Slashdot Mirror
Cubicles a Giant Mistake
J to the D writes "Apparently even the designer of the cubicle believes now that they are a bad idea." From the article: "After years of prototyping and studying how people work, and vowing to improve on the open-bullpen office that dominated much of the 20th century, Propst designed a system he thought would increase productivity (hence the name Action Office). The young designer, who also worked on projects as varied as heart pumps and tree harvesters, theorized that productivity would rise if people could see more of their work spread out in front of them, not just stacked in an in-box."
Ha-ha, you fool. You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is "Never get involved in a land war in Asia", but only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a nerd, when *first post* is on the line.".
Hahahahahah.
[Vizzini falls over dead]
My cubicles walls help give me more free time to spend on Slashdot... And, that's Stuff that Matters...
Like any tool, the fault isn't the tool but the people using it. I've worked in (and helped design) some "cubicles" that were closer to Propst's vision... less a cubicle farm than a garden. They beat working in a doored, fully-walled office, and definitely were better than what used to come before them (rows and columns of desks, one-room-schoolhouse style).
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Without cubes, we never would have been given Dilbert, Office Space or User Friendly. Cubes aint all that bad!
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
Cubicles are Cubs Fans who sit in their ice-cold stadium
Considering his track record, HE should be put in a box.
How could a solid so platonic be a "giant mistake?"
tell me you all aren't pumped full of donuts, chained to the desk, allowed to get big and fat, and then sold for slaughter right before the holidays....
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
To remedy this, I suggest corner window offices for all office employees.
I don't get it.
We just move to icosahedronicles.
The latest Slashdot meme.
Unlikely, since he's been dead for several years.
Open plan is even worse, jesus christ I can't bear open plan, oh dear god please don't make me go back to open plan, please!
... theorized that productivity would rise if people could see more of their work spread out in front of them ...
What if your work is in front of you, behind you, on both sides of you, and even hanging above you like a 100-ton anvil? Some cubicles are death traps waiting to happen. Especially if you got a Star Trek nut in a cube.
Unfortunately, stating that it was a bad idea decades after the fact does nothing for the poor beings trapped in these small cages.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to goofy off properly with people walking by?
It bothers me even when I actually doing work.
And here comes someone now.....
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
My first real programming job had me working in a lab with a few other students at an internship. We worked in an environment where we could all see what we were doing because of the total lack of privacy. Now that I am a graduate and a cube monkey, what I see is that cubicles offer the worst of both worlds. They give people the illusion of privacy, which is why a lot of people look at porn at work, and it also makes it much more casual to walk in and engage in idle chit chat since you have no door to knock on or authenticate access to.
Cubicles are, however, a very good way to cheaply maximize space use because you don't have to build the walls, buy the doors and install the windows that are, well, kind of par for the course with having a bonafide office of your own.
Some of the other articles speak about that he still likes the cubicles. What he objects to, is small cubicles. When he designed it, they were about the size of a standard office. Now, they are about 1/6 to 1/8 of the size of an office. Big difference.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I tend to agree, although don't forget that cubicles are a huge imporvement over rows and rows of desks with zero privacy whatsoever. Personally, I'd rather have an office, or at least a cubicle-sized space with a door I can close. It's very distracting for some people to hear everyone's phone conversations, music choices, etc. When I work on a problem, I tend to go lock myself in a lab or some other closed space so I can have "alone time" and carefully consider things.
:-)
It wouldn't be hard at all to give current cubicles full-sized walls and doors. I think it would greatly improve productivity. Think of how many times you've had to listen to people talking two feet away from you while you're trying to concentrate.
One of the main barriers to adoption is the fact that you can't oversee your staff like you can in a cubicle farm or open office. But then again, if you have to constantly watch them, do you really want them as employees?
And here I thought that boxing myself up with the rest of the sardines was a good thing. Sheesh.
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
Veal are forced into their cubicles, we choose to sit in these unnatural, life-negating gnome-holes. Any being that willfully chooses to spend a large portion of their life in one of these contraptions deserves their automaton fate.
