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S Houghtelin wrote: Are there employers out there that actually encourage productivity?
S Houghtelin wrote: They all do, it's just that not all of them do it correctly.
No, they all DEMAND productivity. Encouraging you to be productive is an entirely different thing.
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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I think you need to find ways to remove the distraction.
For me I either turn my hearing aid off or put headphones on and listen to music on a low volume.
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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We are moving from offices to a noisy mess. Because of collaberation being cheap and needing more space.
CPallini wrote: You cannot argue with agile people so just take the extreme approach and shoot him.
:Smile:
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We recently moved our office into a co-working space with a advertising company, which isn't the most 'developer friendly' environment but it could be worse.
Using closed headphones, work well and if that's not enough you can try active noise cancelling; but that's not ideal if you have to take phone calls (but then again, if you have to take a lot of calls you can't achieve deep concentration anyway).
Dealing with noisy environments is not really the main problem; if you're in a mixed work environment it can be difficult to explain to other people why 'you' need headphones. Depends on the company culture.
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It's been a long time since I worked as a developer, but I've seen both noisy and quiet environments, even working for a single company. At General Dynamics, for instance, I spent a few years working in a trailer with semi-private cubicles for us. The a shift in priorities moved us to the factory floor, where we worked 20' from CNC mills and lathes, and we had to wipe machine tool oil off our CRT screens in the morning. Overall, I think the trailer was more productive, but not because it was quieter. Some of those machine tool operators had magnificent mammary protuberances and a proclivity for flirting with the highly paid professionals in suits. Some would find that distracting... 
Will Rogers never met me.
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Open office style at the moment here. Noise I can handle, but the one thing I absolutely cannot stand is when people hold long conversations right behind you as you work.
modified 5-Dec-13 14:09pm.
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You'd never last in my field...
Try reprogramming a PLC on the drill floor of a floating oil rig while you have an OIM and company man breathing down your neck about rig downtime, with welding going on 3 feet from you. Or try going out in the desert to service a solar power station with temperatures at 100+ in blinding light.
Noise is a welcome background for me, I always know it could be worse 
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I went for an interview at a supposedly prestigious stock thingy kind of company in New York. The salary range indicated was impressively high and I had passed the telephone interviews with ease, apparently making them so excited to get me in such that the agent said the face to face interview was just a formality. All good so far, except for it being in downtown NY.
I won't mention which company it was but one of the recent mayors of NY had the same name and it has it's own cable TV channel.
I arrived there at a new, sparkly glass and steel, modern looking building that they said was "purpose built". It was very open and airy, full of escalators, looking more like a shopping mall than an office complex. There were TV screens of all sizes all over the place showing stock info, trend graphs and the latest news, etc. It was full of people going somewhere; hustle & bustle as New Yorkers think only they know how.
I was shown into a conference room for the interview - nothing but solid glass walls all around and very expensive designer office chairs. I was to meet with some techie/manager type, get a tour of the developer's area and then meet with the big bosses for the "sign-off" interview. The techie thing went very well although when I asked how the environment was for programmers he was reluctant to talk about it and said I will see on the tour. Then the tour...
Apparently programmers need to work in brightly lit, noisy, glass-walled rooms full of large TVs showing stock prices and news, etc. mounted high around the walls. The desks were arranged in long rows side by side (no gaps), each row facing another similar row with the backs of the screen almost touching behind each desk was another desk just two chair widths away facing the other way except for those lucky enough to be up against the glass walls where there was a walkway all around. Each developer, analyst, project manager, whatever, got a desk space 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep with just enough space for a keyboard & mouse, two 20" screens and a telephone. Outside windows were frosted, so no distracting views of the city. There must have been at least 40 people in this one office, all heads down; it reminded me of a scene from the movie 1984 but with more chrome, glass and flashing colours. Everyone looked miserable and didn't make eye contact. I didn't say a word but looked at the techie who just shrugged and looked at the floor mumbling something about it's the same space as "the traders" get.
I don't remember the "sign-off" interview as it was a blur but apparently they sent me an offer while I was heading back to the agent's NY office for a post action report. I told the agent to ask for 50% more money (over and above the already very high salary offer) and the agent took me seriously. She returned about 15 minutes later saying that they increased their offer by 33%! Whew!
I turned it down. The agent said they get that a lot.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Wow. I would have turned that down as well, unless the alternative was selling hotdogs at the stand outside the building. 
Rejecting the offer by asking for 50% more was pretty awesome. 
