I personally dislike open concept offices. It doesn’t really do anything to actually improve productivity. In fact, it is more distracting with people shouting at each other, or blasting music, or talking on the speakerphone, or allowing on-hold call music to play out loud “your fucking call is important to us…”, which is then negated by people stuffing their ears with noise cancelling headphones, which encourages more shouting, which then leads to more music, etc.
I’m an engineer: I like to work quietly to concentrate on a specific task. Context switching is expensive – I don’t like my chain of thought to be distracted by people yelling random questions at me. I also appreciate privacy, where I can speak with a co-worker quietly.
In fact I think I write better code (and faster as well) when I’m alone at home, which is why I usually work better at night.
Screw open plan offices. My next office will have cubicles.