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America's Cubicles Are Shrinking
Hugh Pickens writes "In the 1970s, American corporations typically thought they needed 500 to 700 square feet per employee to build an effective office, but the LA Times reports that today's average is a little more than 200 square feet per person, and the space allocation could hit a mere 50 square feet by 2015. 'We're at a very interesting inflection point in real estate history,' says Peter Miscovich, who studies workplace trends. 'The next 10 years will be very different than the last 30.' Although cubicles have shrunk from an average of 64 feet to 49 feet in recent years, companies are looking for more ways to compress their real estate footprint with offices that squeeze together workstations while setting aside a few rooms where employees can conduct meetings or have private phone conversations. 'Younger workers' lives are all integrated, not segregated,' says Larry Rivard. 'They have learned to work anywhere — at a kitchen table or wherever.'"
"Younger workers' lives are all integrated, not segregated," says Larry Rivard. "They have learned to work anywhere — at a kitchen table or wherever."
Could that be because their office space has become so worthless that anywhere else is preferable?
F0 07 C7 C8
Why people still like cubicles.
The place I worked had an open plane. My team members had connecting desks to each other. If I needed anything (since I worked in ICT - needing someone else is common) - all I had to do it talk, or move my chair a bit. I think cubicles aren't very good for morale anyway.
I'll be in the basement, clutching my red stapler.
In the USA, office employees are kept in a sort of shoe-box with a size that, for understandable reasons, is measured in feet. Those boxes have shrunk.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Next they'll expect us to share a desk too:
http://movieclips.com/Mkivg-brazil-movie-the-moving-desk/
I'm sitting in about 64 ft^2. It sucks but I like making money too.
Our freaking cubes are so tight (less than 100 square feet) and small that simply talking on the phone is a total pain. There's a guy in the cube next to me who always has to use his speaker phone for EVERY call. I can't even hear myself think when he's on the phone.
That alone should be reason enough to not support cubicles.
My personal office space is 36 square feet; I am lucky enough to have a window along one edge. I spend most of my working life with a headset on to shut out the interference to my concentration from my near neighbours, four of whom I could hit with a baseball bat (quite cheerfully, as it happens) without leaving my chair. Welcome to the world of being an IT Architect.
maybe it's the occupants getting larger.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I just checked mine and it's 6' x 7'.
OMG, 42!
it all makes sense now!
I am new to this whole work world thing. I write for the most part. My problem with cubicles is this: at times all my co-workers in the cubicles around are making sales calls, or discussing web dev stuff, or just hamming it up, and I find it extremely hard to concentrate. It may just be that I am new to the game, but it does get a bit frustrating.
In most areas, commercial real estate is going empty.
This is being driven by a desire to control employees. They want to huddle them close together so they are easier to watch and they tend to police each other.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
I have no need to even be at the office. I can work remotely just fine. Gone are the days of piles of paper and shelves of reference books. I never have to file away physical files. Most of my communications with my coworkers is via instant messaging and email. For reference i am a software engineer. I am currently working on convincing my company to let me work from the road in my RV.
Who's running these corporations? Millipedes?
The copious amounts of space top level executives in the USA take up has grown exponentially in the last 30 years. It is estimated that in the next 10 years they will need infinite space to just barely function. "I need more space than a third world factory just for my golf stuff. I have no idea where I'll put all my awards and toys. I'm really super worried about this." One Fortune 500 CEO is quoted as saying.
Y'know when I was younger I would have worked on a shelf if it meant I had a job and I was doing something I loved, I don't see this as anything new.
I really can't think of any cube environment I've worked in that was conducive to work, the best environments always seem to have been open, yet not too big. An open room with 6 to 8 people seems to be the magic zone.
The biggest cube I worked in was at the Provincial Gov't, they had this massive 1960s job that had two chairs, a proper desk, a fully adjustable "computer" desk and a coat rack. I kinda liked that cube because there was enough room for small meetings, pair programming and it gave you some space for thinking (without having three other noisy people two meters away from you all the time). In fact it wasn't until I got into a modern cube farm that I had to go out and buy noise cancelling headphones (though very nearly a noise cancelling shotgun).
