What are your working conditions like

I'm bummed because I'm interviewing for a Network Engineer position tomorrow and I took an online tour of the office and it's a real turnoff. Just loooong tables with 8 chairs on either side. No partitions, no privacy. Just right on top of each other. There's about 10 of these tables in a large open room. There's NO WAY I can work like that.

Right now I do Desktop Support but I have a very private spacious cube in an "IT" room.

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Akaricloud

I'm currently working as an IT specialist in a large cube.

When I was doing desktop support I worked out of a 8x40' cement wall and floored room with no windows. I actually really liked that setup; Lots of bench space and could be as loud as I wanted without disturbing anyone else.

Everyone

Right now I work in the basement... of my own house.

Cement walls and a carpet strip on the cement floor. 2 desks side by side for myself. It's just a temporary setup until I finish construction of my office on the other side of my basement, which will have real insulated walls, a window, insulated floor, plenty of power, lighting, etc. Decorated however I choose.

the_Grinch

I have a cube (I share it with the weekend night guy and he hates my chair so when I leave Friday mornings I switch it out). I heard rumors that they want to move the senior NOC people (guys who been there awhile) to what amounts to private cubes on the wall. Personally I think it's a waste of money since we aren't going to hire a bunch of people to warrant it, but what do I know?

Mc5ully

I worked in a really depressing office and actually had my own office, but no windows. Currently I share a 4 person cube thing with 3 other, non-it, workers. I would take a basement any day.

pizzaboy

The Manger and myself share one office, its pretty nice. We're on the second floor, pretty big windows. He's a really cool guy and we get along good together so its all good.

lsud00d

Mc5ully wrote: »

Currently I share a 4 person cube thing with 3 other, non-it, workers. I would take a basement any day.

I lol'd

Are you a part of a small IT group in a small or medium-sized business?

tpatt100

I work in a pretty big cube I really don't use much of the space. What sucks is the walls have "windows" so people can see me screwing off on this forum....

I miss my old job with the city it was just three of us in a big office and we had a big panaromic window with a view of the city outside.

Devilry

I have a 30x20ft office with two large windows overlooking a lake, with a private patio. All custom office furniture, quad 23" monitors, top of the line gear.

Doubt i'll ever have this type of setup when moving on next year.

Mc5ully

lsud00d wrote: »

I lol'd

Are you a part of a small IT group in a small or medium-sized business?

Small business. They wanted an "open office" sort of thing. Which means everyone is pissed they can't go on facebook, reddit, etc all day. I'm the only IT person.

cyberguypr

Its 90% cubes here. But they are nice newer ones with glass above eye-level. We are moving soon and we we'll be getting brand new expensive Knoll desks with monitors mounted on the cube walls. I'm not complaining, but I'll take Everyone's new home office any day.

bababooey1

Would anyone be able to work at a table with 15 others in a room filled with ten of these tables? No cubes, no partitions. Literally bumping elbows. can't do it myself.

Tackle

I don't know if you can call it a cube, it's more like an "n" shaped deal. My boss is right next to me, so it's like an "m" in our room. Pretty decent room, 30'x20'. Counter space and cabinets along 2 of the walls, they used to do alot of PC/Server repair.

It's great except 2 things. 1st of all, I'm at the end of a hallway, so people always sneak up on me or can see me scratching my a$$ when they use the hallway to get to other departments or the lunch room.

Also, there is a one stall bathroom 10 ft away from me. You wouldn't believe some of the sounds I hear from people. Makes me wanna puke...

cyberguypr

bababooey1 wrote: »

Would anyone be able to work at a table with 15 others in a room filled with ten of these tables? No cubes, no partitions. Literally bumping elbows. can't do it myself.

Heck no! Is that you with the red vest?

xenodamus

I have my own office now that I've made supervisor. I'm glad to finally have windows. I'm on the 6th floor overlooking an interstate, but it's still nice to be able to tell when it's light/dark/raining. The helipad is also right outside my window. It's a bit noisy but still kinda cool watching the helicopters come and go. (I work in a hospital if your wondering)

It's also nice to have people walk in the door and only see the back of my monitors. No more alt-tabbing, lol.

Everyone

cyberguypr wrote: »

Heck no! Is that you with the red vest?

They're farming gold for World of Warcraft aren't they?

bababooey1

cyberguypr wrote: »

Heck no! Is that you with the red vest?

