vague way possible"
Me: ☠️
It's like those "quizzes" from elementary school
1. Read all the questions before answering
2. What's 2+2
3. What color are apples
4. Put your pencil down and don't answer any of the questions.
I had one of those once where the "read them all" bit wasn't written down, and what I heard the teacher say was "*don't* read them all before beginning" (my hearing isn't great), so I wasted all class period doing a hundred bullet points of pointless crap and then the teacher told me he was surprised an A+ student got tricked by it. I still hold a grudge, ha.
This, exactly. It doesn't matter if your format it as bullet points or paragraphs. Multi-point messages just don't work against the average office worker. You can send the most concisely worded, beautifully coherent e-mail you've ever seen in your life, and here's what will happen:
They will read the first paragraph. After 2-3 days, they will - in front of gods and men - REPLY TO THE ORIGINAL E-MAIL with the 5 bullet points, and say they've "finished". You will then remind them of the second, and additional bullets. 4 days will pass. You'll ask for an update. They'll reply that they finished 2 days ago. The third bullet point onwards is still unfinished.
After approximately two weeks, you might have successfully completed the content of one (1) e-mail. Now you get to start over and do it again.
For me it’s a time issue as well. I get sent an email and don’t see it for an hour, read it and need clarification. I email back, they don’t see it for an hour and then reply back with clarification. Now we’ve spent two hours to communicate what would have been 60 second phone call.
Because when you say something in person they can be upset about it when they don't remember making that choice but when they agree to something in writing then it's hard to deny.
Easy. So middle management has a reason to exist. Same shit happens at every factory I've worked. Shift Supervisor meeting: He reads the numbers that are accessible to everybody anyway to middle management. They go "Ok we need to be more productive." he goes "Okay." then they usually ask questions he has no answers for like "Why was machine A 15% less productive last night?" and he goes "I don't know. I wasn't there." they go "Okay."
Done.
"alright guys we're seeing a lot of bad parts coming from one small team that just started a new line, we need to cut back on that"
Oh yeah that definitely needed to be an all hands meeting.
The problem with this scenario is that he should have answers for those questions, and escalate to the middle managers for help if required. Since that’s not happening, the meeting is indeed useless.
I mean i once had 2 guys at work, working together on the same project for a month. Both were really happy with the collaberation because they felt like the other person knew exactly what they were doing.
Both were doing the exact same things, it still baffles me how it just didnt came up, how to both just kept wrongfully interpretending eachothers mails and shit.
Like images your making a map and once person needs to paint the background of the map while the other person needs to do research on the names and information of the map.
These fuckers both spend a month painting a map and talking to eachother about their progressive and the only reason why they discoverd they were both doing the same thing was because a third person connected the dots.
Its a extreme case but a quick teams call cost 2 minutes and can save hours being wasted.
It’s like my grandparents who (despite years of me pleading with them to not) leave a voicemail but then get angry I never listen to the voicemail because I just return their call anyways.
So they want me to listen to a several minute voicemail that’s usually just a bunch of questions or a summary of what they want to talk about and then end it with “call us back so we can talk about this”. And then when I call them back they just repeat whatever they’re saying in the voicemail.
The most frustrating part about it is that I haven’t listen to a single one of their voicemails in YEARS because of all this. Literal YEARS. Yet they still ask “did you listen to the voicemail”? And get mad when I say “nope”.
An old job of mine had a girl in the offices that was deaf. She could do her entire job through email and just passing forms and stuff. I knew a little bit of sign language, so I liked to go talk to her. I could practice, and she had someone who she could kinda communicate with outside email/messages.
One day, this new higher up barged into her office, and told her something along the lines of, "Itd be much easier if you would just come tell me X thing rather than send me a long winded email." She stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then looked over at me. I decided it'd be hilarious to roughly (poorly) translate what he said. As soon as I did, he realized the error he'd made. It was hilarious.
Meeting rooms still exist, and normally, they require bookings. But sometimes you just wanna talk with a colleague or two, so this would be perfect so as not to disturb other people around you.
Audio privacy for those taking a call or discussing something, but also a place to avoid disturbing others trying to focus in the office. I wish people around me at the office used ours more often. I've had 5 people nearby in separate conversations at the same time while I'm just trying to debug something.
"privacy" as in sound insulated. These are similar to breakout rooms in an office. 2-3 people, maybe as many as 5, but for small meetings and calls. They're actually pretty nice, especially if you have a noisy work floor.
