Cubicles a Giant Mistake 374
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."
Stuff that Matters... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stuff that Matters... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stuff that Matters... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I do one better... (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Just Another Tool (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Insightful)
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. Many people have likely experienced this: ever start working and then suddenly realize it's already lunch time? Have you had periods where you spend a couple hours deeply focused while getting enormous amounts of work done? That's flow.
The thing is, getting into this state requires at least 20 minutes to a half an hour, and it can be very easily disturbed by outside distractions, such as noise, conversations, etc. And any break in ones concentration just requires another 20 minutes of recovery time. Consequently, open, cubicle-style workspaces are exactly the *worst* kind of work environment for these kinds of professions. All they do is increase the amount of distraction and make it more difficult for employees to enter a proper state of flow, when they are most productive.
This would be why I greatly favour offices over any other kind of open concept design, at least for these types of jobs. Does that mean slackers can slack off more easily? Sure. But you'll see greatly increased productivity from the quality employees, as they'll be able to get more work done due to less distraction. And for those slackers, well, the more they slack off, the more obvious it is that they're doing it, giving you the opportunity to cut out the chaff from the wheat.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Funny)
Even in a typical private office, however, there are still distractions. The telephone ringing or your neighbor speaking too loud or any of a million other things can be disturbing.
A good compromise is to provide flexible space, cubicles for handling the normal day-to-day stuff, team rooms for collaborative work, and small private spaces with no distractions for deep solo concentration.
Actually, lots of companies provide the third. The room is generally tiled and has a row of tiny offices equipped with porceline chairs.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Funny)
True. To coin the grandparent poster, I often experience "the flow" when in these private sanctuaries.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Interesting)
Course, we don't use cubes either, just a wide open floor with desks.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:3, Insightful)
There is, unfotunately, no desk system that can compensate for coders who skip the test and UAT stages and move code directly from dev to live, then wonder why it doesn't work...
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, that's nice in theory. In practice, the people most dedicated to The Flow (tm), are the antisocial, uncooperative nitwits who hole themselves up in their offices for 8+ hours each day, only to turn out piles of un-reviewed, un-documented, poorly-specified crap (whether code or otherwise).
With no exceptions, the best tech workers I know are balanced, social people who prefer not to hole up in their offices. The best coding environment I ever worked in was a room of 6 developers, separated by bookshelves, with small break-out rooms available for truly private conversations. Of course, you do actually have to like your coworkers for a setup like that to work, but I digress....
Hip hip hoorah. (Score:3, Insightful)
That was where we were coding, reviewing stuff, learning off of each other, collaborating.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had from about 1000 friends (not kidding) to almost none. I'm not this or that. I'm not social or anti-social. Sometimes I chat up almost anyone, and other times I want my space. Sometimes I am a party/clown type fool and others times I'm serious. Don't stick me with your idiotic labels just because you didn't have the priviledge to know me for more than 3 years, please.
Right now I work in a cube. I love talking to others. Right now. I am not obligated to keep loving it. I am not obligated to hate it. And here's the kicker, I still enter the zone! Even in a social situation I can be as focused as anyone in a completely isolated and sound-proof office. AND it doesn't stop me from being able to chat with my cube buddies once in a while, or maybe a lot on some days. Or maybe not at all on others.
For Pete's sake, just stop stereotyping. The zone, social, anti-social, good, bad, asshole, nice, it's not how you imagine. It's really not. It only seems you got it nailed down. But once you start asking yourself tough questions and start being really observant, you'll see that people are individuals and that many qualities you previously thought to be exclusive are not necessarily exclusive.
Someone in an office can be very friendly and social. Someone in a cube farm or in a completely open environment can be able to enter the zone. Someone who can enter the zone can be very considerate of others. Someone who is a socialite could be an inconsiderate and narcisistic asshole. And so on. Just because you talk to others a lot and get your code reviewed doesn't mean you write good code. You might be stupid and resistant to change, no matter how much your code gets reviewed. The reviewers might be idiots. It's really, really hard to say. It's very context/situation dependent. And please, I am not trying to know code reviews -- I love open source and I constantly solicit reviews of my own code, even though code review is not even a policy in my workplace.
In a word, just try to grow an open mind. Please. For all of us! Not just for your own sake.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Informative)
The way to eliminate distractions is not to build walls, but to build awareness of people's needs. People need to be aware of how the noise they make affects others. That's not just important in cube land — somebody with a nasty case of "cell phone shout" can reach through walls!
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:4, Interesting)
It's going pretty well and I can pretty much stay in the flow no matter what. Although I do worry about the fire alarms. Next I'm going to try a recliner.
Ideally I'd like to dump the keyboard and mouse, but I can't think how.
