Also? People use too many words.

Not you people. I like the amount of words you use. Just some people.

I temped at a Dutch law firm once.

Unlike American lawyers, these guys talked when they had something to say. Something funny. Something useful. Something related to the matter at hand.

They didn't talk to hear the sound of their own voices. They didn't talk just for the sake of talking.

I miss them.

Headphones.

My theory is it's because they use the office as a fill-in for the gaps in their social life. IOW, they have no third place in their lives. I suspect this is especially true in the US, and would guess it was probably less so in the Netherlands because they are more social and have other areas of activity than Home and Office only.

/geekiness

But yeah - I've been working from home for several years and when I do a contract onsite it's pretty distracting and makes me feel like a stick in the mud. :/

Half of my office is lawyers, half is analysts. The lawyers are delightful around lunchtime, when we analysts aren't bending our brains around abstruse economics. But they leave their office doors open all day long, and talk on the phone in loud lawyer voices, and a creeping urge to shout, "Don't you have any work to do?" and slam a door or two itches its way up my back in the hours before noon and before five.

Right now three phone calls are going on, two very noisy, the third incredibly noisy. But I have headphones, and Songs From The Big Chair fills my skull...

This is the working hour
We are paid by those who learn by our mistakes

I have headphones. I even have an office with a door that I can close. I can still hear them. It's driving me batty.

OMG PEOPLE CLOSE YOUR FRICKIN' DOORS!!!

Sigh.

Funny how
TI-I-I-ME FLI-I-I-ES!!

Andiamo!

Si!

Though it's still early here, but it's a holiday weekend, so I get to leave now anyway!

It's like I'm on the East Coast! Woot!

It's a holiday weekend? Yom Kippur?

Yes. Working for a Jewish company has advantages in September!

A new client is an ad agency. We were there today. Small, new-ish agency, lots of young energy, lots of activity, a little music coming from one of the Macs, lots of gnawing going on about one of the clients and a project - that "where's the file?" "Check your ichat" crosstalk going on. The partition walls are really half-drywall "pens" that isolate work areas, but no walls are above-the-neck high. Mid afternoon, somebody grabbed a guitar and played a few chords, followed by a few notes of "Sam's got nothing to do" (Sam's the boss). Really a dynamic place. Bright, busy place.
They get their internet from the big web dev shop next door, so I walk over there to ask some questions: Dark walls. Black floor. Black ceiling. Low hanging light. Glass block reception area, with indirect lighting. It's dead silent. Just keystrokes and mouse clicks and ventilation. Lots of people working, all with headphones on, staring at monitors.

There's something to be said for both settings, I suppose - when I'm coding I like it really quiet - but for sheer "make my day clip along-ness" I'll take the ad agency any day.

Ahhh yes, this reminds me of my day yesterday... listening to the Cartier watch dude bragging & stuff while I was trying to work. Ugh.