...don't forget the - to me - absolutely precious term:
...naturally I mean the cube-farm-heads-popping-up kind, not the "I have to go to the rest room really bad" kind. Although the latter is mildly amusing too.
PRAIRIE DOGGING!
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
I worked on design of the cubicle. The original idea had us placing workers inside transparent spheres, but testing revealed some office environments devolved into crazy pinball machines or a bumper car ride from hell. Our second revision merely squared off the spheres and lowered the height for visibility. There was no long-term view to our design. We were just trying to meet a deadline.
The tandem of tiny cubes and the paging system is enough to drive one to insanity. Nothing like finally slipping into the zone to get some real work done when everybody leaves for lunch when suddenly there is the blaring overhead, "Will the owner of a black jeep please come to the front desk? Your lights are on."
And suddenly I'm back to square one. I don't even think industrial strength ear plugs could block out most corporate paging systems.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
Back when I was in my last year at university I went to a job interview to a .net dev company. Everything went fine, the fellas I talked to seemed ok, tests I had to pass were not that PITA, the money seemed ok too. Yet, I didn't work there, not even for a day. Why ? Yes, "open" office.
Back to the present, I have now a full time and a part time job. In the part time job my place is in a cubicle, sort of, 3 workplaces in a box, about 2m high "walls" between boxes. I only took it, because I only have to spend max. 2 days/week there, and I can also work remotely at times.
And I know I'm not alone with this. FYI, I'm not a bad team player, still, I need my place where I can do my part alone. And yes, music.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
If you read TFA, you'll see that Probst, the inventor of the cubicle, died in 2000. It was actually before then that he realized that cubicles were a mistake...
Don't underestimate the power of The Source
I don't think it's practical to give everyone a corner office, but everyone _could_ have a window.
In Peopleware, Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister observe that work better in offices with windows. When this is pointed out, management usually says "sure, but it's impossible to give everyone a room with a window."
DeMarco and Lister's reply is that in fact every hotel in the world manages to do this.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Prior to starting a second-career as a software engineer for a medium-sized defense contractor, I was an avionics technician in the USAF. My work areas were either windowless labs, aircraft hangars, or aircraft parking areas.
I'll take this cube in climate controlled building with big windows any day. I have more privacy and more comfort. Plus, my co-workers don't fart, spit, and discuss goose-hunting all freakin' day long.
Just my 2 cents.
What?
...my only real complaint is that the standard config of the cube is angled into the corner effect that allows people is creep up behind you. Not so bad if your listening, its when the headphones are on nad they have been stnading there and you had no idea. The whole thing creeps me out. I hate having my back to the flow of traffic. I tend to sit a little sideways as I can catch the door in my side-vision (which of course leads to neck and back stress.
I'd really like a way to move the "door" off center and then twist the whole thing 90 degrees so my seated position would face me at the door. I know this would make my chair and the wall close buddies but I could live with that.
Standard Config:
--------
|/-----|
|| |
|| |
--- ---
What would be better:
---------
| ------|
|| |
| \ ---|
------ Yeah its a little tighter but I'd actually have more deskspace and could see people approach...I'd also prefer that the wall in between the cubes be increased to 7' whcih would also serve again to get ride of that someones behind me feeling.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
I can't even do that in complete privacy!
The latest Slashdot meme.
Interesting? What the hell's wrong with the moderators? Don't you know a mediocre joke when you see one?
The collaborative power of people working on the same project sitting together is crap.
For every time it saves time for one person (in a (typical?) four-person bullpen to be able to call out a question to the others, there's exactly three times it distracts and breaks the flow of the others.
And that's purposeful interruptions; it's not even counting incidental distractions (phone calls, thinking-out-loud comments, etc.).
I've worked in both private offices and open environments, and I'm with Joel. Privacy and lack of interruption is key for developers.
Cool funny t-shirts for geeks, gamers and everyone else
You could just quit looking at dirty sites while at work!
Anyone else find it impossible to read an article that has not one, but two sets of scrolling photos next to it? Jeez, I'm trying not to get my work done here, but the distractions are just too distracting.