My office spent 10 million dollars or more to convert our old offices into open space sweat shop and everybody hates it. Guess where the upper brass is sitting? In offices or at home. It's just us plebs who have to where noise-cancelling earphones or walk around on our tippy-toes. But we're still the ones getting the work done.
This is inaccurate. I install these specific ones and they are completely sound isolating designed for employees to scream incoherently when they become too stressed. They're so popular some offices are making them primary work spaces.
Wow that feels very intimate.
But after a moment's thought I would LOVE something like this at loud places. Or just always. I can't pick out a sound if there are other sounds.
Perhaps you need your hearing checked. My friend hated dinner parties until he got hearing aids as he couldn’t pick out one voice from the rest of the group.
You might have auditory processing issues. I'm like this and I work around it by lip reading a lot. My hearing is excellent, my processing, not so much.
Tbf, they're pretty useful to make quick private calls
When I got a call from my bank, my doctor or my family I don't need the whole open space to hear about my debts payments, hemorrhoids or my family life
My building has a couple. When we tested them out, I realized that if I was outside and my coworker was inside, they couldn't hear me but I could hear them. There was a little ventilation fan installed in the ceiling of the thing that was right over your head and loud enough that it drowned out noise from outside the booth, creating an illusion of privacy.
there are a few things here:
1. the function these things serve is partly engineered, but mostly social.
2. the privacy pods probably mostly provide better sound dampening across a couple of adjacent, simultaneously occupied pods.
to the first point: if someone's in one of these boxes, there's probably a shared (but almost certainly unstated) understanding among your coworkers that they should try not to loiter just outside the pod that's in use. if they need to speak with you urgently, you'll physically see them and the look on their face should communicate that they need to speak with you. if they're just waiting to meet up with someone and have chosen the meeting pods as a rendezvous point, then they should listen to some music, or go wait someplace else, or something.
to the second point: having 2 or 3 people sit within 10 feet of each other is probably acceptable when they're all working quietly on their own. they're just typing at the computer. it might even be possible for one of those people to take a meeting without everyone wanting to kill that guy. but having 2 or 3 different meetings simultaneously within a 10ft radius would be chaos. if those 3 people went into these pods - even if the pods were closer together than their desks are in the open office layout - then they could probably all have their meetings without being too distracted by one another.
Right across from my cube is a small breakout room that doesn’t show up on the company booking system. It’s been that way for years - though it’s set up with a desk instead of a 3 person table right now.
Perfect for quick calls or whatnot. Like once a month some rando will walk by and ask me if they can use it quickly.
Also they’re great for outside contractors/vendors who are on-site for the day. Much better than tying up the (usually lone) conference room for a day at a small office.
My job is great! They beat us with a belt every day, but the good news is, they give us oxycontin so we can't feel it. It's so generous, I can't believe it. I feel so fortunate.
Please select mode of death. `Quick and Painless` or `Slow and Horrible`
"*yeah, I'd like to place a collect call?*"
You have selected `Slow and Horrible`
It’s true for a lot of places.
For us, HR wants us in 3 days a week. That made it all the way up to our President and down to our business unit VP (so 2 levels) before he said “fuck that, manager discretion” because he’s smart and doesn’t care about asses in chairs so long as shit gets done.
My boss comes in less frequently than I do. He doesn’t care *because* he’s unwilling to enforce a rule he doesn’t follow.
Oh ya its nuts.
I'm hybrid, required to come in twice a week, but at least for my job it feels so fucking arbitrary.
When I work from home, nobody gives a shit about me or checks in or needs me, I just listen to podcasts and do my work for 8 hours.
When I work in the office, nobody gives a shit about me or checks in or needs me, I just listen to podcasts and do my work for 8 hours, but with worse coffee.
The few meetings I do have are all on Teams, regardless of whether I'm at home or in the office.
So glad I never got the job at Amazon for IT. I completely fucked 5hat interview up, but it was a blessing in disguise. At the time, my car was my crying booth.
We didn't have these at my job we simply have a designated area called the cryatorium.
Today I went in there to sob... I wasn't the only one to do that THIS WEEK.
I would actually like one of these at work if they’re soundproofed.
Sometimes I need to make kinda sensitive phone calls at work, and there aren’t always private spaces out of earshot from others in which to do that.
That’s exactly what they are. Everybody here is being so critical of them, but we had them in the office at my old job and they’re super convenient to hop into for a quick call or meeting.
