Cubicle Privacy

DarthDilbert writes "The NYTimes has a story about a noise canceling box for nosy cubicle neighbors. " Still no protection from mind readers. They know stuff.

Comments

Shame on you, editors

[flawedgeek]

The article is more of a 2-page description of the company, with a one-paragraph sidenote about the product.

On another note, can I get one that fits in my PC and shuts up the godawful fan noise?

Cubicle doors for privacy

[WalletBoy]

I wad visiting a friend at his office once and I saw that his cube farm had actual sliding doors on their cubes, that can be closed to give people some privacy. The doors clamped onto the side of the walls and looked like the beveled, frosted glass you see on a shower door. You could still see the silhouette of someone in the cube, but it gave the occupant some sense of privacy. You could have the doors open when you don't mind people coming into your office to ask questions and slide it closed when you're busy and don't want to be disturbed. Ever since I saw that I've been looking around in google trying to find them so I can tell my boss that's what we need. So far I haven't been able to find them. All I've ever turned up in my searches are cheesy things like these which aren't nearly as nice. Has anyone else seen those nice sliding doors for cubicles and know who makes them?

Re:this is just a patch to a kludge

[ednopantz]

and what landlords want are LARGE OPEN ROOMS with NO BUILDOUT expenses at all.

So, any suggestions on how to reconcile the two? I'm opening an office in a couple of weeks and could use all the advice I can get. It is a big box with nice windows, but that's it.

The best we can do on our startup budget is partitions and white noise. I'd like better, but one buildout quote I got was twice our annual rent. For the first year, that just isn't an option.

A few things I hate about cubicle life.

[Savage-Rabbit]

1. When my cubicle neignbor (who gets lots of phonecalls) leaves his moblie phone on his desks and leaves for hours on end (especially when he sets the thing to vibrate and ring).
   
2. When the people who just failed to reach my cubicle neighbor on his mobile call his desktop phone (which has a really annoying ring tone) and fail to conclude that he is not in after the phone has been ringing for more than 10 seconds.
3. When those same people react to 2) by calling me to ask me if my cubicle neignbor is in or not.
4. When those same people ask me to take messages for him (usually about something he is selling or buying on ebay) after being told in no uncertain terms than "No, he is not in his cubicle".
5. When the guy in the next cubicle returns from his mysterious expedition, picks up his mobile to check his missed calls and starts to (really noisily) consume his food.
6. The people who come to visit my cubicle neighbor and throw half full coffee cups or leftovers into my trash can as they leave.

Re:this is just a patch to a kludge

[0WaitState]

Suggestion: reduce your costs by subdividing your space, but not into single offices.. Someone else posted that they prefer "large" offices shared by a team of 2-4 people working on the same project. Also start a culture of "cell-phone goes on vibrate when you enter the building--or you buy lunch for everyone in earshot". Another inexpensive thing is a type of floor-to-ceiling whiteboard wall covering--per square foot must cheaper than white-boards, and placed in some of the large open areas it encourages ad hoc design, serendipity, etc. But the people sitting immediately next to those areas in their veal fattening pens may suffer... In an ideal world use a line of internal offices to create noise barriers--why do offices have to steal all the natural light?

Joel Spolsky has some insights on software development workspaces. Item 8 on the Joel Test: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog00000000 43.html

A seperate article here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog00000000 68.html

Concalls...

[HockeyPuck]

Now if I could just find something that would keep the idiots within 50ft of me from using their cube phones as speakerphones. Just because they are to (*$(*# lazy to either pickup the handset or use a headset.

I normally just send them an IM (if they even use the corporate IM) and ask them to pick up the phone. One woman once told me she uses speakerphone b/c

a) Handsets are unsanitary (it's her F-ing germs on it).
b) She often needs to type while on the phone.
c) Headsets would mess up her hair.

In a similar vein

[suitepotato]

and this can be considered prior art I guess, I was fiddling with some speech and audio processing stuff when a friend handed over an article about using laser reflections off of glass for spying. We got an idea and after about four hours, came up with a little gizmo that took the input from a microphone, created an opposing cancelling wave form, and mixed it with input from a stereo and we put it to a piezo which we cemented to a window. Presto, no further spying would work.

That was years ago when experimenting with hardware more basic than a premade circuitboard was still cool and surface mount devices were still ultra high tech, I know, but I've often wished it could be done with other things. Such as make objects emit waves out of phase to those coming in to make it hard to hear anyone or anything precisely and clearly past a certain distance.

Of course, enough Jack Daniels will do the same thing...