The urge to write a blog on this topic triggered when I entered ThoughtWorks, Pune office for first. I was surprised to see the workplace full of dining tables. ThoughtWorks workspace looked more like a cafeteria to me. I must confess that the thought of experiencing this culture tempted me the most to join ThoughtWorks.
Now that I have spent some time (around five months) here, I think I am well poised to look back on the different work cultures that I have experienced so far. There are many factors that contribute to the creation of an organisation’s work culture but this blog is an attempt at uncovering the relation between the organisation's seating arrangement and its work culture.
I have worked with one of the Indian IT services giants. Seating arrangement there was full of cubicles, leads and managers got to choose their spot (few of them chose places that were not so close to where the team sat) and the rest were alloted. People preferred communicators and mails over a quick chat. Complains about something got delayed because someone didn’t respond, were common. Needless to mention, such an environment gave rise to politics and tribalism. People rarely missed an opportunity of bitching. I soon got fed up of such an environment, Mondays became dreadful. Had I stayed there any longer, I would have quit IT. The point that I am trying to drive home here is that the seating arrangement to an extent did contribute in creating the hostile environment. It was the culprit that didn’t let the team members develop the feeling of companionship.
One might argue that large organisations are inherently rigid. But I have experienced exactly the same environment in a startup. This startup had bare minimum processes. Every one had the freedom to choose their spot. But still folks preferred communicator and mails. It had the same hostile environment where politics and tribalism thrived.
For our recent engagement, some of us have been working out of our partner's office. It has cubicle seating arrangement. The floor where we sit is almost always quiet. So quiet that to be honest it becomes very difficult to focus after lunch. :) There are days when I spend the first half in their office and the second in ThoughtWorks. When I start from there for ThoughtWorks, I am already feeling very dull and tired, working for another half seems like a daunting task. But things change as soon as I step into our office. Looking at the smiling, chit chatting faces, I feel energised. I feel like I am ready for another shift. I notice a difference.
The Indian IT giant, the startup and our partner, all these organisations have different sizes and different processes, with only one thing in common, their seating arrangement. Based on the experiences that I have had with these organisations, I feel seating arrangement really matters. How close the team members sit? How approachable everyone is? How frequently the team members communicate? All these factors contribute in the success or failure of the team.
At ThoughtWorks, the workspace is wide open and the seating arrangement comprises of dining tables. Open space fosters open culture. Team shares a table, team members pair for their work. People communicate more, the more they communicate, the more they develop companionship. The overall environment becomes cheerful. In turn, people are eager to come to office and get started. This is something I haven’t seen in any of my earlier organisations.
To sum it up, in my opinion, sitting arrangement does play an important role in nurturing an organisation's work culture. I think I am very fortunate to be part of ThoughtWorks. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
Disclaimer: The views that I mention here are purely based on my experience with companies that had different work cultures.
