By Design? Why Apple Employees Keep Walking Into the New HQ's Glass Walls

People who work in glass buildings shouldn't be looking at their phones all the time? JL

Brian Heater reports in Tech Crunch:

People in glass offices should probably watch where they’re going. Collisions have been one very clear downside of Apple’s $427 million spaceship office in Cupertino. There’s a definite downside to glass walls in a setting where occupants are regularly staring down at their phones. In an effort to combat the phenomenon, some have taken to sticking Post-Its on potential hazard zones — a sort of primitive form of augmented reality.
Likely these reports won’t result in a black eye for the company.

People in glass offices should probably watch where they’re going. Collisions have been one very clear downside of Apple’s $427 million spaceship office in Cupertino, according to a story out of Bloomberg.

The “people familiar with the incidents” won’t say how widespread a phenomenon all of this is, but there’s a definite potential downside to glass walls in a setting where occupants are regularly staring down at their phones. In an effort to combat the phenomenon, some have apparently taken to sticking Post-Its on potential hazard zones — a sort of primitive form of augmented reality. 

As someone who regularly runs into stuff, I can personally confirm that walls, not people are to blame in this situation, and likely the whole things is more a source of brief personal embarrassment for those involved. As the story points out, none of the impacts have warranted a post to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Transparency, after all, is the key to addressing these issues.

This does, however, reflect a story from 2012, in which an 83-year-old woman filed suit against the company after injuring herself after bumping into a glass surface at an Apple Store. The suit, which was later settled out of court, claimed  the company “was negligent … in allowing a clear, see-through glass wall and/or door to exist without proper warning.”

Likely these reports, however, won’t result in a black eye for the company.