Cubicle Etiquette?

zrgn asks: "Our team is moving to an open office type environment in a couple of weeks. The problem is that most of them have never worked in that type of setting before and thus may not know the do's and don'ts associated with a cube farm. I have two questions: what types of cubicle etiquette things have Slashdot readers come across that may help us in the new environment? (ie. don't listen to your voice mail on speaker phone); and What are some creative ways to relay 'cubicle rules' to the rest of the team?"

Comments

Radical sugggestion

[bob_calder]

I hate private offices, I hate cubes. I LOVE an open office.
The office is for work. - period! So you don't have decor other than small desk pics of the family.
Have facilities for privacy - meeting rooms, planning areas, large desks and boards - but in other places. Everybody doesn't use them all the time, so you can share.
Get a place to eat where everybody can sit together. Close for lunch, take no calls.
NO speakerphones.
No personal music.
No food at all around desks.
Don't hire smokers, they waste too much time and cost too much to take care of. Spend money on child care instead.
If you can't say it sitting next to me, you don't need to say it at work.
You will continue to work, learn, and be more productive by communicating directly. Feedback will be imediate and people will not have a chance to bitch in private. You won't make phone calls to people five feet away.
If you can't be happy working in close proximity to people who should be your friends, you should seriously consider suicide. People who push using impersonal and isolating enviornments should be euthanized. Software can facilitate isolation if used with craft and guile so don't demand that everyone use the office calendaring system for all interpersonal communications. Don't worry, you won't miss a meeting. It just won't happen.
By all means, don't insist that everyone have creative ideas at appropriate times and places.

It would be like going to a foreign country for most people under 40 or so. You find out that people actually live there.
Oh yeah. NEVER spend less than two to three hunderd dollars on a chair. Spend lots of money on a good cleaning staff and good food. Get some decent art. Make sure everybody wears nice fitting clothes if you have to buy them with the money everybody saved on kitch and those gobo-like little wall thingies.
If the boss sets himself apart in an ostentatious way, quit fast. A little is OK. Gold bathroom fixtures are a give-away as is a conference room from a movie set.