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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday April 24 2014, @09:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the Applied-Doublethink dept.

From the Wired article, The Cubicle You Call Hell Was Designed to Set You Free:

In 1964, the iconic furniture design company Herman Miller unveiled an office plan unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Called Action Office, it was the brainchild of Robert Propst, who was among the first designers to argue that office work was mental work and that mental effort was tied to environmental enhancement of one's physical capabilities. Rather than a furniture item or a collection of them, Action Office was a proposition for an altogether new kind of space.

Most office designs at the time were about keeping people in place; Action Office was about movement. Advertisements for the system show workers in constant motion; indeed, the human figures in the images often appear blurred, as if the photographer were unable to capture their lightning speed.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Geezer on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:27AM

    by Geezer (511) on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:27AM (#35438)

    I'm always moving about in my cubicle. What with reaching for my coffee mug, answering annoying phone calls, unwrapping candy bars, and evading management pests I scarcely have a still moment. /humor

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by mth on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:38AM

    by mth (2848) on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:38AM (#35440) Homepage

    I haven't seen any cubicles in the Netherlands; my first encounter with them was in Dilbert. Shared offices ("office gardens") here either have no inner walls or low walls (that you can see over when standing) that are placed around a (sub)team instead of around an individual worker.

    Such layouts encourage communication within a team: the effort required to ask or discuss something is low and you can hear what other people discuss and jump in if necessary. Although it does mean that if you need to concentrate, you sometimes have to put on headphones to isolate yourself from the rest for a while.

    • (Score: 1) by hoochiecoochieman on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:04AM

      by hoochiecoochieman (4158) on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:04AM (#35453)

      The first time I've worked in a cubicle was in the US. Here in Portugal, offices tend to be open.

      It's true it's better for concentration, open offices tend to be noisy and distracting some times, which is something I hate. But I wouldn't want to work in a cubicle for a long time. It's too claustrophobic and introspective for me.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:15PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:15PM (#35589)

        You must be an extrovert. Open-plan are horrible if you're introverted and value privacy and quiet in order to concentrate.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Vanderhoth on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:25AM

      by Vanderhoth (61) on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:25AM (#35463)

      This is a double edged sword, I'm in Canada and work in a cube farm. I happen to be extroverted and am able to easily block out people in my surroundings, but I'm also very loud when talking to people. I try to be very conscious of my volume, but it seems even when I'm whispering the introvert in the cubical next to me is losing his mind. Not just because of me. The guy on the other side of him is an avid talking-to-his-family-all-day-on-the-phone guy and the women on the other side of me is a yammering twit who spends all day screaming about her bowel movements to anyone that shuffles by her cube to get to me.

      The setup works for some people, I like being able to hear all the conversations in the office. Often decisions are being made in private conversations that will involve my project and one way I stay a step ahead is to use "private" knowledge to preemptively make changes to projects. It depends on how confident a conversation I over hear is, but it makes it a lot easier to keep on top of deadlines.

      The guy next to me though can't function, so much so that our office (excluding managers) have an understanding that he can work out of the shared board room unless it's otherwise needed for another meeting. When he isn't constantly interrupted he's an amazing developer. Unfortunately he's not the only introvert and there aren't enough boardrooms for everyone.

      Illness is another huge disadvantage to the "open office" or cube farm environment. Since we had our building renovated and everyone lost their private/semi-private offices we now have yearly outbreaks. It basically last from the end of January to the beginning of May where every other person is out one day or another. Offices keep sick people contained and inhibit the spread of germs. In an open offices if the person four cubical down is hacking, coughing and sneezing all day, that's in the air. It's not long before it spreads to four or five people near by who spread it to other areas.

      So yeah, more collaborative (for some people), but a health hazard (for everyone).

      The real kicker though is the hateful relationship it's caused between employees and managers. Managers made the decision to change the environment and decided they get offices. Now they're talking about reducing sick leave because we just went through our fourth year in a row of everyone being sick. Which managers with offices aren't exposed to most of the time because they show up and lock themselves in their offices and call/e-mail/message people, rather than just walking over to them. So they see us as lazy complainers looking for excuses to get out of work and we see them as privileged asshats that isolate themselves so they don't have to deal with the issues their decisions have created.