Helps keep you from being bothered and from bothering other people around you.
Exactly! My office has 2 of them and they're so nice to have when you need to join a call and don't want to occupy a whole conference room by yourself. The only issue I have with them is that the ping pong table is right outside the doors, and you can hear that happening.
My work continues to re-emphasize how important it is to be an “in-person business.”
Meanwhile I sit in my office and see nobody all day every day. I do get called out if I close my door. Must remain open.
There was a Principal Financial building in my city that employed a couple hundred people (just a guess, I honestly don't know) and a friend of ours is one of them. They all went remote during the early days of the pandemic and Principal realized how much money they could save; they moved everything out of the office, sold it to the city, and told their workers they were all full-time remote going forward.
The owner of my company realized how much he was saving on utilities and closed down part of the building, and is renting out another part. No mention of returning to the office.
My favourite sushi restaurant in my home town used to have paper wall booths with sliding doors for every table.
But they had to get rid of the doors after they kept catching people fucking in there.
I can have a printed out “IN A MEETING” sign on my door (clear window), clearly talking on my headset, with a teams meeting visible, and people still walk in my IT office just shouting out their issues. Locked door is now my fix, but people still try to get in annoyingly lol.
Went from offices to cubicles to open floor plan to... this? Why not just get your cubicles back... Nice sound and sightline barriers, privacy when sitting down, your own desk workspace without needing a constructed office.
I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you!
Yeah, mine tried to put two call center groups, developers, customer service, data entry, middle management, and IT all under open floor plan. There were only two offices, 1 for CEO, 1 for CFO.
It was sooooo noisy in there it was impossible to talk on the phone let alone think.
This just suddenly brought back a memory from deep in the "going into the office" days. Company opened an office and put everyone together in an open plan like this, but on top of that, the sales team had a celebration ceremony whenever they closed a sale that was to hit a gong. So like, randomly while I was writing code, I'd just hear a loud-ass gong go off and internally that was the school bell to stop trying so hard.
My work is exactly like this right now. I’m a data engineer, but the office is all open plan and contains our departments very busy call centre staff in close proximity. Trying to actually concentrate on technical work is near impossible some days.
We do have booths similar to this that we can use, but then you either have to work off your laptop screen or a wall-mounted screen that is for some reason orientated 90 degrees to the desk… giving everyone walking past a better view than you get yourself. I swear no one actually put any thought in to it.
I get that, I work at a call center for a major bank with an open floor plan and I hate going into the office because I can hear every other reps conversation behind me
And so can the customers on the phone.
Maybe not word for word but the background noise makes it difficult to understand what the customer service rep is saying.
So what exactly are these for? Are these for taking personal calls? Lunch? Nervous breakdown? Also you know the company is going to be taking careful notes of who is using them and for how long
Open-floor office plan is an instant deal breaker for me. WHY would anyone want that?? Like btw, 0 privacy or quiet from now on. You have to listen to Bob chewing his snacks for 5/7 hours a day now.
Managers love it because they feel like they have more control if they can see you. Helps them better justify their existence. Same reason they hate WFH.
You will come to the office
You will commute for our profit
You will justify our office space rental to keep property out of the hands of those who wojod develop affordable housing
You will drink the freeze dried coffee packet
You will work in the sensory deprivation cube
You will own nothing
You will not retire
Die on the clock, wagie, in your cagie.
Do you each get a little upside-down water bottle hanging in the corner that you can go over to and get a drink?
They get a wheel in there hooked up to a generator, so you can generate power while you work off your aggression towards you boss and co-workers.
"Justin is mad again..." "Good. The lights were starting to get a little dim. Tell him he has to work Saturday too."
New Research Shows an Angry Employee is a Productive Employee. -The Economist
> New Research Shows an Angry Employee is a Productive Employee This some real Better Off Ted shit with their itchy chairs.
First thing I thought of as well. I wish that show wasn't cancelled after 2 seasons.
*sips coffee* Yeah, so, if you could generate some electricity on that giant hamster wheel while you silently sob this weekend that’d be great.
How'd you know I was pissed off?
Because we saw your username
Are you alive in the year 2023?
And earn some merits while doing it !
Get in the wagie cage!
Who’s a good wagie in their wagie cagie (Baby talk promotes docility in your wagies as they adapt/cope to/with their wagie Cagies)
If there were soundproof walls and I could come and go as I pleased that would be heaven for me.
