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39 Comments
- shockingbird, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Death cab for cubicle?
- gidd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3One of the main reasons for my resignation last month was the loss of my office in a reorganisation last year. Now I'm in the main room on a large row of desks with the other techies, including support, and my former office is now a meeting room. Anyway, I was willing to give it a shot, but I just can't get the level of concentration needed for "deep thought", so my productivity has suffered significantly. I just can't do complicated systems design and programming while I've got ten conversations happening at once around me. In my experience, cubicle walls don't help either.
- Sell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As someone sitting in their cubicle right now I can appreciate this article and the movement I hope follows. As an Account Executive with a small company I'm on the phone constantly or at least i should be. I find myself postponing important calls when the office is quiet. I am a sales person at heart and have no qualms with public speaking but something about the lack of privacy prevents me from engaing my clients/potential clients in a more meaingful way sometimes. When I am making a public speach everybody there is my intended audience whereas at work I have an audience of one and many easedroppers. It feels very uncomfortable. But there is no space in our humble office for us all to have a door and 4 floor to ceiling walls. Ugh, I can't wait till I am "The Man". Hell, I'll just work from home then........I'll call later or tomorrow.
- wnathans, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1God knows I hate my cubicle but the prospect of staring eye to eye with some of the ugly people I work around is justification enough for those wonderful half walls. ¡Viven de largo el cúbicos!.
- alphgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You poor bastards. Your choice is between cubicles and open offices? Sounds a bit like an argument over whether Folsom is better than Sing Sing.
I'll never sneer at my proper office with real walls, door, desk and meeting table again. - kingcone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Whether you are constantly craning your neck like a dog to acknowledge the boss as they go past, or staring down at your painfully submissive underlings, either way, cubicles suck!
- mordea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I prefer a cubicle and find that I work better when isolated and have little to no human contact for most of the work day.
- zenghost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i think the worst nightmare for a slave to the cubicle would probably be things that happen in the movie "office space".
- officialchicken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The article points out the use of cubicle farms is simply to improve worker productivity. In reality, NOT using cubicles to partition spaces costs ALOT of money, time, and restricts planning. Spaces and areas cannot be reconfigured quickly as the needs of the occupant change.
"Modern" concrete and glass office-park buildings typically cost in excess of $200/sq.ft, unfinished (eg, exterior walls, stairs/elevators, and bathrooms only). Add in a cheap suspended ceiling, a couple of mandatory fire-rated walls to seperate your office from the neighboor, and some flooring - the price just skyrocketed. Before the network-ers come in to rape you wirelessly, or with 8-conductor wires.
By the time you have priced the fit-out space for your occupancy and use-group (two very techical terms defining the construction requirements), the budget is strapped for hard-walling any spaces that are non-executive or meeting areas. A million dollars is chump change in the building industry, but not so to the small business owner who typically occupy these spaces, and have to bear the costs of the walls, floors, ceilings, telco/data lines, etc.
And besides, this is a culture thing. In Japan, for instance, interior walls are frowned upon, and those who have corner windows are considered the slackers (and are out of the way of those doing work). - Meegeekai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I just have to digg this. I am blessed with working at home (not without it's own set of problems), but I do have to make the regular pilgrimage to the death star. There are not only cubicles to deal with, but the lighting is held at a minimum for some reason. You could raise mushrooms in the cube farm. Besides that there is the constant moving of personnel, sometimes I think at some managers whim. There is also the constant jockeying for the offices as reorgs come and go. I am good for about 2 days in that environment then I start going *****. Don't even get me started on the Intel model the article speaks of, if you have been in an Intel facility they are horrid.
officialchicken is 100% right though, the Japanese system is so much worse. Bucho (manager) sits at the head of a row of desks with all the underlings under their ever watchful eye. This is why a lot of Japanese, at least the ones I work with, confuse activity with getting stuff done. They have perfected the art of slacking by looking busy. I have thought that raising the walls, putting lattice above and using better individual lighting in the cubicles would help. Some sort of door or barrier on the entrance, like a screen would be nice, as a light would just be ignored. There is no simple answer. - angelschambers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I burned my headphones when I quit Citibank and peed on the fire... if only I could have gotten back at that cubicle, I'd have thrown that bitch through a window.
- frankiejr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sell, you're right on the money.
I work in a small startup that does "club night" promotions in Boston. I like working here, but I hate working in the office. I've had the option of working from home whenever I want, and recently I've started working here 90% of the time. Why? Because our office is one big room, and there's not even any cubicles. I don't even think the half-walls would make a difference, though, because of noise and privacy.