I'm much better at getting through work, although my wierdness factor is just gone up an order of magnitude.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:5, Interesting)
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocus [wikipedia.org]
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, if you are easily distracted, have trouble getting into a mental/emotional state where you can work and think clearly, and once in "the zone" you are hyperfocused on your goal, then you may have ADD. It might be associated with hyperactivity, or with inattention/phasing out. In my case, it's associated with an astonishingly small amount of mental RAM and extreme sluggishness in the morning before my first dose of (no I don't believe in Xenu) drugs.
If you're a coffee addict or smoker, and you feel large amounts of these stimulants help you to function normally (and when you try to come off them you just CAN'T), that's more evidence that ADD may be responsible. Ask your doctor for a referral to a (good) psychiatrist!
By the way, ADD can be successfully managed with a lot less drugs and a lot more yoga, and it has been associated with people like Einstein who clearly had a "nerd personality" but definitely not ASD. So it's not a delinquency/criminal illness and it's not mental retardation and it's DEFINITELY not an excuse for lazy people to get high! (I am a Buddhist and I hate drugs - I won't even take strong herbs without a doctor's orders.) Actually, there's often a genetic cause and usually related to the ASD gene (but with a different expression in brain function).
Bring on the pink Hello Kitty labcoat for use in all those laser labs where my sparkly things are banned!
xx
Rocket
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:4, Interesting)
The larger office is my public office. It used to be a conference room but is now packed with book shelves, a several tables and desks, and a number of computers. Any more, I spend about three fourths of my workday in it.
The smaller, private office is very quiet. It is well insulated and has no telephone. It has a large comfortable easy chair pushed up to a desk with a couple of computers and a monitor. It also has a CD player and small speakers, but I hardly turn it on. Everyone knows to bother me there only if it is really important.
I can usually accomplish more software development work in two uninterrupted hours in the private office than I can in 8 hours in the public office.
All it takes is one or two interruptions in that two hours and my productivity drops to about the same as in the public office.
Coffee flow (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:3, Interesting)
When did I say they could? My point is that offices are better. Period. Whether a company can afford them is a completely different issue. I happen to work for a tech company on a site in a smaller Canadian city where office space is relatively cheap. Consequently, we all have two-person offices (with windows, no less). Is this unusual? Probably. Is it incredibly awesome
Re:Just Another Tool (Score:3, Interesting)
Now wait just a minute... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes! ...and (Score:5, Insightful)
PRAIRIE DOGGING!
Re:Now wait just a minute... (Score:5, Insightful)
The creators of these works are essentially profiting from helping us to relieve the stress and pain caused by bad work environments and policies.
Imagine what rewarding and fulfilling work they could do, if society had no need for them to expend their creative energies helping us to relieve the stress of working in cubicles.
Imagine what more we could all do, if we didn't have to relieve that stress in the first place!
Dilbert, Office Space, and User Friendly all make the best of a bad situation. I'd rather their creators never had a bad situation to make the best of, in the first place.
Re:Now wait just a minute... (Score:3, Insightful)
My sig is actually a dig at libertarianism, which, in a general way, holds that individuals can organize themselves in a community, without the need for "government".
My take is that the moment you start organizing a community, you end up with a system that performs essentially the same functions, in essentially the same way, as "government".
I also think that government
Re:Now wait just a minute... (Score:3, Insightful)
As Heisenberg said, "There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them."
The question is, is the suffering worth it to you?
Speaking of Dilbert... (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Cubicles are Cubs Fans ... (Score:5, Funny)
cubicles are great for raising livestock (Score:5, Funny)
Re:cubicles are great for raising livestock (Score:2)
I agree completely! (Score:5, Funny)
Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Windows (Score:3, Funny)
whoosh!!!!
Re:Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
It is, of course, entirely possible that the cost will be worth it, due to the incresed productivity, reduced stress, and general worker well being. It's just not as straight forward as it may appear.
Re:Windows (Score:2)
Oh, and I've been in hotel rooms without a window.
Re:Windows (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Windows (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Windows (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, nearly everybody here has a window, because the building used to be a window factory, so the previous company used their own product nearly everywhere in the construction. If it was to showcase them or to cut down on the cost of drywall, I'm not sure.
Of course most of them look out onto stairwells or warehouse shelves, but at least they are windows:)
Re:Windows (Score:5, Funny)
This is Slashdot. I recommend that they get Linuxes instead.
Re:Windows (Score:2)
Remember the context is also getting more work out of your employees.
Re:I agree completely! (Score:5, Insightful)
I would be far happier in my cube if the walls went floor to ceiling, and there were real sound dampening materials in the walls. I can hold a conversation with the guy on the other side of the wall while speaking in a low voice. And I'm sick and tired of impromptu speaker-phone conference calls in the cube next to me.
I feel exactly the same way about bathroom stalls.
Re:I agree completely! (Score:4, Funny)
For the love of God, pipe down! I'm tryina take a crap over here..
corner offices for everybody (Score:3, Interesting)
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 [joelonsoftware.com].
Easy fix... (Score:5, Funny)
What the dead believe (Score:5, Informative)
Unlikely, since he's been dead for several years.
Re:What the dead believe (Score:5, Funny)
he's been dead for several years.