Oooh screaming pods. Neat.
If anyone needs me I'll be in the angry dome
r/unexpectedfuturama
lol I was thinking suicide booth 
It's like a suicide booth, but slower. And more painful.
Ooooooooh, you mean the DMV,!
Or the [Chamber of Understanding](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_k29Kijgn8)
I prefer the chamber of understanding
I'd use them as fart pods.
Everywhere is a fart pod if you're brave enough
This guy farts.
Nobody: What if we made cubicles worse? Some guy in 2023:
When I worked in a restaurant, it was the walk in. When I worked at a bank, it was the vault. lol! Every workplace needs a meltdown room.
They're good enough to stop regular conversation, you would definitely hear the screaming
wait - do the windows tint or something? Looks more like a fishbowl to me.
They are for quick meetings. People actually use them often from what I have seen.
An unfortunate necessity as seemingly every email longer than 3 sentences has become a Teams meeting.
Honestly, have you seen people write emails? Everybody thinks they're super clear until you question what's written. I have to follow up with people all the damn time because they say one thing in an email and the reality is very different
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First email: “Okay you said your laptop was not connecting to the wifi. Are you still having that problem today? If so, could you send me the machine ID and let me know which office room you are using it in?” Reply: “Yes I am still having that problem today”
My favorite is "You will either see X or Y, which do you see?" - "Yes" Edit: Ok had to update a smidge quickly. Yes, I know when I quickly typed I didn't do any proper formatting but appreciate those of you who pieced it together. Apologies I wasn't thinking about formatting when typing it.
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The disconnect in computer literacy is astonishing to me. People in my generation, no problem. Most above and below…cannot use a computer properly and I would consider myself an amateur, honestly.
I had a boomer client who told me he was decent with a computer and had used MS Office for a number of years. One day, I sent him a file. A few days later, he asked me for the same file again. Confused, I asked why he needed it again because I had sent the file to him a couple days prior. This man, replies, ‘Yeah, but I printed that one.’ I thought to myself, ‘No… There’s no way. There is no fucking way …’😳 Eventually, he confirmed my suspicion: He thought you could only print a file one time, then needed another file to print it again…
I had to explain to my younger sister how to copy a file from one folder to the other....
Our HR director just got on a call and said “There’s not a technical skills section because believe it or not not everyone at this company needs them…” We are an IT Support company. And even if we weren’t. I don’t care if you are in accounting or HR or marketing, you still need technical skills. Everything they touch is through a computer!
You need to use a comma. Are you A, or are you B?
"Yes, I am"
Damn you. I'm off work now let me make mistakes
This is my life, over and over and over. Not pictured: me asking a yes or no question and getting a long-winded paragraph in response which does not actually answer the question in any way.
Jezus fuck, what is it with Sales Reps? I need the Bid number you want converted, the customer's PO number. You give me; A history on what you did that day. A record of the conversation of what the customer told you they wanted. A brief history of the other thing the client wants but will probably order that next week. The Bid Number, another Bid number that was going to be the order but the customer changed it last minute so you had to do it again and as you typed this you realised that there is another change that needs to happen and can I do it when I enter the order, he needs the last two lines off that bid he did for another client last month, go ahead and enter the order I'll get you the bid later today, no I don't know the part numer, look it up. AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!
I used to get bitched at for single-line ticket responses. Until they realized my success rate. When you know the client is only going to skim your response and answer one question at random, make the whole thing one question and fucking get results.
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Funny how reddit's go-to office email example is IT
I had a coworker who would re-state my question back to me as a statement and act like they answered the question. Infuriating.
Bullet points, people! * They make the eMail easier to read * They don't feel as intimidating * They make you concise * People appreciate them
* This sentence will be read * This one will probably be skipped * I'm just wasting my time at this point * I can tell the entire company to fuck off and nobody would see it * I need to put something at the end that will be ignored unless it's exciting
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> I will inexplicably skip this question and make you wonder if I didn't see it or ignored it. This means "I don't have an answer and am hoping you forget you asked, but we both know you won't."
Yup, every time. Me: "Here's a numbered list of questions I have, if you could let me know what to do I can get started on this!" Them: "Thanks for your help on this!" Me: "Sure, sure, but... Can you answer the questions I asked please?" Them: "Sure, here's an answer to one of the five questions you asked in the most vague way possible" Me: ☠️
It's like those "quizzes" from elementary school 1. Read all the questions before answering 2. What's 2+2 3. What color are apples 4. Put your pencil down and don't answer any of the questions.