-CGP
In this day and age, why is stuff being stacked in an in-box?
When I see a cubicle filled with piles of papers then I know I'm in the presence of a fool.
I have removed the typical cubical wall in several places and always the working together improved, wich is something you would want in general.
Places that still demanded some sort of cubicle were given lower cubicle walls, so people could see each other when sitting down, not only standing up.
Once when asked what type of cubicle people wanted, the answer was none. Taking away cubicles made people generaly happier, because they could see other people and also had the idea that their desk was much, much larger.
There still is enough posibilaty to give people a bit of privacy or the idea of privacy when you place the desk in a good way.
yes, you need to enforce 'clean desk' with it and generaly that is experienced as a good idea after a week or two. In general: trow out everything you did not use in the last year and remove anything from your desk (also stuff in drawers and such) you did not use in the last month.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I totally blew it when I didn't bother to patent double-decker desks. Imagine surfing /. and having your secretary at the desk above you... oh wait, this is /. never mind.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
How about the space of a cubicle, but without the separator? It would certainly help in the feeling of space and you would be able to breath better.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
... on the kind of work you're doing?
A-Bomb
I am one of the annoying people that are loud, pace, act goofy, and in every other way you can think of, annoy the other people in the office. I'll tell you, noise and activity help me be more productive. The fact that I have to dramatically tone it down, just to be tolerable causes a hit to my productivity. Luckily I am now a telecommuter, I have always found that my jobs with offices got way more productivity out of me than my jobs with cubes. Those of us that thrive in noise are perticularly screwed, because no one takes our needs seriously.
Check out the article here by Kathy Sierra (of Head First fame). She quotes neuroscientist Elizabeth Gould of Princeton saying "complex surroundings create a complex brain". Basically, a monotonous environment causes the brain to stop producing new neurons. For years, it was thought that we were born with all the neurons we would ever have, largely because all studies of primate brains involved keeping the monkeys in cages -- an environment that inhibits neuron formation and growth! Now research shows that a stimulating environment fosters neuron formation and reduces brain stress. Time to bust out the electric screwdriver!
Just junk food for thought...
Maybe you meant it as a joke, but it is actually possible to get light on two sides of every room. See Joel's bionic office.
How about a strip of masking tape around you and your desk and a pretend door? Would that be any better?
Now I might be totally off the reservation here, but can a man that died in 2000 really have come up with a new thought? He died in 2000, and before he died back then he said this. So saying he "believes now" is a bit misleading.
That all said, cubicles suck.
-s
I got promoted to management and forced into an office!
Well said.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
In my office, one guy used cardboard to increase the height of his cube walls. We almost put in a masking tape / Les Nesman 4th wall and door for him, but he got moved to an office because he whined so much. Which led to everyone whining.
I did something similar to keep my chatty neighbor from driving me nuts. I started by putting up a huge whiteboard so it stuck an extra foot above the cube wall. Then he couldn't Kilroy over the wall and chat. Then I put two extra desktop machines at the end of my desk to keep him from sitting on my desk to chat. As bonuses, it blocked the view a bit more and the extra white noise drowned him out. Then I had to put an old monitor and desktop on the floor behind my chair so there was nowhere left to stand in my cube to chat. My cube looks like something from Sanford-n-Son, but it keeps people away.
Many of you already know the work environment in asian countries such as Japan, Korea, etc. There the workers for each section all sit at a main block of tables, facing each other two by two, with the section chief at the head of the block. No one dares leave for the night until the Chief does and he doesn't because his boss won't, ad nauseum...
There is absolutely no privacy and the better, more productive workers are moved closest to the chief.
and people wonder why they go out and get shitfaced almost every night...
Disclaimer: I work for a Japanese company, but I'm thankfully based in the US, with a 5 foot high cubicle surrounding me and all my privacy.
So far in my career have I not worked in, nor have I even seen the "cubicles" everyone here is describing. Partitions between groups of people at desks, yes. Offices with one or two persons in them, yes, but not these weird cubicle things you're all on about.
