Yes, I do want people who "misdirect their frustration at colleagues or use toxic language" filtered out of my working environment, and I make no apologies for that. I haven't criticised people who prefer greater separation from their colleagues. I've explicitly said I have no problem with that at all. I've only criticised those who hold their colleagues in "active disdain", and I only criticised them in about the mildest possible way: saying I don't want to work with then.
I don't want to work with people like the one in this post that likened their colleagues to toddlers for asking questions, or the one that said people who try to have conversations with them should "get a life". I certainly don't want to work with the one that thought the fact that I enjoy interacting with my colleagues was evidence I engage in office politics and don't contribute economically.
I work in a field that requires many people with different skills and personalities to collaborate in realtime to do something an individual simply cannot do alone. That's why open plan offices are near universal in this job, and if it also discourages people with the attitudes described in the previous paragraph that's a plus for me, personally. I hope those people find a place they can "contribute economically" without being bothered by "toddlers" and "office politics" but it's not my job to provide it.
The most amusing thing is the assumption in these responses that I'm an extravert, which couldn't be further from the truth. I find solitude restful and company hard work, the characteristics of an introvert (look it up). But being an introvert doesn't imply being a misanthrope or being unable to enjoy company. Collaboration is an essential part of my job, i.e. literally work, which I enjoy, just as much as I enjoy restful solitude away from it.
I'm not a manager, either, or any other sort of professional "people person", and I'm certainly not somebody who will ever be in a position to force anyone into any working arrangement they're not comfortable with. I'm a programmer who has made a point over a >20yr career never to move away from coal-face programming and never to have line management responsibilities. I've had the good fortune to work with many excellent managers over that time, though, and contrary to the cynicism you frequently read on HN (presumably in some cases from people stuck in incredibly toxic working environments and in others from people who maybe, just maybe, are themselves assholes) I recognise that they do something real, needed and highly skilled. Something I know I would be extremely bad at, hence my career choices.
I don't want to work with people like the one in this post that likened their colleagues to toddlers for asking questions, or the one that said people who try to have conversations with them should "get a life". I certainly don't want to work with the one that thought the fact that I enjoy interacting with my colleagues was evidence I engage in office politics and don't contribute economically.
I work in a field that requires many people with different skills and personalities to collaborate in realtime to do something an individual simply cannot do alone. That's why open plan offices are near universal in this job, and if it also discourages people with the attitudes described in the previous paragraph that's a plus for me, personally. I hope those people find a place they can "contribute economically" without being bothered by "toddlers" and "office politics" but it's not my job to provide it.
The most amusing thing is the assumption in these responses that I'm an extravert, which couldn't be further from the truth. I find solitude restful and company hard work, the characteristics of an introvert (look it up). But being an introvert doesn't imply being a misanthrope or being unable to enjoy company. Collaboration is an essential part of my job, i.e. literally work, which I enjoy, just as much as I enjoy restful solitude away from it.
I'm not a manager, either, or any other sort of professional "people person", and I'm certainly not somebody who will ever be in a position to force anyone into any working arrangement they're not comfortable with. I'm a programmer who has made a point over a >20yr career never to move away from coal-face programming and never to have line management responsibilities. I've had the good fortune to work with many excellent managers over that time, though, and contrary to the cynicism you frequently read on HN (presumably in some cases from people stuck in incredibly toxic working environments and in others from people who maybe, just maybe, are themselves assholes) I recognise that they do something real, needed and highly skilled. Something I know I would be extremely bad at, hence my career choices.