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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."
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
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.
He IS in a box. RTFA.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
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?
...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?
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
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.
... on the kind of work you're doing?
A-Bomb
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?
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.
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)
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.
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.
Dogbert: I plan to enslave the world. I will put everyone in small boxes and make them work there all day.
Dilbert: That's ridiculous. People would never stand for that. Now get out of my cubicle, I'm trying to get stuff done.
Dogbert: You mean your box.
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.
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!
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 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.)
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
One company I used to work for thought cubicles were great. I guess managers liked seeing their engineers all boxed up in rows like a barn full of laying hens.
Problem was I was productive in the lab, not in a cubicle. I didn't last long there.
Funny, managers want engineers with "people skills", then think that holing us up in an enclosure similar to a bathroom stall is going to encourage productivity?
There are not many things I can do in a cubicle-sized stall. Maybe testing efficacy of different laxatives, but thats about it.
I figured such insight probably is similar to one who sees a beautiful report coming from a printer, buys that printer, takes it to the office, sets it up, and expects more fine work to come from the slot on the side of the machine.... completely unaware that the printer was hooked to a computer at the showroom.
I know my parable looks ludicrous, but often appears to be the Occam's razor solution for what I observe.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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
If you want to avoid the huge honking X overhead, forward your squid proxy port instead:
ssh -C -L 3128:localhost:3128 your_home_machine sleep 28800
At work, configure a localhost:3128 as your proxy.
It will still be slower than if you went through your employer's proxy, but not quite as slow as forwarding X.