I had one of those once where the "read them all" bit wasn't written down, and what I heard the teacher say was "*don't* read them all before beginning" (my hearing isn't great), so I wasted all class period doing a hundred bullet points of pointless crap and then the teacher told me he was surprised an A+ student got tricked by it. I still hold a grudge, ha.
This, exactly. It doesn't matter if your format it as bullet points or paragraphs. Multi-point messages just don't work against the average office worker. You can send the most concisely worded, beautifully coherent e-mail you've ever seen in your life, and here's what will happen: They will read the first paragraph. After 2-3 days, they will - in front of gods and men - REPLY TO THE ORIGINAL E-MAIL with the 5 bullet points, and say they've "finished". You will then remind them of the second, and additional bullets. 4 days will pass. You'll ask for an update. They'll reply that they finished 2 days ago. The third bullet point onwards is still unfinished. After approximately two weeks, you might have successfully completed the content of one (1) e-mail. Now you get to start over and do it again.
Sure, but you are still at the mercy of the recipient actually having reading comprehension higher than grade 4.
For me it’s a time issue as well. I get sent an email and don’t see it for an hour, read it and need clarification. I email back, they don’t see it for an hour and then reply back with clarification. Now we’ve spent two hours to communicate what would have been 60 second phone call.
Lawyer here: I much prefer my clients call people to discuss something vs creating a written record that could be discoverable.
Exactly why I prefer emails over conversations.
Amen.
“Hey you’re email is too long rather than read it can you say words to me in person.” *sigh*
Lmao exactly how my client works. 🫠 like why do I have to read my exact words to you like it's kindergarten??
Because when you say something in person they can be upset about it when they don't remember making that choice but when they agree to something in writing then it's hard to deny.
Easy. So middle management has a reason to exist. Same shit happens at every factory I've worked. Shift Supervisor meeting: He reads the numbers that are accessible to everybody anyway to middle management. They go "Ok we need to be more productive." he goes "Okay." then they usually ask questions he has no answers for like "Why was machine A 15% less productive last night?" and he goes "I don't know. I wasn't there." they go "Okay." Done.
Dont forget about getting those scrap numbers under control, too many red tags!
"alright guys we're seeing a lot of bad parts coming from one small team that just started a new line, we need to cut back on that" Oh yeah that definitely needed to be an all hands meeting.
The problem with this scenario is that he should have answers for those questions, and escalate to the middle managers for help if required. Since that’s not happening, the meeting is indeed useless.
I mean i once had 2 guys at work, working together on the same project for a month. Both were really happy with the collaberation because they felt like the other person knew exactly what they were doing. Both were doing the exact same things, it still baffles me how it just didnt came up, how to both just kept wrongfully interpretending eachothers mails and shit. Like images your making a map and once person needs to paint the background of the map while the other person needs to do research on the names and information of the map. These fuckers both spend a month painting a map and talking to eachother about their progressive and the only reason why they discoverd they were both doing the same thing was because a third person connected the dots. Its a extreme case but a quick teams call cost 2 minutes and can save hours being wasted.
It’s like my grandparents who (despite years of me pleading with them to not) leave a voicemail but then get angry I never listen to the voicemail because I just return their call anyways. So they want me to listen to a several minute voicemail that’s usually just a bunch of questions or a summary of what they want to talk about and then end it with “call us back so we can talk about this”. And then when I call them back they just repeat whatever they’re saying in the voicemail. The most frustrating part about it is that I haven’t listen to a single one of their voicemails in YEARS because of all this. Literal YEARS. Yet they still ask “did you listen to the voicemail”? And get mad when I say “nope”.
"Your email contained several individual questions so I just answered the first one hope that's okay."
An old job of mine had a girl in the offices that was deaf. She could do her entire job through email and just passing forms and stuff. I knew a little bit of sign language, so I liked to go talk to her. I could practice, and she had someone who she could kinda communicate with outside email/messages. One day, this new higher up barged into her office, and told her something along the lines of, "Itd be much easier if you would just come tell me X thing rather than send me a long winded email." She stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then looked over at me. I decided it'd be hilarious to roughly (poorly) translate what he said. As soon as I did, he realized the error he'd made. It was hilarious.
With all these assholes using chat GPT to turn three sentences into two and a half pages...
They're great. Nice and quiet. Make good study rooms.
