I spent the better part of today at Mozilla's offices in Toronto - the workspace Vallewag labeled as 'the worst in tech'. Mozilla's Toronto office is far from the worst tech workspace I've ever seen - in fact I'd rank it among the best small office spaces in tech I've visited.
What's so bad about Mozilla's Toronto workspace? Besides the fluorescent lighting, the colorless white walls and the folding tables, the worst thing about Mozilla's Toronto workspace is how we're sure management would improve it. With corporate graffiti, company logos and too many colors. That was management's trick at Facebook and look where readers ranked it in our poll on tech's ten worst workspaces — as tech's second-worst workspace, just after Mozilla. Check out the full list, below.
After reviewing our post "The 10 worst workspaces in tech," commenter AdmNaismith described Facebook's office, pictured above, as "foggy, dank, dim, and utterly depressing." Commenter mothra1 hated Yahoo's New York offices more: "They suck! Lifeless and impersonal. Kinda like the douchebags who still actually work there." Meanwhile, Adobe apologist BlairHapjo told us we "clearly didn't get past Adobe's lobby," and the rest of the office features "Aeron chairs, real offices (with doors!), big picture windows." For us, the worst offices we found on Office Snapshots and elsewhere were the the ones that try too hard to seem Internet-hip, like Jajah and Google. Now it's time to settle the disputes. Below, vote for your least favorite and help us rank tech's 10 most dismal places to work:
We've toured the top 10 workspaces in tech. Click to viewNow, we've gone back to Office Snapshots to find the 10 worst. What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem "Internet-y" — come off even worse. We'll start with Yahoo's New York digs.
Google
We listed the Googleplex as on of the top 10 workspaces in tech because of its amenities. But with its kindergarten campus color scheme, lava lamps, scooters, and ball pool, Google's headquarters often seem designed to to hide its most prevalent feature: gray cubicles. Anything to keep the drones from remembering that they're just one out of the corporation's 16,800 employees, we suppose. (Photos by titaniumdreads, emerce, tantek, revdancatt and yoz)
Facebook
Food wrappers everywhere and a little smelly — Facebook's offices remind me of my sophomore hall. Except instead of drunks vandalizing the place, Zuckerberg paid a kid to go at the walls with a spraycan. This was done to reinforce Facebook's vibrant, youthful culture by ensuring any visiting adults would rather gouge their eyeballs out before ever returning. (Photos by Outer Edge Studio, fcb, eston and cavemonkey50)
DoubleClick
Here is DoubleClick's office in Colorado. I've never been there, but I know for a fact there are more Cathy cartoons pinned against gray cubicle felt in this office than any other in tech. (Photos by Ben Saitz)