Now when I say "Privacy", I don't mean *people looking over my shoulder and seeing what I'm doing*. What I do mean is having to listen to other people's music (that I don't particularly enjoy), other people's phone calls (which don't help my conversation), and other people's habits. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Like I said, I enjoy having them as my colleagues, but I don't enjoy working *with* them (literally). I need my concentration, and without that, I get a hell of a lot less done.
End rant. I'm sorry for all the parenthesis. - Jack9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In my office we can't wait for our cubicles. I have operated in companies with and without them. Cubicles make smart ppl efficient but make idiots less accountable. The solution is to not hire idiots.
- SilentBobSC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I burned my headphones when I quit Citibank and peed on the fire... if only I could have gotten back at that cubicle, I'd have thrown that bitch through a window."
LMAO! - salmonmoose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I prefer a cubicle and find that I work better when isolated and have little to no human contact for most of the work day."
If i want to disconnect, I just drop on the headphones, fireup foobar, and dig my tunes :) If you use REAL headphones, instead of earphones, or earbuds, then you can sit and blissfully enjoy the view and have very little idea that you're in an office :) - urothane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I am a creative person dealing in graphic design all day. I can't stand my cubicle. I share a double wide with another graphic design person which is OK, we work well off each other, but on the other side of the half wall (we don't even get full cubicle walls...ours are barely over 3 feet) is the sales department. I have a hard time concentrating, headphones are frowned upon in the company and I consistently have people walking up from behind me as my cubicle has me in the corner like a child that just broke the china. I feel punished, I jump every time someone comes to talk to me and I can't concentrate. If I had full cubicle walls, wasn't next to the sales team, and faced the entrance of the cubicle I could probably deal with it, but for right now, I feel certain non exec jobs require having private space.
- JokersWild, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0At my work we recently switched from real offices (8x12 closets shared by 2 people - some offices had doors, most did not) to cubicles (6x6 single-occupant cubicles with 6 foot walls and sliding doors (like you'd see in a shower, really). The walls are high enough that you can't peak in and see what people are doing. In addition, when they removed the offices, they made a LOT of conference rooms with phones -- when people want a private conversation or personal phonecall, they just walk 10 yards to a conference room.
The end result is that the cubicles actually work BETTER. You have MORE privacy because you have your own space (instead of sharing an office) and you actually have a door. The cubicles have pretty good sound-deadening properties, but you can have a conversation over the top of the wall if you have to.
I was amazed. I truly was. It really does work well for us. Admittedly it's not perfect. you can still hear some things, and you feel like a rat in a maze. And we have The Mad Sneezer a couple aisles away. She sneezes daily and the sound literally echoes through the entire building... - japanlover, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I love cubicles
- GreenSlabOfClay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0One of the things that turned me off to working for Google was the fact they try to cramb those programmers into a shoebox.
No thanks...the farting was too much. - milhous, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's not true that no research has been done on this, or even that there's been no useful or definitive research. _Peopleware_ quotes a 1960s study at Cornell on the effects of distraction on creative work. McConnell cites all kinds of studies on the productivity-draining effects of being in cubes versus even shared office space.
- mlebeau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I worked this summer at a company that was no cubicles, no offices, all open floor. But it was extremely elegantly done and extremely pleasant. A lot of that had to do with the incredible culture of the place. The people were consistently awesome, and there was a very strict culture of "don't worry about looking busy". It made for a very comfortable experience, and I think I would be depressed as hell to work somewhere with a different style again (although this may in part be due to the type of culture that chooses cubicles, too). Am I the only one who prefers open floor?
- v3xt0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I work in a waist-high cubicle, which I cannot stand. I can't focus on work because of all the distraction around. I work better in a small iso-chamber. The collaboration factor is great, but the productivity factor is diminished to fubar.
As a programmer, I really don't see the need to even be at work (100% of the time), and have worked for companys around the states, from my home, and never had an issue w/ productivity. In fact, I was generally 100-200% more productive from home, as I felt the need to justify my time and efforts, which usually resulted in 10-12 hours of work each day. *That part I don't miss!* =) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Another thing. Why do I not like cubicles or open spaces? Because the last thing I need to worry about when I'm on the phone discussing a problem with a client or a colleague from another company is that they might be able to overhear the two guys 40 feet away from me who are talking about football and throwing "*****' A!" and "holy *****!" around.