      --
      "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:19PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:19PM (#35597)

        I have one of those fun guys in an office 10 feet away from me who loves to liberally sprinkle his shouting rants with f-bombs. Naturally, people like to come by to visit him to give him stuff to shout about and only sometimes even bother to close the door.

        Delightful.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday April 24 2014, @05:01PM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday April 24 2014, @05:01PM (#35662) Journal

        Chances are you are seeing the onset of deafness. (And are perhaps in denial).

        I had a guy working for me, and tried every thing to keep is voice down on the phone. Nothing worked. Finally dawned on me he was talking loud because he couldn't hear.

        I ordered him an amplified handset for his desk phone, cranked it up to a level that was way louder than I or other co-workers found necessary, and waited for the fun to begin.

        At first he was mildly insulted. (What is it about creeping deafness that makes people so uncomfortable to admit it, while receding hairlines and expanding waist lines just get accepted).

        I told him to try it for a week.

        Problem completely and instantly solved. The gal sitting across the cubical hall from him bought me coffee for two weeks.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Thursday April 24 2014, @06:27PM

          by Vanderhoth (61) on Thursday April 24 2014, @06:27PM (#35710)

          It's a possibility, deafness runs on my Dad's side of the family in the much later years. I've always been a loud person, along with my two brothers and two sisters. That's apparently what happens when you group up in a house where when you can hear a pin drop it's probably because someone's about to get in serious trouble and the quieter one is about to be blamed.

          --
          "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
      • (Score: 1) by Twike on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:40PM

        by Twike (483) <lure@comiclisting.info> on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:40PM (#35851)

        There are some qualities of voice that some people find soothing and others just can't tune out. It's possible that you may not be being loud but that your tone/accent/expression is one that happens to grate for your introverted companion. I have similar issues, where many voices can just be tuned out but Fran Drescher's laugh, and a couple of other tones of voice just take over, no matter what volume they're at. I don't have a good answer for this because it seems that people get migrated fairly frequently to keep one of the people who I can't tune out 1 wall away consistently over the last 5 years or so.

        You're also missing the "prestige factor".

        • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Friday April 25 2014, @12:42AM

          by Vanderhoth (61) on Friday April 25 2014, @12:42AM (#35874)

          "Prestige factor"?

          --
          "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
          • (Score: 1) by Twike on Thursday May 01 2014, @04:41AM

            by Twike (483) <lure@comiclisting.info> on Thursday May 01 2014, @04:41AM (#38361)

            Managers made the decision to change the environment and decided they get offices.

            The managers decided they get offices because they are more important, have greater prestige.

            Which managers with offices aren't exposed to most of the time because they show up and lock themselves in their offices and call/e-mail/message people, rather than just walking over to them.

            I'm not saying your management are doing this intentionally, but frequently my management schedules itself meetings over phone essentially continually, leaving the door closed(ambient noise reduction/sensitive information protection) and them without any time to actually visit in person to find out what they need to know. They're on the phone with The Client, Upper Management and other people more important than those in the office.

      • (Score: 1) by bill_mcgonigle on Friday April 25 2014, @04:52AM

        by bill_mcgonigle (1105) on Friday April 25 2014, @04:52AM (#35931)

        Managers made the decision to change the environment and decided they get offices.

        There is a subset of incompetent business-school managers who believe that this kind of social signalling is actually good for a company. This way workers can know who the bosses are and who they have to listen to, and they don't get the idea that they're important enough to make meaningful decisions themselves.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:45AM (#35442)

    Don't like to think too much, it makes me think too much,
    It keeps my mind on my mind
    Don't wanna see too much, it makes me see to much
    Sometimes I'd rather be blind

    All the things that they're saying & doing
    When they pass me by just fills me up with noise
    It overloads me
    I wanna disconnect myself
    Pull my brain stem out and unplug myself
    I want nothing right now, I want to pull it out

    Chorus:
    Yeah, I want to pull it out, yeah
    I wanna break it all down, hey, I wanna pull it out
    Yeah, yeah, disconnect myself, disconnect myself
    I wanna see it go down, yeah, disconnect myself