It's weird, with walls people are loud and obnoxious, with no walls they have respect for each other.
crazy dynamite monkey
I work from home and have done so for over ten years now. I've made it work successfully. I will very openly state that many of my coworkers cannot effectively work from home.
The reasons that work from home isn't always a good idea vary. Some people require the human face to face contact. Others require the firmer separation, the act of actually going to another building to put them in the work mindset. Some do not have a home situation amenable to working from home. Some are just in jobs that require too much interaction with the rest of the team or just cannot be done remotely. (People who's job requires physical access to specific hardware without waiting an hour for the person to get there.)
Even many of my coworkers who do work from home make excuses to go into the office periodically to meet with peers for lunch. This helps smooth over issues so that work is done more smoothly.
"I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend unto the death your right to say it." -- Voltaire
I think the reason for cubicle shrinkage has more to do with how irrelevant desk space has become over the past 30 or 40 years. Everyone works off of computers and doesn't need a large amount of desk space - at least not as large as they had in the past. I have very little on my desk, mostly personal items (pictures, cell phone, MP3 player, etc.). 30 years ago desks would have to accomodate stacks of paper and notepads, and they would also need the ability to spread these items out.
LOL! Thanks, that really cracked me up. Now, here's an alternative translation for us wacky metric system users:
I currently work in an open-plan environment. My job requires some significant coding work (requiring total focus for long periods of time) while all of my colleagues are involved in much more piecemeal work. They have absolutely no comprehension of how frustrating and damaging it is to my productivity to be subjected to their distracted working pattern all day.
There are definite benefits to working open-plan, but for some tasks it is simply inappropriate and detrimental.
Meta will eat itself
49 feet seems quite big for a cubicle. But what's the other horizontal dimension?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
But once manglement gets the idea most people can use less space, policy is created forcing less space. Then, getting a cubicle waiver for extra space is now a futile exercise in politics instead of a business process. No one will spend political capital on cubicle space; they just tell the employee to work it out or work in the inadequate space.
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
You're only already there because you accept their bullshit.
Turn the fucking phone off when your work day is over, and don't turn it back on until you are back in the next day. If part of your job is to be on call, turn the phone on only when you are on your on call hours.
A change in attitude like this will severely piss your management off, as they are used to exploiting you. But do some shit that looks like you are trying to help. If you are facing having to do overtime to get a job done, don't do the job and go home - and when management go ballistic tell them that you didn't want to rack up overtime costs for them. And that you are willing to work if they are willing to pay you your overtime.
Ultimately you need to work what you are contracted to work. Don't flatly refuse to do more, offer your help in the work place, just make it clear that you need to be well compensated. You'll see a lot less kitchen tables if you stop letting them walk all over you.
That figure for the entire office floor space, not the individual offices/cubes. That is, 500-700 square feet including offices, hallways, break rooms, bathrooms, etc.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
I don't like working from home but for a different reason. As a contractor, paid by the hour, I can get 8.5 hours worth of on-site work done in about 4 hours at home... If I'm on-site, I can bill for 8.5 hours. If I'm at home, I can bill for 4 hours. Since my employer (my customer, technically) would prefer I work on-site instead of shelling in remotely, I oblige them by coming in, dealing with distractions and beauracracy, in exchange for billing higher... They're still happy with the quantity of work that gets done and continue to pay me well and renew my contract, year after year.
"effective office" cubicle is an oxymoron. There have been many studies over the years that show that open office spaces are counter-productive. The book, Peopleware, by DeMarco and Lister covers this and other topics, related to the management of knowledge workers. At the time Peopleware was written, DeMarco and Lister couldn't find a single productivity study that supported the installation of cubicles.
People not found at their desks are often practicing the productivity enhancement called, "hiding from the boss". It is often the only way to get work done around a micro-manager.