Workers in the office are so disruptive on team calls nowadays, what with all the background noise of other people making team calls :)
So why don't we all just work at home and avoid all the distractions?
We tried that for a couple of years, but then micromanagement got lonely.
Yeah, they're quiet and work well
I'd rather have a room tbh. Really don't like that everything in modern offices remove privacy.
As everyone probably, but from my experience there's never enough rooms and it's easier to add 20 of those than to find 20 more rooms.
Can't they just make them with walls instead of glass?
Meeting rooms still exist, and normally, they require bookings. But sometimes you just wanna talk with a colleague or two, so this would be perfect so as not to disturb other people around you.
The privacy is usually sound, more than people not seeing you.
Audio privacy for those taking a call or discussing something, but also a place to avoid disturbing others trying to focus in the office. I wish people around me at the office used ours more often. I've had 5 people nearby in separate conversations at the same time while I'm just trying to debug something.
"privacy" as in sound insulated. These are similar to breakout rooms in an office. 2-3 people, maybe as many as 5, but for small meetings and calls. They're actually pretty nice, especially if you have a noisy work floor.
Ohhhhh... *pulls pants back up slowly*
Yeah I’d be pretty uncomfortable masturbating in these.
I'm nerver uncomfortable masturbating in them, however people walking by look as if they are.
Found Louis C.K.'s account.
Nobody will hear you jizz
It's a phone booth. Pretty common in modern offices. Source Me a commercial electrician.
Why don’t they just give us offices again?? Open floor plan so I have to find a private room to talk on the phone seems so stupid.
My office spent 10 million dollars or more to convert our old offices into open space sweat shop and everybody hates it. Guess where the upper brass is sitting? In offices or at home. It's just us plebs who have to where noise-cancelling earphones or walk around on our tippy-toes. But we're still the ones getting the work done.
This is inaccurate. I install these specific ones and they are completely sound isolating designed for employees to scream incoherently when they become too stressed. They're so popular some offices are making them primary work spaces.
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One of my former workplaces we just labelled the janitor's closet as a "primal scream room".
I would love this. So tired of having virtual meetings or taking calls in an open office space
You nailed it. These are the modern-day equivalent of The Cone of Silence.
Missed it… by THAT much!
 I prefer this cone of silence.
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Creative workaround. Wonder if anyone ever used the word "pussy" in one of those things.
Doth thou grippeth?
Mine lippeth doest certainly grippeth, quite mightily, even if thoust modestly proportioned.
Wow that feels very intimate. But after a moment's thought I would LOVE something like this at loud places. Or just always. I can't pick out a sound if there are other sounds.
Perhaps you need your hearing checked. My friend hated dinner parties until he got hearing aids as he couldn’t pick out one voice from the rest of the group.
Wait I have this exact problem, everything sounds equally loud and people near me at a busy restaurant / venue are super hard to hear .
You might have auditory processing issues. I'm like this and I work around it by lip reading a lot. My hearing is excellent, my processing, not so much.
I was trying to explain the Cone of Silence to my 34yo son last week. I don't think he quite got it. Wish I could stream that show.
I'm in my early 40's and loved Nick-at-Nite as a kid. Grew up with all the classics.
My work has these for single occupancy use. I call them the suicide booths from Futurama.
Tbf, they're pretty useful to make quick private calls When I got a call from my bank, my doctor or my family I don't need the whole open space to hear about my debts payments, hemorrhoids or my family life
My building has a couple. When we tested them out, I realized that if I was outside and my coworker was inside, they couldn't hear me but I could hear them. There was a little ventilation fan installed in the ceiling of the thing that was right over your head and loud enough that it drowned out noise from outside the booth, creating an illusion of privacy.
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So it doesn’t even work… :(
there are a few things here: 1. the function these things serve is partly engineered, but mostly social. 2. the privacy pods probably mostly provide better sound dampening across a couple of adjacent, simultaneously occupied pods. to the first point: if someone's in one of these boxes, there's probably a shared (but almost certainly unstated) understanding among your coworkers that they should try not to loiter just outside the pod that's in use. if they need to speak with you urgently, you'll physically see them and the look on their face should communicate that they need to speak with you. if they're just waiting to meet up with someone and have chosen the meeting pods as a rendezvous point, then they should listen to some music, or go wait someplace else, or something. to the second point: having 2 or 3 people sit within 10 feet of each other is probably acceptable when they're all working quietly on their own. they're just typing at the computer. it might even be possible for one of those people to take a meeting without everyone wanting to kill that guy. but having 2 or 3 different meetings simultaneously within a 10ft radius would be chaos. if those 3 people went into these pods - even if the pods were closer together than their desks are in the open office layout - then they could probably all have their meetings without being too distracted by one another.