I'm from the UK and pushing 40 years old. My work (technical project management for new media agencies) takes me inside many other company offices, mostly large companies in a variety of sectors. What they hell are these cubicle things? Working in them seems like hell on earth if you have to do anything other than write code all day. I'd go insane, certainly, because I need to talk to people face to face - people need to talk to me. If I want some peace and quiet to do something (like write a document) I stay at home and do it. We have VPNs and Skype these days - even easier.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
When I worked in a cubicle, I had a burning desire to play whack-a-mole with people like that.
Put your damn head back down, get back to work, and leave us busy and productive folks alone so we can get our jobs done, kthxbai.
Random and weird software I've written.
Found the warning label: When ever I hear "theorized" it's normally code for: I am a jerk off academic.Cubicles are bs. Not much beats having a open fealing quietish place. Feng Shui anyone.
Am I the only one who likes cubes? *
I hate seeing anybody else, leave me to my own world and I can space-out and do the job better. I wish I was in a cube at my current job. (4-man open bullpen/closet with 2 desks, 2 PC's and 2 phones.) A cube would be an UPGRADE!
*I only like the cubes that allow me to see the 'door' when sitting. Nothing is worse then sitting in a cube and not seeing people standing behind you. (yes I have a mirror taped to my monitor, I tell people it's because I enjoy the company.)
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
we have to share, 2 people to a cubicle, contractors are crammed in 3 to a cube. It does get fun though, like when I tell the homophobe contractor that one of the guys in his cube is gay and was asking if he was married in the lunch room. contractors also seem to have the lowest productivity for some reason...
Cubes are fine. Just make sure that you don't have your serfs in cubes while the lords are in their offices. Your people won't appreciate the inquality.
I've never heard anybody say, "I spent 6 years in college working my ass off to get a masters in engineering, and the dude who spent all of college drinking with his frat buddies gets paid double my pay and has a private office."
As I type this, I have just added the last of my defences to my cubicle, and my sanity. Barbed wire covers all edges, sandbags line the walls, camo netting cover the top, and my desk thrown in front of the doorway with a machine gun to defend through the gunport slits in the walls make my pillbox an impenetrable fortress. No more will I be constantly moved around for no reason and have my stapler taken from me!
They tried one time too many, but I was ready, and now the police have the building surrounded and the negotiator is saying something about how me burning down Initech was a mistake, but I am safe between the walls of my beloved cubicle and stacks of TPS reports. They can pry my red Swingline from my cold, dead, hands. Come and get it, cube-Nazis! YEAAARGH!
*sound of door-breaching charge*
*sound of flashbang and teargas*
*machine gun fire*
*sound of explosion*
*maniacal laughter*
*screams*
*sound of flamethrower*
ACK! They got me, the bastards, carry on the casue withou- *BOOM!*
*silence*
*radio- "We got him sir! Tango down! Repeat, target neutralized! Get some medics in here!"*
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
I've been long a fan of the Extreme Programming methodology, and as the "CTO" of a small company, (I'm the tech department, now hiring our first "other" programmer) I want to know if anyone here has used XP methodology, and what the optimum office environment for such methods would be?
What's it like? What are the gotchas?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Strange, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned PVPS; "Peripheral Vision Psychosis Syndrome". Evidently, when you see approaching objects in your peripheral vision, your brain perceives that as a threat and is supposed to respond in kind. Open offices conditioned workers' brains to "shut off" this instictive behavior. Suddenly - during the late 50s~60s I believe - office workers started having mental breakdowns for no apparent reason. The cube was supposed to alleviate that.
But then again, try telling that to Milton...
More here: http://www.visionandpsychosis.net/
heh..
Put your damn head back down, get back to work, and leave us busy and productive folks alone so we can get our jobs done, kthxbai.
--
My Final Fantasy Movies are cool [iambitter.org]
Now, that's just funny....
Karnal
yer insane... there is no such law, and I'm sure there are a lotta things you've never seen...
think about it
3rd shift employees
coal miners
the pentagon..
submariners.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
This just in:
Charles Darwin believes in evolution.
