Large Tech Companies Moving Beyond the Cubicle

statemachine writes in with a story from Silicon Valley about how Intel and Cisco, among other companies, are experimenting with cubeless, open, and unassigned seating. "Beginning this month, [Intel] will set up three experimental work sites. Open areas, comfortable armchairs, extra conference rooms and tables where people can plop down with laptops will replace the ubiquitous cubes that have been standard issue for decades. Each morning, Intel employees will log onto the corporate network using wireless connections. Their phone numbers will follow them. White boards that employees use to sketch out business plans and project strategies will be outfitted with electronics so drawings and plans can be transferred to laptops and e-mailed to colleagues. 'People feel much more comfortable coming up to me. It's more of a friendly atmosphere,' Cisco senior manager Ted Baumuller said. 'I hope I never have to go back to cubes.'"

Re:What about personal things

[Professor_UNIX]

Irrelevant in the new economy. We need employees to be fluid and quick to react to any situation. When it comes time to lay them off they should be able to leave at a moment's notice with little to no trace that they ever existed at the company other than their e-mail account and storage space on the company file server which are being wiped as we speak. Turn in your badge and laptop and calmly wait for security to escort you off the premises.

Odors

[schmaustech]

I suppose having an open office will help with the dispersion of various odors.

Re:My company did this to send people home

[value_added]

I was moved from a single office, with a door, to a double up office, to a cube farm in a call center with cube walls one foot higher than the desk.

Hope you got to keep that red stapler, at least.

Bad idea

[Blue6]

makes it harder to read /. at work.

Now get back to work wage donkeys!

I see some sterile nerds in the near future.

[RandoX]

No desks? Laptops on for 8 hours? You do the math.

Re:What about personal things

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't too hard to claim a personal spot in a situation like this. Just eat a lot "while working" and make sure the crumbs are all over the chair. Fart a lot into the seat cushion and make sure people hear it from time to time. Trust me, that spot is all yours...

Not Exactly New

[jeffx]

Cisco's office in Atlanta had something very similar to this in 1999. I remember thinking it was a pretty cool way of using technology but not something I would want to work in. At the time I liked having little geek toys decorating my cube. It would have taking a long time to set up my toys again and again.

Who am I kidding, I still have little geek toys decorating my workspace.

Re:I'm lucky

[Rob T Firefly]

My work requires my test equipment (45kg) and its power module (20kg), a signal generator (20kg), a specter analyser (30kg), an oscilloscope (5kg), a lab power suply (5kg) and dozens of meters of various cabling

What's it like being a Ghostbuster?

Re:Backward Tech Companies

[sckeener]

The company I am with has workspaces (aka cubes)that everyone is unhappy with....so much so that we will be moving back to offices. Glass offices that are the exact size of our cubes...er..I mean workspaces.

I'd rather have the cube walls than glass walls and a door. At least I can talk quietly and the white noise can muffle the rest.

Glass walls though....Might as well bring back the village mentality and have public flogging for people that don't conform to the group think. I don't see any illusion (after all that is what it is...an illusion) of privacy in glass walls.

First thing I plan on doing...covering the glass walls with pictures of my latest family trip...I'll get my walls back.

Re:As a european from

[seven of five]

I guess that's proof that there's life on Europa.

Re:I'm lucky

[Anonymous Coward]

Well... IANAG... but I heard bustin' makes you feel good.

Re:nothing new about *that* economy...

[twistedsymphony]

Dom: So um, Milton has been let go?

Bob Slydell: Well just a second there, professor. We uh, we fixed the glitch. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it will just work itself out naturally.

Bob Porter: We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem solved from your end.

Re:What about personal things

[El_Muerte_TDS]

We need employees to be fluid and quick to react to any situation.

Yeah, tried that once by throwing a cup of hot coffee to a co-worker and yelling: "Think fast!".
It appeared that he couldn't react quickly enough to a changing situation involving fluids.

Scorpio

[halcyon1234]

Relax, Homer. At Globex, we don't believe in walls.

Re:What about personal things

[kalirion]

Don't you mean "Brillant"?

Re:terrible terrible terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean coffee stains, skin particles, food grease, saliva, boogers, pubic hair.

I'm intrigued about your work environment

Re:What about personal things

[belligerent0001]

Wind breakage will only work so long as you are there to 'vent' if you have to take a leak you will have to leave. by marking with pee one accomplishes 2 tasks (multi tasking) first, you relieve your bladder pressure, second you area is marked for the next day. Plus there is the shock factor of an irate tech standing up on his chair spraying a nice golden arch as he spins his chair. I could see a National Geographic documentary "The Life of the Illusive and Secretive IT Tech".

productivity = delta(light)/time ?

[psychicninja]

they changed the lighting, and productivity went up 15%. They changed the lighting back, and productivity still went up 15%.

Wow! So by replacing the fluorescents with strobes my productivity should go through the roof!