Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Open Floor Policy

One of the things I really like about this media company is the work environment. Unlike my last job, where I was in a small office, we have an open floor plan here. The office is a large room with very high ceilings, and desks scattered around in clusters (plus the obligatory couches, coffee tables with turntables on them, and yes, ping-pong table). There are about 15 people at our location. It's big enough that I can safely tune out the code discussions of the software engineers, but I'm close enough to my GC that I can listen to her phone calls.

This is an enormous benefit to me - I learn so much about our company, about business development, and about negotiating the deals. Whenever we're working on an agreement and we have a question about customer service or technical integration, we walk across the room and ask the right person. Everyone is instantly accessible. It's probably distracting, but it also means people are kept on the same page and updated on changes. I absorb a lot about what other people are working on just by overhearing discussions, so I feel like I'm in the loop. It's much more of a cooperative environment, where the floor is always open.