George Washington likes democracy.
Dizzy Gillespie plays jazz.
Sure he said it before he died, but is that what he believes? In English, we tend to believe that Mozart no longer "composes", but "decomposes".
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
I SSH to my home box and run a browser on my system by forwarding X through the tunnel - everything is encrypted and no logs are kept on my system at work. Browsing is a little slower but not unbearable if I compress the stream.
this "open concept" crap where I can hear everything and everyone, every stupid cell phone, people are always walking by, and there's no privacy to do my web surfing at work!
Seriously. The optimum environment for XP is everyone in their own office in the same hallway. It gives you enough privacy, and enough room to comfortably do pair programming (or to pack 3-4 people into one office for impromptu design sessions). It gives everyone room for two or more whiteboards in their office. You can leave the doors open and benefit from unconscious intake of other people's project-related conversations, but you can also close the door for total isolation when you need to concentrate on a hard problem.
Other tips:
(1) use an internal instant messaging system but make sure you can block IMs when you're busy so they don't distract you.
(2) if you're like me and like to read e-mail the instant it arrives...just close your e-mail client when you need to get something done.
(3) give window offices to productive employees. Consider rotating offices every 2 months or something, so everyone gets a window some of the time.
(4) Supply couches (or other comfortable furniture) for people's offices. Certainly your project or team leaders (or whoever's office you usually end up in for small planning meetings etc) needs to have one.
(5) make sure there's a lounge area near the offices (ideally its at one end of the hallway). It should have large windows with quality blinds on them. Couches and a coffee table or two. At least one REALLY LARGE whiteboard for design discussions.
Cubicles really do suck. They are the worst of all worlds. Your best chance for achieving flow state, or for pair programming productively with a partner without distracting other people, is in an office where you can close your door.
If you've ever played Indigo Prophecy / Fahrenheit, Lucas Kane has a damn fine office. Sure, there's a cubicle farm right outside it which he has to dive and dodge through, but they've got to have some use, right?
I had this done at one company I worked at. I just politely asked to have the door moved. I could have done it myself but the cube guys were in anyways and they had all the tools in hand. I think it took them a grand total of 5 min in my case since they just had to move a 3' panel. I can't quite make out your diagram but generally the opening is set up as far from the desk as possible ("it seemed like a good idea") while you actually want it touching one corner of your desk. This keeps the doorway in easy view and also allows you to turn your monitor slightly away from the door if, for example, your job involves confidential client data which shouldn't be broadcast to every Wally walking by. It also reduces stress and increases productivity: the animal part of our brain is very uncomfortable with sound or motion behind us and will allocate a big chunk of CPU to monitoring those potential threats.
Someone page Ric Romero!
With open-concept, I can't concentrate! I keep seeing things in my peripheral vision. I keep thinking somebody is staring at me. I feel like I am constantly in the spotlight. It would drive me mad I tell you.... MAD!!
Meh.
All I can say is WTF?
Years ago I worked at a bank where everyone called the developers the "Battery Programmers". It was because of how closely we resembled battery chickens in our cubicles (densely packed that is, not because we produced yummy packages of goodness or even that those above didn't even notice how often they shat on those below).
When a programmer got bored often they would casually lob some object of distraction over the top in an attempt to annoy their fellow developer. It often worked.
After years of battery life we had had enough and decided to try life without partitions. We removed them and, to the amazement and pleasure of our manager, found that we started to talk openly about work and that productivity and quality actually went up.
We still lobbed objects at each other when we were bored but hit each other in the face much less often (we could see our targets) and didn't usually do it when there was a full cup of coffee to knock over (bad form, that).
The partitions were never used again except for one day when we watched the CEO, Company Secretary and CIO walked into the computer room and wander around looking carefully into every nook and cranny. This puzzled us until after they were gone when the IT Manager let slip that there was a bomb scare which they weren't telling anyone about. The bomb was supposedly in the computer room. We got the partitions back out of storage and stacked them in front of the glass walls and then stacked boxes of paper as well. The bomb scare was a hoax so unfortunately I can't tell you how well partitions work as anti-explosion shielding devices.
