I believe that this whole "open office" concept is driven by the idea that an observed worker is a "productive" worker and that it's actually true to a certain extent. Sure, you may be less productive in an open office when you're actually bearing down on something but the management is assured that you're doing something work related within the boundaries of the company's cultural definition of "productive".
It's an old-school, assembly line style of thinking. An open floorplan gives the impression of vulnerability, you won't goof off on HN or reddit when you know somebody could be looking. A loss in crunchtime productivity may be worth it if the employees would otherwise spend 2 hours a day wasting time privately. The culture determines the amount of time spent socializing in plain view but the open office completely kills any attempt to spend company time on non-work activities in private.
I work outside the tech bubble but even with my limited experience, I know that the more company provided distractions (a 9 acre park, free snacks in the breakroom, etc), the less you'll be allowed to actually do anything but work.
It's an old-school, assembly line style of thinking. An open floorplan gives the impression of vulnerability, you won't goof off on HN or reddit when you know somebody could be looking. A loss in crunchtime productivity may be worth it if the employees would otherwise spend 2 hours a day wasting time privately. The culture determines the amount of time spent socializing in plain view but the open office completely kills any attempt to spend company time on non-work activities in private.
I work outside the tech bubble but even with my limited experience, I know that the more company provided distractions (a 9 acre park, free snacks in the breakroom, etc), the less you'll be allowed to actually do anything but work.