The rise of the cubicle is surely due in part to its economics. Partitions are simply a very efficient way of organizing office space. Construction for cubicle offices is standard and cheap, made and assembled in large quantities and with minimal skilled labor. The building shell, lighting, and air conditioning can be set up with little consideration of interior walls, allowing contractors to build economical big white boxes to be filled in later with “office furniture systems.” Perhaps most importantly, cubicles maximize floor space, granting workers only the necessary square footage—a number that is shrinking all the time. According to brokerage surveys cited in National Real Estate Investor, the average office space per worker in the United States dropped from 250 square feet in 2000 to 190 square feet in 2005. Some observers expect this number to drop another 20 percent by 2010. This shrinkage not only saves space, but time as well—time wasted walking to restrooms, the coffee pot, and the marketing department, for example. Supervision is made more efficient too: with no walls to hide behind, slackers have to work or at least imitate work in a convincing way.
Read the rest of David Franz on the moral life of cubicles.
[HT: Arts & Letters Daily ]
[Execupundit note: I loathe cubicles.]
2 comments:
I have had offices and cubicles both. I actually prefer cubicles. Why? In my office, I would sometimes spend entire days and speak to no one except an occasional phone call. In a cubicle, I feel a lot more a part of some kind of community, and much less lonely at work.
Just my $0.02, of course.
Pawnking,
Thanks for your two cents. I've talked to people who have the same opinion. I must be more of a recluse.
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