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How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

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Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#61

Post by taurath »

Chathamization wrote: post #31

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).

I'm nervous to start conversations with the idle person next to me, because the person 2 desks over looks like they're concentrating and I don't want to knock them out of flow.

What happens in our open office which is half engineering is that nobody says much of anything. It doesn't help collaberation. If we had cubes or god forbid OFFICES with CLOSABLE DOORS we could have 1-1 conversations whenever we like.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#62

Post by brazzledazzle »

mpdehaan2 wrote: post #14
amyjess wrote: post #2

Cubes get a lot of hate, but I honestly prefer them over an open office. Maybe even better than a solitary office: in my experience, having my own office just felt isolating. I've worked in a cube. I've had my own office. I've shared an office with one other person in a variety of desk arrangements. I currently share a large office with three other people (might as well be an open plan). I'd probably rank the cube se…

I was involved in some new-office cost discussions at one point, and while I feel management likes to say open offices are about collaboration, it was really really really about furniture and space costs and employee density. So one answer is given "up the chain" (cost/density) and another is given "down the chain" (collaboration), and that's not cool IMHO. My feeling with open offices is that sales/marketing people…

>So one answer is given "up the chain" (cost/density) and another is given "down the chain" (collaboration), and that's not cool IMHO.

This kind of crap is so offensive yet so common and most managers have no idea how transparent it usually is.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#63

Post by taurath »

yarou wrote: post #17
amyjess wrote: post #2

Cubes get a lot of hate, but I honestly prefer them over an open office. Maybe even better than a solitary office: in my experience, having my own office just felt isolating. I've worked in a cube. I've had my own office. I've shared an office with one other person in a variety of desk arrangements. I currently share a large office with three other people (might as well be an open plan). I'd probably rank the cube se…

I agree that open offices are, in practice, horrific endeavors. But I think the concept behind them is valid: to foster collaboration and eschew meetings. Given the choice between being stuck in meetings all day and an open office plan, I'd take the open office any day.

The concept is bullshit though because either everyone is having to fight the distraction of someone else's collaboration or everyone stays quiet so to not distract anyone.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#65

Post by mathgeek »

Grishnakh wrote: post #29
jtymes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we have "high" cubicle walls, but the last 12" is glass which defeats the purpose. I face a walkway and people's heads are in my view as they pass, which can be incredibly distracting. We get a lot of natural light this way which can be great, except when the sun rises right into your eyes with no way to block it.

Printer paper and tape would solve your problem quickly.

Yeah, but it's difficult to tape paper on everyone's face as they walk by.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#66

Post by Falkon1313 »

snydly wrote: post #40
kfk wrote: post #21

The 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.

It doesn't have to. Look for a distributed company, tolerant of people in different timezones (likely also tolerant of those with different sleep patterns). 1pm where you are is 8am somewhere.

Or look for a place that needs people willing to do nighttime deployments, finish up things that have a next-day deadline, infrastructure, etc. A lot of people are happy not to have to do that, so having people that prefer it anyway is valuable to them.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#67

Post by eikenberry »

I don't think this is so much about the cubicle as it is about someone who has made themselves comfortable in an enterprise setting. A place where you have to come into the office 9-5 or you're taking PTO, a place where have to put in plenty of face-time so the boss knows you're working hard, and a place where once you leave you have no problem forgetting about the work.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#68

Post by Falkon1313 »

A lot of responses often focus on solitude for creativity vs. distraction and interruptions. Something that I don't see mentioned often is the need for distraction.

I'm pretty good at tuning out distractions when I'm focused, sometimes too good (you may need to wave your hand between me and the monitor to get my attention). Unfortunately, sometimes I overfocus and get mental tunnel vision / can't see the forest for the trees. I need to step away from the screen, pace around, maybe grab a clipboard and sketch a diagram, or clear my mind some other way.

In my own office, I can do that and the computer's right there when the mental switch flips, the gate opens, and the ideas start to flow again. In an open office, I have to leave the building and may be 10 minutes away from my desk (and subject to several interruptions on the way back). And of course, you always have the feeling of being watched and judged whenever you step away or do something at your desk that doesn't appear to be diligently working. So open offices (or cubicles) can be worse even when you do need distraction.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#69

Post by r00fus »

sosborn wrote: post #45
cuddlybacon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who respect themselves.

That's not really fair. Some people enjoy working like that, some people find that the salary they are making (and enjoying) require those kind of hours, etc.

So WFH at night if you need to but leave the office at 5 and see your family/friends for dinner.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cubicle

#70

Post by dingo_bat »

r00fus wrote: post #69
sosborn wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really fair. Some people enjoy working like that, some people find that the salary they are making (and enjoying) require those kind of hours, etc.

So WFH at night if you need to but leave the office at 5 and see your family/friends for dinner.

I really like sitting in the office when everyone's left and have my dinner while researching or actually doing my work. As opposed to meeting friends/family over dinner.
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