The Worst Workspaces In Tech

nicholas.m.carlson writes help you feel better about your hovel. Vallywag recently compiled a list of the top ten places to work, but the resulting submissions and exploration also provided them with an interesting look at some of the worst places to work. "What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem 'Internet-y' — come off even worse."

Not so bad.

[suso]

I think some of these people doing this review are a bit spoiled. They are used to their private cubicals, posh offices, etc.

At least most of the people in these environments have new workstations, a monitor or two and some deskspace.

The don't show the tech business running out of a cockroach infested hotel room with 10 year old computers using dial up to connect to the net.

Interesting.

[Slashdot Suxxors]

The List: -Yahoo
-Mozilla
-Mahalo
-Google
-Microsoft
-LinkedIn
-Jajah
-Facebook
-DoubleClick
-Adobe

I find it funny how they say Google is one of the worst places to work, yet everyone seems to want to work there.

does it really matter?

[Alien Being]

As a college dropout (A's in CS, fsck philosophy), it was tough getting my foot in the door. One mistake I made along the way was letting a risk-taker scare me off with stories of sometimes having to work in boiler room type surroundings.

If it's good work, the atmosphere becomes almost invisible. Some of the best companies in history started in a garage and some of the worst started atop skyscrapers.

Re:Not so bad.

[hansamurai]

Some of those places look pretty nice next to the cube farm I'm at (though I like working there, don't get me wrong). Low or little walls encourage collaboration, everyone has a laptop to tote around to work wherever (but what's with all the laptops at the Mozilla meeting? talk about getting nothing done), and though some of the wall "art" might get obnoxious, it can't be much worse than all the inspirational quotes that adorn my office.

Re:Not so bad.

[Thyamine]

I agree. I was looking at the pictures thinking, 'what? these are supposed to be bad?'. Sure cubicles aren't a nice private office, but that's just how most places are. I see a lot of attempts by employees to try and decorate them a bit to make it more friendly/fun. What's wrong with that?

Compared to having just a desk in an open room (like in the one set of pictures), I'd much rather a cubicle to call my own and hangup/decorate as I like.

Is that the worst they could come up with?

[Llywelyn]

Grey cubicles at Google, seriously?

I had a boss who worked for a company that referred to the owner of the company as "Lord Vader" because she was utterly insane. It had a turnover rate that was prettymuch total on a yearly basis.

I had to work once a week for a while in a warehouse in a metal chair with no one else around and an ancient piece of computer technology.

There is at least one game company that seems to have a vested interest in driving its employees into the ground and treating them like children.

I know another place that had computer technology that was so out of date it could barely run the software we were developing.

I am not sure if any of these constitute the "worst" places to work, or even how they rate to the companies listed in the article, but surely there are worse things out there than the horror of grey cubicles.

Best = Worst

[Colonel Korn]

I think the ten best story posted a couple days ago shows work spaces that are pretty much interchangeable with those shown in this one. I'll repeat what I said then: a private office is better than any workspace listed, now in either list.

Re:Is that the worst they could come up with?

[calebt3]

I know another place that had computer technology that was so out of date it could barely run the software we were developing.

I bet that really cut down on bloat, though.

Re:Irrelevant Pictures and Inaccuracies

[Skim123]

I was an intern at Microsoft back in the last millenia and had my own private office half the summer, with a door and a 24" monitor. The other half of the summer I shared that office with another employee.

I've been to the Redmond campus a half dozen times since then, and the place is still one of the most appealing work environments I've ever seen.

These are bad workspaces?

[DesScorp]

Are you kidding me?

I don't think these people have ever seen bad workspaces. Adobe is "unfriendly"? They have lots of light, lots of space, good furniture, palm trees... oh yeah, they have a fsckin' basketball court. Piss poor facilities, obviously.

Of all of the "bad" choices, only facebook's could possibly deserve to be on that list, as it looks like a high school cafeteria with monitors. Otherwise... I'd say the problem is that the tastes of the Valleywag people are ridiculous.

Re:Not so bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think some of these people doing this review are a bit spoiled.

No shit. The review doesn't even delve into the fact that, while offices may be sparsely decorated, the jobs may be great. My office was a featureless white room stacked high with cables, parts, and all kinds of tech detritus for years. But the fact that I got to come in every day and work with smart people-- and get paid to do it-- far overshadowed my lackluster surroundings. I mean, seriously, most of us have it pretty f'ing good. Any of you ever have a hard job? I worked in a warehouse in high school, and I worked as a waiter in college. Those jobs really make me appreciate the relative cushiness of my current job.

Re:What no Amazon?

[Tomy]

Somehow that reminds me of the scene from Brazil where they are pulling on the shared desk through the wall.

Ultimately, corporations reduce us all to idiots.

Re:Irrelevant Pictures and Inaccuracies

[Dutch Gun]

I have to agree, I've worked at Microsoft twice as a temp programmer. The first time I had a private office, the next I shared an office. Bad place to work? Hardly. And what's really hilarious is those photos are of the Washington State Convention Center, not of the Microsoft campus. BTW, the convention center is really nice too. To hold *conventions* in, that is.

And I can't believe Google was listed because of a "kindergarden" design motif. Holy crap, who gives a flying f***? Smells like a quick throw-together article, with listings designed to draw ire (and thus page hits).

Sorry, when you can't even get basic facts correct, I can't believe much else you say or show either.

Really ?

[MarkKnopfler]

Really ? That is how we have decided that the mentioned work places are the worst to work in ? A few random photographs of the workplaces ? This must be one of the worst excuses for a 10 list that I have seen.
The workplace/cube is certainly one of the ways to measure the top-ness (sic) of a workplace but just that ? Come on people, we all know that there are a lot of things which into making a great workplace. The dimensions and colour of your cubicle is probably just one of them.

Re:Not so bad.

[agibson57]

Low or little walls encourage collaboration...

No, they don't.

Quit reading those trendy Agile books.

Low or little walls encourage noise and distractions, especially when you're doing complicated and intensely-focused work.

One would think companies would be a little smarter, but then they're mostly run by dime-a-dozen recent MBA night school grads with little technical experience and who parrot that Jack Welch BS and whose only non-original idea is to outsource everything to India in order to get a bigger bonus check and then move on to another company to wreck.

A cube farm is vastly superior to the "open" floorplan, which is a disaster. Evil.

Walls are not that expensive to build and power outlets are not that difficult to install, unless you have a bunch of union Facilities guys at your company who work maybe 15 minutes a day and control everybody's aesthetics.

Re:D[h]ell

[mgblst]

That is not irony. And anyway, they do develop software for macs, so you would hope they have a few macs around the place. It is not like they make their own laptops. Now, if you found loads of macs at Dell headquarters, that would be something to sing about.

Re:These people are SO out of touch

[mgblst]

One wonders why you would still work in a place like that?

Re:Not so bad.

[David Gerard]

Valleywag are fundamentally ad-banner trolls who will blatantly lie to draw in hits. Well done Slashdot!