Anyway, it was reported in the program that Facebook had decided against office partitions in the hopes that workers would feel free to discuss ideas openly. The placement of office desks like the one in the attached picture and other reports about the office reminded me of when I just started working for a traditional company many years ago right after graduation. At the time, office partitions weren't common in Japan and office desks were arranged that way in many Japanese companies, although they now use partitions. So, I was working in a sort of open office space. On top of that, I was encouraged to feel free to have discussion with co-workers, even at cafes, etc. The open office space and small talk with coworkers often helped me come up with new ideas, although when I wanted to focus my full attention on doing something, I felt like the openness caused me to be distracted. I was a little surprised to see things in common between Facebook and a traditional Japanese company.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Facebook headquarters reminds me of the old days
The civil disobedience in Egypt finally forced President Mubarak to step down. The revolt opened the door to democracy.Since Facebook played a remarkable role in making it happen, more Japanese people, especially those who are unfamiliar with Facebook, started paying attention to it, wondering what it was like. Under these circumstances, a TV news program allocated some time to introduce it, the popular social network service in the world. In the program, a popular Japanese reporter went to the headquarters of Facebook in California, gave a tour of the office, and interviewed the creator of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. According to the program, this was the the first time that a Japanese TV program was allowed to film inside the office. Given that Facebook has been struggling to gain Japanese subscribers due to the immense popularity of the Japanese social network service "Mixi," I suppose that Facebook views the present time as a good opportunity to promote itself.
Anyway, it was reported in the program that Facebook had decided against office partitions in the hopes that workers would feel free to discuss ideas openly. The placement of office desks like the one in the attached picture and other reports about the office reminded me of when I just started working for a traditional company many years ago right after graduation. At the time, office partitions weren't common in Japan and office desks were arranged that way in many Japanese companies, although they now use partitions. So, I was working in a sort of open office space. On top of that, I was encouraged to feel free to have discussion with co-workers, even at cafes, etc. The open office space and small talk with coworkers often helped me come up with new ideas, although when I wanted to focus my full attention on doing something, I felt like the openness caused me to be distracted. I was a little surprised to see things in common between Facebook and a traditional Japanese company.
Anyway, it was reported in the program that Facebook had decided against office partitions in the hopes that workers would feel free to discuss ideas openly. The placement of office desks like the one in the attached picture and other reports about the office reminded me of when I just started working for a traditional company many years ago right after graduation. At the time, office partitions weren't common in Japan and office desks were arranged that way in many Japanese companies, although they now use partitions. So, I was working in a sort of open office space. On top of that, I was encouraged to feel free to have discussion with co-workers, even at cafes, etc. The open office space and small talk with coworkers often helped me come up with new ideas, although when I wanted to focus my full attention on doing something, I felt like the openness caused me to be distracted. I was a little surprised to see things in common between Facebook and a traditional Japanese company.
