Laid-back versus uptight environments
For the longest time I’ve been working for companies with a casual dress code and laid-back environment. I’ve even seen people wear shorts and t-shirt when there’s a summer heatwave in Vancouver. I define ‘casual’ as allowing employees to wear whatever is comfortable but doesn’t distract anyone from doing their work. Shorts? Absolutely. T-shirt? Absolutely. Nerf guns? Absolutely!
Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of working on-site for a client. When I walked into the building I could smell people wearing suits, ties, polished shoes, and cuff-links. While I’m not particularly used to being in such an uptight environment, I could tell this is a place you definitely can’t shoot your nerf guns.
Office Layouts
One of the first things I noticed is the desk layouts. Each section had 4 desks (1 per corner of the square) and was fortified with a high wall standing at 5-6 feet separating each section. This leads me to think that their teams are always broken down into groups of 4. If a project were to have 12 members, they’d take up 3 sections. To me, this seems rather inefficient. When I look at how much free space there is in the middle, you could probably fit 2-3 more developers and perhaps a 12 foot whiteboard to discuss implementation strategies. At some companies, they have a “V” shape, where you have a 12 foot whiteboard at the back, and then on each side of the “V”, you have developers lined with their desks (see picture below).
You can ask the project manager anything and get a quick response assuming he’s your “V” section. “Is issue #293 of project X a change request or a bug?” — “It’s a change request”. With that kind of communication, I can quickly go on to fixing higher priority defects while the project manager negotiates more money for that change request. Also, I believe a “V” formation is particularly cool because of the Mighty Ducks.
High fives and team work
I’m not going to lie when I say I’m a big fan of giving another developer a high five if he solved a problem that no one else couldn’t. In an uptight environment, how do you congratulate a developer for simplifying a complex algorithm that sorts millions of records per second? A cold hand-shake, “Good job Johnny”.
What do you prefer?
Since most of my work experience comes from laid-back environments, tell me your story on whether you prefer a heavy corporate environment or a very casual environment. Even if you’re not a software developer, do you find yourself wanting to be in a more laid-back environment? or do you want to be in an uptight corporate environment?
