Even Microsoft has gone open office now, though.
The offices were nice though. Back in the early days, it didn't take that much seniority to get a single person office and a little more to get an office with a window.
I didn't work for Microsoft but had a family member work there (I work for a well known payroll company thats the same corporate drab). These images are giving me PTSD and depression because my current arrangement of working remotely with a nice monitor and chair with a laid back team will eventually be gone one day and I will be thrown back into the fire. Im only 10 years into my career having tinkered with computers since 6 years old and I don't know how people get through decades of working in places like this. :/
But bean counters kill that idea right quick.
I used to have my own office working for an older industrial company. Now that I work for a tech company, it's all open concept. I have no problem focusing, but taking calls, especially private ones, is a pain.
I worked in building 6 for a while. That was frustrating because the two halves of the building were mirror images. If I had to go to the other side of the building for a meeting, I got disoriented and thought I knew the way back to my office, but I kept getting it wrong. It's like the Upside Down.
Why not number buildings on a battleship grid? Building B6 must be adjacent to A6 and B7, as opposed to building 40 being adjacent to 27. Why not prefix the office numbers of an X-wing building with cardinal directions? If you see office N202, and you need office W107, head to the core, down the stairs, and one hallway to the left.
Microsoft grew outwards from the original 4, then 6, buildings. I guess they didn't think it'd be worthwhile to rename the buildings once they expanded beyond 4 or 6.
After working late, I decided to cut through building 17. I had to wash my hands so I went to the men's washroom, assuming the same layout in 17 as in 16.
Hmmm... They painted the washroom walls pink for some reason.
Oh. They've got a condom dispenser in the washroom?!
Ooooh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That's NOT a condom dispenser!
I looked around wildly for any indications besides the dispenser of which washroom I was in. Quickly scrambled for the exit and looked at the door on my way out to discover that building 17 did NOT have the same exact layout as building 16.
Mental note etched in my brain forever...
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/historic-microsoft-plaqu...
see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20080401-00/?p=22... and https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250401-00/?p=11...
The soda pop selection has been reduced since I was there.
No multiple root beers, no orange/cream soda pop, no Fresca.
Not a sign of Sprite! Crikey.
Only Minute Maid Light Lemonade?! No regular version? Are the employees in this building on a diet?
At least they got rid of the spicy V-8. They shouldn't decide drink availability at company meetings.
Bloody hell.
Edit: I had some trouble with the site, but figured it out enough to see that the offices have big doors, and then a window next to them that's mesh glass. Some of the doors have fire door tags (although you can't read them, and I only found one), and most don't. I suspect there was a code requirement for some of the offices to have fire rated construction, thus the fire door, and then you need the window and the drywall also fire rated. Other offices probably didn't need that, but maybe they used the same glass for everything for consistency.
But, I'm not an architect or an appropriate engineer, my spouse holds a bachelor's degree in architecture, so I've got some knowledge by osmosis.
It looks like all adjoining offices on the exterior of the building are single fire zones, with stairwells at either end of each zone. Internal offices seem to be divided into fire zones too (e.g. 6x2 rooms as a single zone) with use of the odd internal slab-to-slab wall that would possibly be fire resistant.