You heard it here first: even brain-eating zombies hate cubicles.
Re:What the dead believe (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, he died in 2000, according to this FORTUNE article [cnn.com] which was posted in this Slashdot story [slashdot.org]. From the first paragraph of the article:
You should read the article. It mentions that he's dead, and it explains (based on accounts by his still-living peers) how his original Action Office devolved into the cubicle.
Re:What the dead believe (Score:2)
Oh dear god no (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh dear god no (Score:2)
it was all so fake too, at (flashy dead dot.com) it was all open, EXCEPT for the two top guys and the managing director. It was
all a strategy to spend less money on renovations and more money on cocaine and boat parties anyway. and aerons.
.
.
Re:Oh dear god no (Score:2)
About 13 of the first 15 minutes was the guy spouting off about what he's done and the graduate program he just got into. At minute 16, he gets a cell phone call. He scheduled another meeting at the same time. He apologized and said he wanted to schedule a second.
When the secreta
Re:Oh dear god no (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course it works the other way as well - if you really needed a break at the point where the water-cooler toppled, what better excuse could you have?
Perhaps you've never worked in a well-planned open-plan environment? I'm used to offices with sufficient space, lots of noise-absorbent material, and laid out so that you never have more than 10-15 people in direct sight.
This [findarticles.com] article is a bit wanky, but makes some interesting points towards the end about the effectiveness of the environment (BA's headquarters at Waterside, a building I've worked at) being dependent on the motivation of the management team. This article [knowledgeboard.com] is an interesting review of how office layout can affect your team's effectiveness. Both well worth a read.
Cheers, Mike
Don't have that problem... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Too little, too late (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course they are a bad idea! (Score:5, Funny)
It bothers me even when I actually doing work.
And here comes someone now.....
Goofy Off? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:From the perspective of a new cube monkey... (Score:2)
Re:From the perspective of a new cube monkey... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:From the perspective of a new cube monkey... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:From the perspective of a new cube monkey... (Score:2)
Most offices I've worked in are like that: basically a huge open space with a few semi-permanent but movable walls in them.
The idea doesn't work if you want to give everyone their own office anyway, not without renting a lot more floorspace. Cubes can be as small as they are because of the half-height walls, which give t
Re:From the perspective of a new cube monkey... (Score:2, Interesting)
I think I see a market opportunity here. I'll hook a spare line from my desk phone to a RADIUS server and maybe some sort of electronic lock. Anyone who wants in my door must call me first on their cell phone and enter their code. I could probably even set times of day for more o
Re:From the perspective of a new cube monkey... (Score:2, Funny)
everything i need is right here. shure it is a little noisy and cold.. but who cares.. no one really bothers me
Not quite true (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not quite true (Score:5, Funny)
"Counselor, see me in my quarte--
My personal opinion... (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Re:My personal opinion... (Score:2)
More importantly, If you have to constantly watch then, does your boss want you as an employee?
Speaking as one of the annoying... (Score:2)
Re:My personal opinion... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not a technical problem, but it's a logistical nightmare. Any partition that spans from the floor to the ceiling is classified as a wall by most building codes, and would need to be constructed as such, and pass relevant inspections. While the cost for cheap walls might rival the costs of a floor-to-ceiling cubicle, cubicles are defined as furnitre, and may be devalued after only 7 years. Buildings can't be devalued for 4
Re:My personal opinion... (Score:3, Informative)
You should know the sordid history of this design (Score:4, Funny)
Can we kill the paging system as well? (Score:5, Insightful)
And suddenly I'm back to square one. I don't even think industrial strength ear plugs could block out most corporate paging systems.
Re:Can we kill the paging system as well? (Score:3, Funny)
Especially since, if you just wait a little while, the lights on that jeep will magically go off! It's a self-correcting problem!
Re:Can we kill the paging system as well? (Score:2)
cubicles, open offices (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
"Now" believes it was a mistake? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"Now" believes it was a mistake? (Score:5, Funny)
Though I'm not sure exactly how he got the message out to us...
It's All Relative Really (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
I don't mind my cubicle so much... (Score:2)
I'd really like a way to move the "door" off center
Re:I don't mind my cubicle so much... (Score:2)
Bullpens are bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [joelonsoftware.com]. Privacy and lack of interruption is key for developers.
Re:Bullpens are bullshit (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know how my cubemates could stand it.
Multimedia != Better (Score:2)
-CGP [colingregorypalmer.net]
I don't see how this could be (Score:4, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
No wall cubicles (Score:2)
Doesn't it depend... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cubicles inhibit brain growth (Score:5, Interesting)
Les Nessman (Score:3, Funny)
Fun with cubicles (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Yupp I knew it. I am weird. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.)
I COMPLETELY DISAGREE! (Score:3, Insightful)
Forget cubicles, go for telecommuting (Score:4, Interesting)
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.)
A little slow, ain't he? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In other words ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other words ... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Moooo (Score:2)