    A thousand miles an hour going nowhere fast
    Clinging to the details of your past
    Talking 'bout your damages and your wasting my time
    Wanna be the king of pain, stand in line
    All the numbers and the colours and the facts
    Backed by the rumours and the figures and the stats
    I think I'm gonna download my mind

    Chorus

    Too damn bad if at the end of the day the only thoughts
    In your brain are all the things that they say, what a waste
    Too damn bad if at the end of the line you got no idea
    What's on your own mind, you got no one to blame but yourself
    Too much to know, too much to see
    It might mean something to you but it's nothing to me
    Its just another ad for someone's version of how they think it should be

    I wanna disconnect myself, pull my brain stem out, unplug myself
    I want nothing right now, I want to pull it out

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @10:53AM (#35447)

    Don't like to think too much, it makes me think too much,
    It keeps my mind on my mind
    Don't wanna see too much, it makes me see to much
    Sometimes I'd rather be blind

    All the things that they're saying & doing
    When they pass me by just fills me up with noise
    It overloads me
    I wanna disconnect myself
    Pull my brain stem out and unplug myself
    I want nothing right now, I want to pull it out

    Chorus:
    Yeah, I want to pull it out, yeah
    I wanna break it all down, hey, I wanna pull it out
    Yeah, yeah, disconnect myself, disconnect myself
    I wanna see it go down, yeah, disconnect myself

    A thousand miles an hour going nowhere fast
    Clinging to the details of your past
    Talking 'bout your damages and your wasting my time
    Wanna be the king of pain, stand in line
    All the numbers and the colours and the facts
    Backed by the rumours and the figures and the stats
    I think I'm gonna download my mind

    Chorus

    Too damn bad if at the end of the day the only thoughts
    In your brain are all the things that they say, what a waste
    Too damn bad if at the end of the line you got no idea
    What's on your own mind, you got no one to blame but yourself
    Too much to know, too much to see
    It might mean something to you but it's nothing to me
    Its just another ad for someone's version of how they think it should be

    I wanna disconnect myself, pull my brain stem out, unplug myself
    I want nothing right now, I want to pull it out

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:10AM (#35456)

    Don't like to think too much, it makes me think too much,
    It keeps my mind on my mind
    Don't wanna see too much, it makes me see to much
    Sometimes I'd rather be blind

    All the things that they're saying & doing
    When they pass me by just fills me up with noise
    It overloads me
    I wanna disconnect myself
    Pull my brain stem out and unplug myself
    I want nothing right now, I want to pull it out

    Chorus:
    Yeah, I want to pull it out, yeah
    I wanna break it all down, hey, I wanna pull it out
    Yeah, yeah, disconnect myself, disconnect myself
    I wanna see it go down, yeah, disconnect myself

    A thousand miles an hour going nowhere fast
    Clinging to the details of your past
    Talking 'bout your damages and your wasting my time
    Wanna be the king of pain, stand in line
    All the numbers and the colours and the facts
    Backed by the rumours and the figures and the stats
    I think I'm gonna download my mind

    Chorus

    Too damn bad if at the end of the day the only thoughts
    In your brain are all the things that they say, what a waste
    Too damn bad if at the end of the line you got no idea
    What's on your own mind, you got no one to blame but yourself
    Too much to know, too much to see
    It might mean something to you but it's nothing to me
    Its just another ad for someone's version of how they think it should be

    I wanna disconnect myself, pull my brain stem out, unplug myself
    I want nothing right now, I want to pull it out!!!!!!!!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:10AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:10AM (#35458) Journal

    I suspect that the original concept, implemented as envisioned, really would have delivered some or all of the promises made. What probably happened is that the concept was taken over by PHB types, who said "oh yeah, this looks cool. We'd better make a few little changes though... can't have people wasting time chatting and gossiping, so let's make these walls a bit higher, and let's reduce the size of each cubicle so we can fit more in, and we don't want them moving about, so let's chain them to their desks..."

    It's like the post-war high-rise concept: The very clever and well-qualified people who designed those tower blocks saw them as the some kind of utopian futuristic living arrangement, gleaming communities in the sky. Fast forward 60 years and you have grey concrete impoverished hellholes with broken lifts and used syringes in puddles of piss in the stairwells and roving gangs of semi-feral teenagers vandalising and stabbing and stealing. What happened? The suits got hold of the concept and the took out all the communal spaces, carefully designed and scientifically placed to foster and enhance strong, healthy communities. Naturally these elements were removed to reduce costs and pack more proles into the same space. The result: the breakdown of community and the rise of inner-city Mad-Max dystopia.