I fully agree. One of the places where I worked had a cubicle farm, where nobody worked, and a central open area where the 3270's were located (that should tell you how long ago it was, if you can even remember 3270 terminals.)
That was where we were coding, reviewing stuff, learning off of each other, collaborating.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I think it's cheaper to pay for sheetrock and metal studs than fancy "modular" furniture. It's really expensive when you stick to the bigger names in the business...herman miller, steelcase, etc. The big sell of modular furniture is the fact that you can "re-configure" them into new shapes. How often does this really happen? I have been in a cube farm for 5 years with no changes in it's physical layout.
Mom! Guess who got an office with a door!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
You must be on crack to believe that. Anyone who works in a job that requires any kind of concentration (software development being the most obvious example) will, given the opportunity, enter a state of "flow" where they are wholly committed to the work they're doing.
I certainly enter a state of "flow" when I've had too much coffee during the day, but I'm not sure it's the kind which actually enhanced productivity.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/13/cubicle_doorw ay_hang.html
Works like a charm!
Though it might not be practical to give everyone an office, why not assign offices dormitory style, shared offices with 2 or 3 people that find each other compatible. Of course, it sounds kind of idealistic, but its a middle ground.
I'd explain it to you, but I see you already lost interest in the topic.
How is Not wanting to pay attention to mind numbing worthless crap a Disorder?
95% of Cubed jobs are beneath human intelligence and human dignity.
Paper pushing, filling out forms, reading emails, answering phones, writing memos, creating reports.
Worthless drivel the whole lot of it, a mind numbing, soul killing waste of time.
'The Office', 'Office Space', and Dilbert say a lot about corporate culture.
When people are stuffed into stalls and given less rights than horses and cattle, why should they enjoy it?
(livestock is allowed to 'eat at their desks' - many people are not allowed such a freedom.)
There is a reason little boys want to grow up and be firemen, superman, etc - excitement.
I haven't met any children who want to grow up and be 'Assistant to the District Manager of Accounts Payable.'
How come upper management never uses them? Even they know cubes are crap. At my last job I went from an office, where I was highly productive, to a cube where I didn't do a damn thing until I left. Too many interruptions, too much noise.
I still dont understand why companies dont like telecommuting.
In the modern world of email, instant-messaging as well as things like VOIP/voice chat and video confrencing, there is no reason that you couldnt have, say, developers working from home.
No need to spend money even on cubes or open-plan office space.
Have meeting rooms for those times when a face-to-face meeting is the only way to get things done and other alternatives wont work.
Management can see how much work is being done by looking at how much code employees commit to the reository. Or by looking at how many of their assigned bugs or features or tasks they complete and sign off on (including how long it takes them to do each one).
Advantages of working from home as I see it:
1.No need to commute to work (saves money and time as well as saving the environment)
2.Saves the company money in that they dont need to spend as much on cubes/offices/space, electricity etc etc etc.
3.Allows workers to work a little more flexibly (in that as long as they are working the right number of hours, they dont necessarily need to be 9-5 mon-fri). Want to go to the movies? Work late other nights that week and take friday afternoon off.
Living with school-age kids? Start work when they are off at school, work through until they come home, then do stuff with the kids until bed-time and spend a couple hours working after the kids are in bed to make up for the hours you didnt work in the afternoon.
Need to go to the bank to sort something out? Go to the bank and make up the work later that day.
4.Allows workers to work in what they might consider a better environment (Want to have your music playing? No problems. Dont want to wear a tie? No problems.)
Cubicles are not necessary but Cubicle Level Protection is.
m
m
_ can_do.htm
Herman Miller introduced the Action Office 1 in 1964 but modified it to create the cubicle in 1968.
What happened? Workers using the first prototype began having mental breaks. The problem was solved. Subliminal Sight and Peripheral Vision Reflexes had acted in the "Special Circumstances" those first movable close-spaced workstations created to cause the mental breaks.