HA HA! Yep that's me.
Although the room was empty of people in the picture I saw, it would look a LOT like that. Except, there would be people on BOTH sides of the table.

millworx

bababooey1 wrote: »

I'm bummed because I'm interviewing for a Network Engineer position tomorrow and I took an online tour of the office and it's a real turnoff. Just loooong tables with 8 chairs on either side. No partitions, no privacy. Just right on top of each other. There's about 10 of these tables in a large open room. There's NO WAY I can work like that.

Right now I do Desktop Support but I have a very private spacious cube in an "IT" room.

Haha tell me about it man. I work @ Cisco and we are upgrading to the new "open workspace" Friday was my last day in my cubicle. Now we just have bullpens where different IT groups sits. It's cool I guess in one respect because I get to work with my team or move to another area and work with another team. But yeah there is no privacy anymore at all. Not even management / directors get offices... everyone sits together! Thank god for working from home whenever I want!

cyberguypr wrote: »

Heck no! Is that you with the red vest?

LOL ^^^^^ That looks like a chinese WoW gold farm operation!

lsud00d

This thread is highly entertaining

At my previous job at a major university, my "office" was at the Help Desk in our main lab in our main library. I was in charge of all of our student workers we had there, among other roles/duties (sys. admin related stuff). The view was A+++++ at midterms and finals, and pretty consistent throughout the year

I had an actual office in the back of the room, but spent most of my time up front for obvious reasons.

Now...cubicle farm. I'm the newest guy on the contract so I have the smallest cube configuration. Pro's are I'm closest to the water fountains and bathrooms...I'll be looking forward to a cube upgrade hopefully sooner than later!

SteveLord

Old job. Was in the offices of a factory. There were mice problems...caught one in my office. Had a good size room. But it was packed with shelves full of old computers, monitors and junk. At least I faced it, so I could see people coming in. But the best part? The built-in air compressor. Made sweeping the floor easy.

Current job. Rectangle shaped cubicle. Locked cabinets. Computer parts from this decade. Since we did a recent shuffle, I got to have it designed so people couldn't come up behind me anymore. Have a shelf that just holds my IT books and IT toys. Superior in every way except that air compressor.

Tackle

SteveLord wrote: »

But the best part? The built-in air compressor. Made sweeping the floor easy.
Superior in every way except that air compressor.

Oh the simple pleasures in life

Bokeh

Office, only window faces out to the common area. Share wall with the co president, so I hear a lot of "stuff." Have one small server in my office, other two down the hall, one of which gets replaced this week or next.

networker050184

bababooey1 wrote: »

Would anyone be able to work at a table with 15 others in a room filled with ten of these tables? No cubes, no partitions. Literally bumping elbows. can't do it myself.

I'd rather work in a dirty pig pen as an engineer than in a comfy office as desktop support. Sometimes you just have to deal with it to move up.

bababooey1

networker050184 wrote: »

I'd rather work in a dirty pig pen as an engineer than in a comfy office as desktop support. Sometimes you just have to deal with it to move up.

Maybe I'll be able to work from home some days. That's if i'm actually hired of course. But you are right, in order to move up, sometimes you have take the bad with the good.

hackman2007

Right now I have I my own medium size cube.

Nothing fancy, but I love it.

Psoasman

We have 2 sites. One has nice, big cubes and the other is an open area. Both work for me.

elTorito

Small room, intended for two people but shared by three at the moment. It doesn't help that the third person probably has ADHD and talks loudly THE ENTIRE DAY. Moreover, I know the airco unit in our room is broken, but no one will fix it. In summer, it gets up to 30+ degrees C in there (and only in that room!). Sometimes I end up taking a laptop and doing my work from the server room. It gets loud in there, but at least it's cool

Has anyone also noticed that people always end up approaching your desk if that's the one directly facing the room's door/entrance? It drives me nuts.

jamesbrown

My cubicle can only fit one chair. It's really small.

snokerpoker

The client site I primarily work at I have a nice big cube. At my corporate office, I have a cube that is smaller and is at the back of 4 that are connected.

I've worked in a NOC setting that had just long tables and a bunch of desktops set up.

I prefer to have my own space but..................... I wouldn't let the work space/desk space be the deciding factor. You never know, you might end up liking the job and your colleagues a lot. The setup can collaborating with them easier.

SteveLord

networker050184 wrote: »

I'd rather work in a dirty pig pen as an engineer than in a comfy office as desktop support. Sometimes you just have to deal with it to move up.

After playing infantry in the military for 8 years, I welcomed 8hr work days and cubicles! Indeed that after you've been roughing it, everything else afterwards seems great.

joehalford01

I have my own office in the building basement, complete with an air conditioner (for three of the servers and phone equipment) and one window. I recently convinced them to hire a student for some help, he's only there so I share it for four hours, otherwise I work from home.