Cubicles: The great mistake

[VenSeattle]

Even the designer of the cubicle thinks they were maybe a bad idea...

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/09/magazines/...rtune/index.htm

[intrigued]

I was in a cube for 2 montsh before I earned my first promotion and got myself an office, id hate to be back in a cube, always feel like someone is wathing over your shoulder.

[ToniCipriani]

I'm typing this in a cubicle...

But I do understand. In my first job, I was in an open office. At least you know somebody's watching.

Then the next job I had an office shared with one co-worker.

And the last two all in cubicles. Developed a hate for them.

But oh well, can't expect much as a Co-op...

[Croc]

Heh...I hope I never have to be in one. I'd prolly act out or something...

[GMTruckGuy74]

When I was employed in the business world, I worled many of my jobs in cubes. Then when I got into teaching, I'd usually have a desk in my department's office and/or a desk in my classroom. The new teaching job I took in November (Cooperative Marketing Education Teacher/Coordinator) has blessed me with my very own office - the first in my working life (I'm 31). I enjoy the fact I can tell people I meet I have my own office & phone extension - it's my own little getaway from the rest of the school.

[Croc]

See I'd need my own office for when I get bored or need a break and want to blast my Eddie Money without disturbing anyone...

[Flybrian]

Since I work for a general contractor who does predominately interior buildouts and renovations of commercial buildings, I see so many of these modular offices.

Its really funny when you think about it - row after row of people in their tiny little pseudo-offices filled with pictures, cheesy Hallmark trinkets, and stupid motivational placards to remind them of the outside world. All packed in these cookie-cutter 'executive park' buildings with beautiful views of vacant lots, the freeway, or the Radisson through poorly-tinted windows that glare the $h! out of everything.

The smaller, 3-10 story buildings are the best because they all think they're the Pan Am Building or something. Working as a contractor in one, I had to get a Building Entry Pass valid for the exact time of our work there, a Floor Admission Certificate (I'm not making up these names), and I had to give them a photocopy of my driver's license. What was this firm and what did they do? DoD? FBI? SEC? Some real estate investment people. What am I going to steal, high interest rates? I also parked my car in a 'Designated Visitor Space' and since I was apparently an 'Undesignated' visitor, I recieved a ticket from building administration for $15. Are you kidding me?

These companies need to own the building and the land its on before they even begin to impress anyone.

But I digress...I'm glad I'm able to work more outside than in. I'd kill myself if I became one of those people.

[RichW5]

Cubes are great!

Before the cubicle, we sat at desks in the open, row after row, with the Dept Head in a glass cubicle and the section head just in front of him. There was no privacy and the noise made talking on the phone (part of our job) difficult.

Once I left my microfiche viewer turned on at lunch time. The Dept head left his office, went to my desk and turned off the microfiche viewer. Everyone said that I was on my way out. It turned out that he was a pretty good guy and hated having to watch the back of our heads all the time. The section head hated the cubes because he didn't trust us to do the work without being watched. Guess who won?

When the cubes came along we had 1, 2 or 6 people to a cube, depending on the type of engineering being done. I loved my cube, with the string door across the opening and all sorts of wierd signs hanging on the wall.

As I got more time with the company, my cube seemed to have it's own life. It grew in size everytime I got a chance to adjust the walls. The bosses would come in monday morning and shake their heads. Rich has been moving walls again, they'd say. Still, I had the best quality and efficiency in our engineering group, so "To the winner belongs the spoils".

[the_yellow_dart]

I like having a cube too. There is both a sense of privacy and community at once. I would feel wierd being out in the open at a desk, but I would feel equally as wierd doing what I do in a closed-in office. Being able to talk to coworkers over cube walls is useful in software development. It means I have to get up and bug people a lot less.

[Drew Dowdell]

Its really funny when you think about it - row after row of people in their tiny little pseudo-offices filled with pictures, cheesy Hallmark trinkets, and stupid motivational placards to remind them of the outside world. All packed in these cookie-cutter 'executive park' buildings with beautiful views of vacant lots, the freeway, or the Radisson through poorly-tinted windows that glare the $h! out of everything.

The smaller, 3-10 story buildings are the best because they all think they're the Pan Am Building or something.

At my last <and by that I mean final> corperate job we had to "badge" to get into different sections of the building. We had to "badge" to get into the administrative offices. We had to "badge" to get into the factory. We had to "badge" to get into the Ivory Tower <ahem, Executive floor>. We had to "badge" to get into the shipping office that sat between the administrative offices and the factory. So to walk to from my cube, to my boss's office then out to the factory I'd have to "badge" 5 times! All the while, the warehouse doors were wide open and anyone could have walked in.

Do we manufacture F/A-22 Raptors or the secret of the next fusion bomb? No. We made sheets. White, low thread count, mostly sold to Walmart and K-mart, sheets.

It turns out the reason for all the security in the building is because the owner's son is paranoid that someone is going to try toget in the building and kill him. What he forgot to factor is that the only people who want to kill him already have the badges because we all work for him!