Today college students commit suicide and disappear because schools are unaware of Subliminal Distraction and the mental events it can cause.
http://visionandpsychosis.net/Missing_Students.ht
http://visionandpsychosis.net/College_Suicides.ht
This psychology experiment was written so that a sixth grader could perform it.
http://visionandpsychosis.net/a_demonstration_you
Some people have said that I play too many violent video games. It makes me so mad that I want to whip out an uzi and shoot them but I DON'T. Instead I go down town roll a couple of bums or scare whores by pretending that I'm going to run over them with my car. Then I usually feel much better so I can home and my mom makes me dinner. But then she keeps naggin me about getting a job and I feel like getting a carrot pealer and stabbing her in the eye but I DON'T because I go to my bedroom, lock myself in, find my game controller which is usually in the semi-clean pile of underwear on the bed, not the 3 day old at the foot of the bed. I play GTA until 3 or 4 AM, jackoff and go to sleep. My friends do pretty much the same thing and aren't anymore violent than I am. F-- you guys.
This is Slashdot. I recommend spelling it as "Linii".
When you've got one of these... http://24.211.211.96/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffic e.html
Why cut IT when your office space costs $3/sf? gibso
On reading this thread, I begin to appreciate the design of my new office, where every room gets exterior light, even rooms that don't share a wall with the exterior of the building. This is accomplished by having the top 50cm or so of every wall be transparent, so that external light filters into the hallways and from there into the interior rooms. We still need room lights, but the whole place looks bright and cheery on a sunny day.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
it's open plan heaven over here.
It took him that long? For all I know, he and some corporate PHBs (who themselves, of course, have nice little offices) were the only ones who ever thought cubicles are a good idea.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
While people here on /. seem to embrace the increased productivity of people having an own office (with a window...), there's also another point: in a cubicle you can't give your eyes a rest. They have only to work within a 3-feet radius (if ever), mostly being concentrated on the screen.
If you have the chance to grab a windowed office, give it a try and just focus a very remote point outside every now and then. You will actually feel how this helps your eyes relaxing.
There are also theories (no idea if proven or not) that without doing those "remote spot rests" your eyes age faster, i.e. you will get accomodation problems earlier than needed.
You greatly overestimate human intelligence.
You obviously aren't familiar with conditions on cattle ranches.
You seem very angry. Still, not being able to focus on something despite making an effort to do so is a problem. I have dealt with this my entire life, and I wish I had been able to force myself to pay attention to all that boring homework I didn't do. If I had, I wouldn't be in a cubicle now.
In the 80's, I worked for a Major Software Company that is now little more than a brand name for a larger company. We had recently moved into a brand new building carefully designed for developers (i.e., adequate power and network connectivity, server areas), which happened to implement a strong preference for private offices (although some space was left open for potential cubicle space.
Enter a new CTO, who expresses a disdain for private offices, and embarks on a plan to double- and triple-up people in the former private offices, and pack cubicles into any available open space (including underneath open stair cases). Morale drops.
Almost immediately said CTO takes over the largest conference room on our floor, which can seat 20 comfortably and pack in 40 or more for a big meeting, and which happens to have a river view, as his private office! And then knocks down a wall and takes over the adjoining former single office as well! Morale tanks.
You can't make this stuff up.
Dilbert complains to the PHB, "Just as I thought, my cubicle is two inches smaller today than yesterday!" PHB replies, "We installed real-time status adjusters in the cubicle walls. Sensors monitor your work and adjust the cubicle size according to your value." In frame three, co-workers sit in milk-crate sized cubicles as Wally says, "It's amazing how fast you get used to it."
I can't find the original comic, but I have it printed out and stuck up on my cubical wall.
Causing Chaos Everywhere,
Nik J.
The strange world of a loner, in a populous city, drowning in society
Well, if you're assistant of the district manager of whatever, it means that at least you have ass-kissing^H^H^H^Hpeople skills...
and an unwillingness to take a pay cut to do something more interesting.