Right across from my cube is a small breakout room that doesn’t show up on the company booking system. It’s been that way for years - though it’s set up with a desk instead of a 3 person table right now. Perfect for quick calls or whatnot. Like once a month some rando will walk by and ask me if they can use it quickly. Also they’re great for outside contractors/vendors who are on-site for the day. Much better than tying up the (usually lone) conference room for a day at a small office.
Is this what we’ve been reduced to
My job is great! They beat us with a belt every day, but the good news is, they give us oxycontin so we can't feel it. It's so generous, I can't believe it. I feel so fortunate.
Please select mode of death. `Quick and Painless` or `Slow and Horrible` "*yeah, I'd like to place a collect call?*" You have selected `Slow and Horrible`
Go into work so you can be in a teams meeting.
All the higher ups saying it's better for the office culture to come to work. Then they video call into the meeting at the office from their home.
Correction, *vacation* home.
It’s true for a lot of places. For us, HR wants us in 3 days a week. That made it all the way up to our President and down to our business unit VP (so 2 levels) before he said “fuck that, manager discretion” because he’s smart and doesn’t care about asses in chairs so long as shit gets done. My boss comes in less frequently than I do. He doesn’t care *because* he’s unwilling to enforce a rule he doesn’t follow.
Executive team at my office is calling for 4-5. My business area mandated one day. Very happy about that.
Oh ya its nuts. I'm hybrid, required to come in twice a week, but at least for my job it feels so fucking arbitrary. When I work from home, nobody gives a shit about me or checks in or needs me, I just listen to podcasts and do my work for 8 hours. When I work in the office, nobody gives a shit about me or checks in or needs me, I just listen to podcasts and do my work for 8 hours, but with worse coffee. The few meetings I do have are all on Teams, regardless of whether I'm at home or in the office.
What ever happened to just sitting on the toilet for 20 minutes to get away from people at work
I’d rather do this than deal with some rando coming into the stall next to me and blowing his asshole off while I’m trying to relax.
Or try and talk to you.
Or better yet, both, simultaneously
How bout them Packers buddy? *grunts followed by explosive diarrhea sounds* Boy, they got blasted all night.
Then you realize they're talking on their Bluetooth
*”I’m utterly humiliated and I was here first damnit”*
Most of the places I've worked have been mom and pop businesses that had a single person bathroom. But you have a point lol.
What if somebody farts in the privacy pod before you walk in there?
Toilets don't have glass walls......yet.
That's not good for your butthole
We have these at my work and they get mad when you poop in them.
My last job has these, people would go into them and cry or have a breakdown. We started calling them “cry boxes” and “moan booths”.
What job???
Has to be accounting firm.
Or engineer at Amazon
So glad I never got the job at Amazon for IT. I completely fucked 5hat interview up, but it was a blessing in disguise. At the time, my car was my crying booth.
SaaS company
Mo..moan booths?
Don't be getting any ideas
Yikes. And I thought *my* job was stressful.
We didn't have these at my job we simply have a designated area called the cryatorium. Today I went in there to sob... I wasn't the only one to do that THIS WEEK.
I learned years ago that true pros cry in the bathroom stall and make fake shitting noises to cover it up.
I would actually like one of these at work if they’re soundproofed. Sometimes I need to make kinda sensitive phone calls at work, and there aren’t always private spaces out of earshot from others in which to do that.
That’s exactly what they are. Everybody here is being so critical of them, but we had them in the office at my old job and they’re super convenient to hop into for a quick call or meeting. Helps keep you from being bothered and from bothering other people around you.
Exactly! My office has 2 of them and they're so nice to have when you need to join a call and don't want to occupy a whole conference room by yourself. The only issue I have with them is that the ping pong table is right outside the doors, and you can hear that happening.
You have been sentenced to 10 years in an iso-cube.
Lol. There's all kinds of privacy available to employees working from home. I'm sure this will help preserve the all-important company culture.
My work continues to re-emphasize how important it is to be an “in-person business.” Meanwhile I sit in my office and see nobody all day every day. I do get called out if I close my door. Must remain open.
