private office > cubicles > open office layouts.
Yes sir, I never thought I'd miss my cubicle until I got rammed into a folding table in an "open office". I bailed within weeks.
The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#12When I was ten years old, I went to Sacramento with my neighbor to install these cubicles.
It was summer time, and I had my father's permission.
I roomed at a local motel with a guy named Clem. Clem was nice, but had a tough upbringing. He was actually around thirty at the time, and could get a good job because he was just out of jail.
I remember my first day on the job site, and opening the boxes.
At first, we didn't know what to do with the "Cheap looking walls". My boss, "It's some new kind of office? I really don't know? But--we need to put them up. He's the plans--and work with Clem."
My boss loved his food. I don't remember working that much, but we had four meals a day. Breakfast at Denny's. Donuts at exactly 10 a.m. Lunch at 12 p.m., and it was always a sit down place. All you can eat dinner at 5:00 p.m.
At night Clem would drink "cocktails". We would be driving home, and he would say it's "Time for Cocktails?". We thought it was so funny at the time.
I was told no more than a six pack. I never finished more than two beers a night, so the six pack would last a few days. Different times?
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#13Honestly after being in cubicles, and then experiencing an 'open office' where it's just rows of desks crammed up against each other... I don't understand all the complaints about cubicles. I love them now. Open office is a horrible regression.
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#14What companies in the Bay Area don't embrace the open office structure today?
Well Google is leading the charge, and everyone wants to be like Google so . . .
I feel lucky that at the LA Google office I only have a dozen people in my glass-walled pen and that I am not out in the general cubicle areas.
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where do VR offices fit in? [1,2] [1] http://assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/thumbs/nqfIhMYO.jpg [2] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/i-worked-in-a-vr-...
I think it entirely depends on whether workers get out ahead of the curve and embrace them and own the VR environments. If people stop and consider VR desktops might be a serious improvement over the current open office hell. You can be relatively impervious to visual and audio distractions not of your own design. They will probably allow even more work from home as the technology of avatar visuals improve enough tha…
They will probably allow even more work from home as the technology of avatar visuals improve enough that people feel like high bandwidth personal communication between people is possible and comfortable.
You'd really have to capture facial expressions and body language for that work work well.
Not sure how doable that is with avatars instead of 3d video, and not sure how you'd get the video to not lose anything while editing out the VR goggles.
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#16private office > cubicles > open office layouts.
Where do VR offices fit in? [1,2] [1] http://assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/thumbs/nqfIhMYO.jpg [2] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/i-worked-in-a-vr-...
Wow, maybe Nick Negroponte's SDMS can finally go mainstream! [0]
[0] https://www.media.mit.edu/speech/papers/1979/bolt_1979_spati...
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/24/3040959/dataland-mits-70s-...
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#17Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#18Honestly after being in cubicles, and then experiencing an 'open office' where it's just rows of desks crammed up against each other... I don't understand all the complaints about cubicles. I love them now. Open office is a horrible regression.
But do you at least have a desk of your own? I agree that open offices are worse than cubes, but there is even a worse system where even desks are unassigned -- supposedly to encourage interaction across groups.
Re: The Accidental Arrival of the Cubicle
#19The article alludes to, but glosses over the fact that the original vision was a reaction to the terrible open office approach.
The article does chronicle the sad perversion into cubicle sterility.