    As usual you can blame the penny-pinching PHBs who fail to see the big picture, and care only about the bottom line.

    • (Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:27AM

      by bucc5062 (699) on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:27AM (#35464)

      I think this has been the best comparison of cubicles to another factor of life. Fits my view of those hell holes.

      (Note, I no way mean to trivialize the truth of which you speak for it is absolutely right on and very sad)

      --
      The more things change, the more they look the same
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Angry Jesus on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:20PM

        by Angry Jesus (182) on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:20PM (#35484)

        > I think this has been the best comparison of cubicles to another factor of life. Fits my view of those hell holes.

        A common factor with both situations is that the people making the decisions are not part of the group that has to live with those decisions. The PHB's don't work in cubicles and the designers of "low-cost housing" don't live in low cost housing.

        That's a pattern that repeats itself through out society. For example, members of congress get their own private parking spaces at the airport [bloomberg.com] and get to skip TSA screenings [techdirt.com] or at least fastlane through them. [dhs.gov]

        Representative government does not work unless it is actually representative of the people who have to live with it.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by dboz87 on Thursday April 24 2014, @06:37PM

          by dboz87 (1285) on Thursday April 24 2014, @06:37PM (#35717)

          I may be naive and I realize that it is overly simplistic, but governments should make no law or regulation that exempts any representative or agent of that government.

    • (Score: 2) by marcello_dl on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:17PM

      by marcello_dl (2685) on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:17PM (#35483)

      I guess it's inherent in any system of power.

      Bright, and well meaning, guys come up with all sorts of ideas, good ones catch the attention, and get implemented first by powerful people, because they have the resources. Of course those guys usually operate with the ultimate objective of getting more power, those who don't fell prey of those who do.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by SpallsHurgenson on Thursday April 24 2014, @02:14PM

      by SpallsHurgenson (656) on Thursday April 24 2014, @02:14PM (#35542)

      Mind you, as much fun as they are to hate on, cube-farms were still a far, far better alternative for the common office worker than what they had to deal with [prrcomputers.com] before the invention of the "action office". Cubes offered a modicum of privacy and space a worker could call his (or her) own, without necessitating giving the drones an actual office, a privilege normally reserved only for the officers.

      Given the choice of the old-style completely open office and cubes, I'd chose the cubes every time.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:21PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:21PM (#35599)

        Sorry, but we're going right back to the environment you have in that photo. Employers are all moving to "open-plan work areas", many of which look exactly like that: long desks with people sitting at computers, with no walls or privacy of any kind.

        I wish cubicles were still around, but from what I can tell, they're all but extinct. At best, these days you might get a cubicle with very low walls so that everyone can talk to you and distract you when they walk by.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:39PM (#35613)

      We'd better make a few little changes though... can't have people wasting time chatting and gossiping, so let's make these walls a bit higher, and let's reduce the size of each cubicle so we can fit more in, and we don't want them moving about, so let's chain them to their desks...

      The flipside is that with a little motivation, some simple hand tools, and a Saturday, I was able to commandeer the adjacent cubicle, rearrange the walls, and actually give myself some space to think (and work) in. Management has been courteous enough not to insist on a reversion to the old arrangement where I had to go through the aisle to get to the other half of my workspace.

      A double cubicle (or "rectangicle") is pretty luxurious; a single cubicle is mostly workable; a half-cubicle (phone desk with plugs for a laptop - usually along a wall on an extra-wide aisle, certainly NOT a single shared by two people) is minimally functional (adequate for visiting non-dignitaries and people who don't have to spread out design documents).

      A cubicle vs a rectangicle vs an open office (like I work in at headquarters, instead of the satellite office I'm usually at) vs a private office is a very different work experience. Each are suited to a different type of work.

      Conveniently, the modular furniture arrangements allow for reasonably easy and cheap reconfiguration of the space to meet the needs of most of those (except private offices are harder to build from cube walls). Converting from sitting desk to standing desk is pulling out a few screws, putting the brackets in at a different height, and putting the horizontal surfaces back on. Moving a partition wall is usually an allen wrench, maybe popping a power plug and relocating some data cables, and about 5 minutes.

