I remember in HP/Compaq offices in Houston when we wanted to take a break, we were going for a walk; anyone who has been in those HQ knows what I mean. A 45mins (slow) walk around the entire thing, and you could see anything from boring offices to assembly lines from that promenade!
Don't most large software companies have a 'campus' feel to their headquarters? I would imagine back in the 80's when they were designed/created, nobody wanted to go work inside a towering, souless, black glass skyscraper for 10 hours a day.
A lot of people would kill for a view of water and trees and the ability to walk outside at lunch.
Got a tour of their office in the Compuware building a while back while interviewing for a position at Quicken. Pretty cool place, but probably a brutally chaotic environment to actually program or get shit done.
You can see the tech office tours on techcrunch videos... the bigger ones are giant lavish offices filled with desks and laptops. Boring. Tour the city.
I just left a WeWork office (Boston) while waiting for an office to be renovated.
Things I won't miss:
The sound of a Ping Pong ball hitting the
table and paddles at 2pm every day.
The word "hustle"
The people who thought it'd be fine to
do photo shoots/meetings/interviews in the common areas
Glass walls EVERYWHERE
We did some work with IBM a few years ago and my boss said when he went for an on-site visit it was basically a giant office building that was mostly vacant.
I took a business meeting in Houston one time, and my colleague kept telling me that the office was "in the mall." That seemed very odd to me, but there was a massive office building attached to the mall. Not a bad idea I guess considering the summer weather in Houston.
This is a great idea! Hope this thread continues. I am out of Miami right now and rarely get to see cool tech offices. Would love to get a list going of tech offices that allow scheduled visits or quick tours.
I worked in the building for two and a half years and it may appear "dumpy" on the outside but it's an awesome place to work.
Walking into work via a half a block long corridor with cable strung over your head and the clack of your feet echoing along it is a great way to start the day
I was very impressed by the WeWork offices in southern california. Modern, maze-like, soundproofed rooms, conference areas spread around (multiple floors). It was a little cumbersome to get in to with all the security, but was otherwise delightful.
At this one trench of a large corp where I had a minor contract, they had an office in multiple locations. The idea was, to avoid traffic jams people would work from the satellite offices until the traffic cleared. They opened these up in areas where a large number of their employees commuted from. It was pretty slick, with private sound proof rooms, open spaces for team meetups where they would work then carpool to the main offices, cubicles, lounges, super nice kitchens, etc... In fact it was a shitton nicer than the places they called their main office.
They ended up selling some of it, or downgrading because teams just stayed at the nicer satellites and some ended up getting poached by cunning recruiters and other internal teams.
Edit: The floorplan was pretty far out there and I think they were emulating some European layout. It was super dynamic, so people and teams could migrate between conference rooms, private enclosures, private shared offices, lounges, etc... as they needed or desired and remote conference to the main office. Though after some super important team that had the floor above us lost several key developers and admins to a local company , and people from the main offices were commuting to the satellite offices instead, they started selling off floors or closing off access.
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