It's cool if you talk a lot and swear a lot. But keep it to your ***** selves. - TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I used to have a round trip commute of 80miles in LA - which took anywhere between 2 and 3 hours out of each day, just to arrive at my cubicle farm (luckily, I shared a 5 cube "office" with other project mgrs .. so not too bad).
BUT, now I telecommute from the east coast. My travel time is now a minute, and is about 40 feet, including stopping at the fridge for a Pepsi on the way through.
Telecommuting is the future, not open plan offices, cubicles, or shared work environments. Plenty of challenges for telecommuting as well - but thats a different article. - sspooner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My cubicle is my home.
I work for myself and work from my home every day.
I'm comfortable, no one is looking over my shoulder, I have my music on as loud as I like.
I'm a software engineer by trade, but I feel empathy with the Dilbert from just a week ago, the one where they caught the photographer and he wasn't doing well in captivity.
I doubt I could go back to a cube now, I've been in cubes and offices and cubes are awful. - odysseus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sell, you're not an 'account executive', you're a salesman.
- TheRealPod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would kill everyone in my office to have a door..... Wait that give me an idea.
- wilsonics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think that small groups of four desks facing each other work well. That way, you get the group mentality, people work together, and you don't get the closed in feeling of being behind all that grey space all day. Then, we can take a hint from the asians, and use fiber optics to pipe in sunlight, which will increase people's mentality, and prevent them from going insane....you know, from not seeing the sun for weeks at a time...like me, a computer nerd in minnesota....go to work in the morning at 7, it's dark.....leave work at 530, it's dark....haven't seen the daylight in weeks....well, except for the weekend. But, then i come home on the weekend, and what do i do? Digg......dammit!
- Protoss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Death cab for cubicle?"
I saw the same exact thing... - yukevster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why do Western people want to be shut out from other workers? In Japan companies have no cubicles and no walls on the on the office floor...it's all open-plan. Everyone just learns to be considerate to others...
- bpapa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I work for a start-up, the "one big room" sort of design. The thing is that content writers sit across from me, designers sit behind me, sales people sit next to me... it's a giant hodge-podge of people. It's great to have the open communication of the dev team all sitting together, but the others can be a bit distracting. Thank god for headphones. It's funny that I can get a ton of work done with G-Unit blasting in my ears.
- Ace2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Crap!
No more sitting there and surfing the web, now i'll have to do work?
well that sucks - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If the alternative to a cubicle is your own office - great.
If the alternative to a cubicle is "open space" - then ***** you.
I work better without long drawn-out office conversations about sports, politics, current events, the barbecue coming up at someone's house, the kids, the family, whining about work, whining about the company, loud music, loud conversations, loud phone conversations, etc. I don't do assembly line work. I do knowledge work. Give me a quiet, private place where I can think. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why do Western people want to be shut out from other workers? In Japan companies have no cubicles and no walls on the on the office floor...it's all open-plan. Everyone just learns to be considerate to others...
You just answered your own question.
Also, do you want to hear the telephone conversation from thirty different engineers simultaneously while trying to carry on your own? Do you want to be open to constant disruption from everyone with an inane comment to make or discussion to initiate? I've had an office for most of my life and the ability to have that door shut - to keep people out and silence and solitude in - can be wonderful and you can be so much more productive. - officialchicken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No one has mentioned that there is a 3rd option between traditional offices and telecommuting... unassigned "virtual" spaces.
Check out TBWA/Chiat-Day. It's an advertising agency staffed only with the extremely-creative types. Think google for graphic designers. They do not use offices, computers, etc. in the typical sense. You come in, you check-out a computer, phone, etc (laptop, pc on a cart, whatever you need), and you "grab" a space to work in. That space may be an office, or a chaise lounge/laz-y-boy.
Nobody is assigned anything. It's not perfect, and many people would probably freak out knowing that they had to clean up and store all their papers in a locker every night. But it is an option to cube-farming. - DarkDonnie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The years I worked in a cubicle were hell. The guy to the right of me was an obsessive fingernail clipper. The lady behind me gabbed on the phone with her husband all the time. The guy in front of me loved to sing to himself. I feel so lucky to work in an office with a door now.
- salmonmoose, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Build a bridge, pack your donkey and get over it;
If you don't like it get a real job, in the mean time i'll enjoy the valley view i have from my office. - spacebar14, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Meh - -this is weird and doesn't make an sense to me, since I am only 15
:S:S
Oh well, what the hell +digg - infectedRoot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Woot, go go Bad Gateway. *****. digged anywho.
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