In an earlier job, we moved from a cubicle office to an open office. The open office was supposedly there to facilitate group work. But we were soon told that since everyone could hear and see what we were doing, we were no longer supposed to meet and talk with colleagues at our desks as we had been doing (too distracting for others).
How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
31–40 of 78 posts
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#32I've worked at companies that had completely open spaces, individual offices for everyone, and cubicles. By far my favorite is cubicles. I hate open offices and will actively avoid them. They are noisy, distracting, stressful, and not conducive to productivity. They are conducive to collaboration though. Offices are stifling. They put too many barriers between talking to people, and I found everyone tended to rely on…
I've worked in an environment almost exactly like that: a university library.
Now that you mention it, I got a lot of work done in that library...
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#33The thing is: who leaves at 5pm? It's 8:15pm and I am still here (OK, I work in an office, but still). I think working from home you can get free time simply being more productive. I know I would do that. At work, you have to be there, even just to wait that your boss is finished with task A, so that he can finalize task B with you. Then you have the commute, mine is 90 minutes per day. Bottom line: I don't have time…
Did you get in at noon? Why would you work somewhere that requires those kinds of hours? With a 90 minute commute on top of that? Not trying to be condescending, it's just that those kinds of things would be a huge motivator for me to find another job.
I found a place 15 minutes from my house, and everyone in the office is gone by 5, sometimes earlier on Fridays. I hope you find a better job soon.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#34In an earlier job, we moved from a cubicle office to an open office. The open office was supposedly there to facilitate group work. But we were soon told that since everyone could hear and see what we were doing, we were no longer supposed to meet and talk with colleagues at our desks as we had been doing (too distracting for others).
Companies rarely say what it really is: cost savings. Not only can you cram more people per square foot, cubicle walls cost money.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#35The thing is: who leaves at 5pm? It's 8:15pm and I am still here (OK, I work in an office, but still). I think working from home you can get free time simply being more productive. I know I would do that. At work, you have to be there, even just to wait that your boss is finished with task A, so that he can finalize task B with you. Then you have the commute, mine is 90 minutes per day. Bottom line: I don't have time…
Who leaves at 5pm? People that want to have dinner with their families, maybe?
It's almost like everyone is different...
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#36I've worked at companies that had completely open spaces, individual offices for everyone, and cubicles. By far my favorite is cubicles. I hate open offices and will actively avoid them. They are noisy, distracting, stressful, and not conducive to productivity. They are conducive to collaboration though. Offices are stifling. They put too many barriers between talking to people, and I found everyone tended to rely on…
My prior job had this setup, but with low walled cubicles for everyone. We kicked the executive team out of their offices and instantly had a ton of conference room space. It was great and prevented a lot of wasted time that normally went to scheduling spaces for meetings.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#37I've worked at companies that had completely open spaces, individual offices for everyone, and cubicles. By far my favorite is cubicles. I hate open offices and will actively avoid them. They are noisy, distracting, stressful, and not conducive to productivity. They are conducive to collaboration though. Offices are stifling. They put too many barriers between talking to people, and I found everyone tended to rely on…
I like my office, and I don't feel that it adds any additional barriers over a cubicle, unless I want it to.
I like initiating communication with chat or email, with the option of an impromptu face-to-face meeting if necessary, or the option of being able to defer that meeting when I need to focus.
I keep my door open when I don't mind a visitor (like a cubicle), but I can close my door to indicate to people that I am in focus-mode and should not be disturbed. I didn't have that choice with a cubicle, because anyone could walk up at any time and cause me to shift that focus.
The office also makes for a good place for uninterrupted collaboration when the meeting requires it, which is something else you don't get with a cubicle.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#38Interesting book "Cubed" tells history of offices. Starts with Harry Potter type scriveners before any machine aids, through industrialization where you are just a cog in a vast office pool of business machine operators, through the open offices of today.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#39[deleted]
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle
#40The thing is: who leaves at 5pm? It's 8:15pm and I am still here (OK, I work in an office, but still). I think working from home you can get free time simply being more productive. I know I would do that. At work, you have to be there, even just to wait that your boss is finished with task A, so that he can finalize task B with you. Then you have the commute, mine is 90 minutes per day. Bottom line: I don't have time…
I never leave at 5pm, but I do normally wake up at 1pm... I hear this sort of schedule changes when you get a real job.