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Even more awesome was that they increased their offer by 33% before I rejected it!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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And if they'd agreed to the 50%?
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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I hate to think what I would have done. I said the 50% as a joke - I didn't realize the agent would run off and put it forward seriously, she must have been desperate not to lose the commission. I was amazed that they actually came back with a 33% increase! It makes me wonder how bad it could be working there that they thought this was justified.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Under normal circumstances, my work environment is pretty quiet - I might put some music on, but generally don't. When Herself gets home though, that all changes with the TV on, and her swearing at whatever miscreant NCSI/CSI/ER has dug up today. Then I climb under headphones and put "neutral" music on to take the edge off it.
I've worked in silent-cubicles-but-for-keyboard-clatter - bad, Radio One - very very bad, Music Wars (separate offices with separate boom boxes and different tastes) - bad, classical-music-and-opera - fine until the fat lady sings, and definitely prefer peace and quiet!
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2 words: Ear buds. I listen to what I want to listen to all day, not the ambient noise.
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How are you able to fit the Budweiser cans in your ears? 
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Be careful what you wish for. I used to work in a really noisy office, we were a small company and everyone was in the same room so you had account handlers and sales people constantly on the phone with phones ringing non-stop.
Then the building was renovated and myself and another developer got our own office, which was sooo quiet and depressing that I would have given anything to move back into the populated office; I started getting moody and frustrated and felt completely isolated especially when the other developer went on holiday for weeks at a time.
Eventually we moved into a less populated office and the noise levels were tolerable with headphones, but I'd rather be with people than without them.
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It seems to be heading toward normal ... as the office planners move to more cubitoriums. People don't understand how we work. I'm currently in a cubitorium where a few meters away sits she-whose-name-can't-be-mentioned but she is incapable of TALKING WITH AN INSIDE VOICE. I've never met her but I know all about her husband, children, auto insurance and the current real estate projects! 
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I have worked for a lot of companies, large and small. The small ones were usually the best, as the space to work in peace was allowed, and the number of people making noise were limited. The largest with cubicle farms were the worst. Literally hundreds of developers working on different projects at once. In my current position we moved our entire development team to a different part of the building. The only people there are developers and there is no room for anyone else. It is quiet, loose, and comfortable. The best yet.
My advise, invest in a good set of noise cancelling headphones.
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What types of industries have you worked in? I wonder if software vendors provide better working environments because they understand how developers work? How hard can it be to understand that developers require concentration when working? I don't get it.
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My previous job, I had an office I shared with one other person, so it was pretty quiet. The non developers were in an open office so it was noisy over there, but we only had to go over there if we had questions for them.
My current job has all of us co-located with our Scrum Teams (we have developers and V/V members on the team) so the noise level among the team is minimal. But we are in cubicles with a lot of other people around. So it does get noisy when people have to meet around the others.
The noise is not something that bothers me, as I have noise cancelling head phones that I use listening to music all day.
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Here's a suggestion, based on some rather old experience.
A couple of generations ago, I worked at a "terminal farm" in the same room as several minicomputers. The noise level was so high that we were issued ear protectors - over-the-ear headphones with no sound reproduction hardware.
If you're working in a noisy environment, get a pair of headphones that do a good job of blocking external noise. This has several benefits:
1. It gives you a quiet environment
2. You can play your favorite music without adding to the ambient noise around you
3. It demonstrates to others (management) that the environment is too noisy - maybe the situation will improve for everyone!
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I work in the UK for a development department at the parent company in Sweden. Over there they have offices with 2 or 3 developers in, all nice and quiet all the time.
Over here, I'm the only developer and have to sit in an office full of engineering designers using CAD. 50% of the time its OK, but the other 50% of the time either the boss is away at meetings so everyone just gasses or sales reps are visiting with their voices that only have 1 volume, LOUD!
I've resorted to having a good set of headphones to hand and listen to some suitable music. I've found this site quite good: Music For Programming[^]
I have video/goto meetings quite regular so the company payed for a decent headset with mic. Sometimes I'm wearing it for 4 or 5 hours at a time.
I don't have a signature!
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Everything you've experienced is normal. You just need to find what works for you so you can be productive in each one.
My first job was in a noisy environment, so I cobbled together a set of passive sound deadening headphones from some shooting earmuffs and a set of headphones. They allowed me to play music softly enough it drowned out the office noise yet still wasn't a distraction itself.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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I use to have a cube that was right next to the tech support group. Very noisy. I eventually brought in my shooter muffs. They worked great! A couple of the tech support guys thought they were just funky looking headphones.
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