I've heard those über-extroverts actually enjoy the brown-nosing... ;-)
I have worked in a variety of offices and have to say that I love the mixture of privacy (head down gettingon with it) and sociability (hanging around chatting)offered by full-height cubes.
The UK is very keen on open plan, and it's just too distracting for me. On the other hand being shut in an office seems too isolated.
The only thing I do like about cubes is the way they look when you walk into the room (like pig sty's).
My three rules for good cube life are:
1. Customise the lighting.
2. Customise the space.
3. Get some extra entertainment.
I always kill the overhead lights, in the UK anything less than 50Watts per square metre seems to be impossible, so turn the tubes by 90 degrees or use an air pistol to take them out.
Pin-ups are a must, family, hobbies, flags, etc etc... I have seen water scupltures, fish tanks (very nice fresh water fish), CD libraries (of the musical kind) the list is endless. In fact it was always a pleasure to see how people personalised their own space.
A Hi-Fi is a must, preferably valve driven, but whatever it is make it bigger than the ipod.
Finally lighting. Having killed the overhead lights, some nice subtle ikea desk lighting. I know someone that had a full standard uplighter.
Would I swap my open plan office for a cube... yes all day every day.
I think cubes are not that used here in Europe.
I was in the States for some time working in a project, and they gave me a cubible to work in. I found it really claustrophobic, I had never worked in such an environment before. But I must admit it was nice to concentrate in an environment that was lonely and silent most of the time. My office is a large open space always busy and noisy.
I noticed people in the North of Europe cope really well in an open environment because they tend to work silently most of the time.
In the South, however, as is my case, people talk to each other all the time, and tend to have meetings at their desks instead of using a separate room. It's annoying. Fortunately, I have my headphones and tons of MP3.
Anyway, I'm glad I don't work in a cube.
1. It's interesting [but not surprising] that once again the original concept is twisted by corporate gree^h^h^ goals. Rather than providing more workspace and some privacy [from the large-rooms-with-desks of the '40s and '50s], they pack 'em in to save on expense.
2. From the comments here, it seems ludicrous to assume every department have the same office set - perhaps lawyers, personnel, etc. need offices with doors, programmers and other creatives need more open space [to collaborate], and sales doesn't need any permanent space. Too bad most companies use the cookie-cutter approach.
Who put this thing together? Me, that's who.
That will cure any concentration problems in noisy environments!
I mainly use Opeth, but Faroese Viking Metal is not bad either.
-H
The article documents the history of the cubicle and the fact that people tend to hate them, but it doesn't say anything about cubes being more or less productive than anything else, let alone why. It mentions that the original Action Office shrank to the present cubicle as companies wanted to pack as many people as possible into a given space. But it seems to me that an array of desks in a big room would achieve even denser packing than cubes. Maybe I missed the point of this whole post.
It's pretty easy to goof off and look like your're working. You can't actually sleep at your desk, but just about anything else goes.
Does Slashdot still render well in Lynx after the new CSS skinnning?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
DeMarco and Lister's reply is that in fact every hotel in the world manages to do this.
Cruise ships don't. Always pay the extra $100 for the oceanview cabin. Waking up at 9am to pitch black darkness will totally screw with your vacation.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
*sigh* No it's not ADD. It's (at best) a symptom of ADD. You see this is why the DSM-IV says things like:
"6 (or more) of the following symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level"
http://add.about.com/cs/addthebasics/a/dsm.htm
Look at that! (if you're still paying attention and haven't gone off diagnosing other people). You need a quantity of symptoms, over a prolonged period of time to a degree that interferes seriously with your functioning.
Interestingly enough the edition that they are quoting doesn't mention anything remotely like 'hyperfocus' as a symptom. Even if it had and even if it somehow omitted the fact that you need to display a number of symptoms. You are stil making a directional fallacy. i.e. If some ADHD sufferers have trait X then all people who exhibit trait X have ADHD.
Which if true would imply that everyone who has trouble sleeping has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as the DSM-IV says 'difficulty falling or staying asleep'.
Not to mention you appear to be taking the wiki as gospel which is...well...a whole other internet 'disorder'.