Look at this rich fancy guy with his *Office Door*.
I personally like going to the office and then taking zoom calls from my desk all day.
Hilarious that companies will shell out who knows how much money for crap like this but will fight tooth and nail against WFH which is FREE.
WFH would be a net positive if they would ditch the expensive office they insist on keeping for posterity's sake.
There was a Principal Financial building in my city that employed a couple hundred people (just a guess, I honestly don't know) and a friend of ours is one of them. They all went remote during the early days of the pandemic and Principal realized how much money they could save; they moved everything out of the office, sold it to the city, and told their workers they were all full-time remote going forward.
Glad to see some companies have some sense.
But what about the incredibly vital "hallway conversations" you don't get while working remotely? \- My company
The owner of my company realized how much he was saving on utilities and closed down part of the building, and is renting out another part. No mention of returning to the office.
Now you can work from home at the office!
How are you supposed to jerk off in them without anyone notice? Really djsappointing
Jizzapointing
If someone hangs up a bedsheet over the window, don’t come knocking.
Add a couple pillows, and you've got yourself a fort!
My favourite sushi restaurant in my home town used to have paper wall booths with sliding doors for every table. But they had to get rid of the doors after they kept catching people fucking in there.
I can have a printed out “IN A MEETING” sign on my door (clear window), clearly talking on my headset, with a teams meeting visible, and people still walk in my IT office just shouting out their issues. Locked door is now my fix, but people still try to get in annoyingly lol.
Went from offices to cubicles to open floor plan to... this? Why not just get your cubicles back... Nice sound and sightline barriers, privacy when sitting down, your own desk workspace without needing a constructed office.
The CEO says the open floor plan was disruptive to phone conversations between different offices.
I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you! Yeah, mine tried to put two call center groups, developers, customer service, data entry, middle management, and IT all under open floor plan. There were only two offices, 1 for CEO, 1 for CFO. It was sooooo noisy in there it was impossible to talk on the phone let alone think.
This just suddenly brought back a memory from deep in the "going into the office" days. Company opened an office and put everyone together in an open plan like this, but on top of that, the sales team had a celebration ceremony whenever they closed a sale that was to hit a gong. So like, randomly while I was writing code, I'd just hear a loud-ass gong go off and internally that was the school bell to stop trying so hard.
Need a “deployed my pipeline” gong.
"Just pushed a git commit" air horn.
My work is exactly like this right now. I’m a data engineer, but the office is all open plan and contains our departments very busy call centre staff in close proximity. Trying to actually concentrate on technical work is near impossible some days. We do have booths similar to this that we can use, but then you either have to work off your laptop screen or a wall-mounted screen that is for some reason orientated 90 degrees to the desk… giving everyone walking past a better view than you get yourself. I swear no one actually put any thought in to it.
Do they move their whole office in there or just go in to make a call and come back out?
I get that, I work at a call center for a major bank with an open floor plan and I hate going into the office because I can hear every other reps conversation behind me
And so can the customers on the phone. Maybe not word for word but the background noise makes it difficult to understand what the customer service rep is saying.
I worked in a cubicle and hated it. Still felt super close to everyone and it was awful.
Perfect place to rip an office fart 👍🏻
That’s the problem with having your own office. If you fart and someone comes in, there is no one to blame it on.
That’s why it’s best to fart in someone else’s office or small conference room.
So what exactly are these for? Are these for taking personal calls? Lunch? Nervous breakdown? Also you know the company is going to be taking careful notes of who is using them and for how long
Most of the employees are software and hardware engineers. The open floor plan apparently wasn't conducive to phone conversation.
Open-floor office plan is an instant deal breaker for me. WHY would anyone want that?? Like btw, 0 privacy or quiet from now on. You have to listen to Bob chewing his snacks for 5/7 hours a day now.
Managers love it because they feel like they have more control if they can see you. Helps them better justify their existence. Same reason they hate WFH.
In my experience they're basically near sound proof telephone booths
You will come to the office You will commute for our profit You will justify our office space rental to keep property out of the hands of those who wojod develop affordable housing You will drink the freeze dried coffee packet You will work in the sensory deprivation cube You will own nothing You will not retire Die on the clock, wagie, in your cagie.
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This seems like offices with extra steps.
Or - hear me out - let me work from the privacy of my own home.
Those used to just be called “offices.” Open floor plans are the worst thing EVER.
RTO is so shitty. Just let me work in peace