      I also believe that anyone who thinks homogeneous cubicles on a perfect grid is an effective use of space is an idiot and should be disqualified from designing or approving the layout. You need a variety of spaces, and the "doorways" into each cubie shouldn't align with the one across the aisle (the installations where they're offset somewhat seem to have vastly happier and more effective people in them, in my experience).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 25 2014, @01:03AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 25 2014, @01:03AM (#35880)

        When I had to work in a cubicle, I felt as if I were trying to work, sitting on the toilet, all day, in the company bathroom.

  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:30AM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:30AM (#35466)

    Robert Propst huh? Anyone got an address? I would like to have words with him.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:49AM

      by Thexalon (636) on Thursday April 24 2014, @11:49AM (#35472)

      His address for the last 14 years has been 6 feet underground, so you're probably out of luck (although Mr Probst's arguably ran out sooner).

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 1) by Cornwallis on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:30PM

    by Cornwallis (359) on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:30PM (#35487)

    Yet the poor schlubs in the pics are still wearing neck-chokers and starched shirts.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 24 2014, @01:39PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday April 24 2014, @01:39PM (#35522)

    With what you pay for people, can't you provide them walls and a door?

    I've had various office arrangements over the years, but the most effective has been walls and a door, maybe shared with one or two colleagues in the room, but most effective when solo. The door stays open 99% of the time, but can be closed when "management" type conversations are happening inside, or useless prattle is happening outside in the common space where people can gather and discuss things when needed... fills the needs.

    I think the whole attraction of "cube farms" is flexibility. When I've seen people get that "power" of arranging the worker bees, most of them dive right in with relish, deciding who will be near who, who gets the choice spots, etc. Walls that can shift around for little cost make the whole process more fun for the people who arrange them, and allow them to periodically play with the arrangement to satisfy that desire to "rearrange people."

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by JeanCroix on Thursday April 24 2014, @02:14PM

      by JeanCroix (573) on Thursday April 24 2014, @02:14PM (#35543)

      Agreed. I've had both wall-and-door offices and cubicles over the years, and the office was more productive for me, by far. I'm currently in a cubicle, which isn't ideal, especially given the constant chatter of the bean counters who happen to be located near me. I realize that phone conversations are a major part of their jobs, but boy is it ever distracting when trying to concentrate.

      My employer has imminent plans to remove all cubicles and move everyone to the "new" open-office layout, which in the old days was referred to as a bullpen. Everyone who currently has a wall-and-door office or a cube will then be out in the open, because we're told this will "facilitate communication and make us more productive." Except for the high-levels who made the decision, of course - they'll all be keeping their wall-and-door offices. Most of us see it as a ploy to both squeeze even more people into the given space, as well as intentional attrition amongst some of the older types who are used to having their own spaces.

    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:27PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:27PM (#35604)

      No, I don't think that's part of it. I've never seen cubicles re-arranged, ever. Instead, they get set up once, and they stay that way until the company moves. I have seen cubicles shrunk, however (I'm differentiating that from "re-arranging" in the manner you describe), because of "budget cuts". I worked at a company that had 9x9 cubicles, and shrunk them to 6x9 "compressed cubes" which had far less privacy (the worker's back is facing the entrance, unlike the 9x9 cube where there's a great deal of privacy as someone has to physically enter the cubicle to see if anyone's in there and what they're doing). I don't think that company envisioned shrinking the cubicles many years later, so I don't see how that would have been a motivation.

      The real motivation, I think, is pure cost. Cubicles take up less space than walled offices, and cost much less to construct. Drywall labor and doors cost far more than cubicle panels.

      • (Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Friday April 25 2014, @06:36AM

        by egcagrac0 (2705) on Friday April 25 2014, @06:36AM (#35952)

        If the motivation were pure cost, they'd go with the "bullpen" arrangement from the start. Desks are cheaper yet, and require even less space. Most companies really are trying to give people some space.

        I have seen cubicles reassigned more often than rearranged, but a smart cubicle installation doesn't start with them all the same size, and there's nothing that says you can't have a variety of spaces.