
Why Silicon Valley is Rethinking Cubicles - Jake_S
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119240097861658633.html
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prakash
Sigh! Why can't more people listen to Joel, read Peopleware[1] and design
offices similar to fogcreek[2]? If Joel can do it at NYC rents, I am sure
others should not find it that difficult.

[1]<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html> \-- some other
great book recommendations in there

[2]<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html>

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mechanical_fish
Yep. This article is painful to read: they propose to eliminate cubes by
switching to... open plans and shared tables! Out of the frying pan, into the
fire.

My home office has a Kinesis keyboard and three monitors placed at the proper
height. Now they propose to "improve" my office arrangement by forcing me to
use a laptop all day? I'll stick with telecommuting, thanks.

If I'm going to work at the equivalent of a table in Starbucks, why wouldn't I
just work at Starbucks? There's natural light, and the coffee tastes better.

And check out this line from the article:

"Cubicles can prompt odd behavior... It is hard to see if colleagues are busy,
so some cube-dwellers will send emails to a neighbor about a simple question
that could have been answered more easily in a conversation."

Yes, the real problem with cubicles is that they make it too difficult to
break people's concentration!

"Where people in jobs such as marketing tend to want open offices... employees
in product groups favor cubes." No kidding.

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cstejerean
Cubicles don't provide the right collaboration environment (depends on the
layout) and don't provide much in terms of limiting noise or providing
privacy. I'm glad that larger companies are starting to realize that cost
savings are bad if they lead to lost productivity.

I think an ideal office layout should have plenty of collaboration spaces
where employees can work together in small groups and quiet areas to focus
individually.

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karzeem
People need private space (i.e. personal territory) at least some of the time,
and the biggest problem with the cubicle is that there is never any real
privacy.

It's telling that before he died, the guy who invented cubicles went on record
to say that his vision was being terribly misused.

[http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/09/magazines/fortune/cubicle_ho...](http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/09/magazines/fortune/cubicle_howiwork_fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes)

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brianmckenzie
Oh, how happy I am NOT to be known as the inventor of the cubicle.

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angstrom
At least Alfred Nobel had the decency to right the misuse of his god forsaken
invention.

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johnrob
Open spaces are great for ad hock conversation, but it is annoying having your
computer's monitor exposed to anyone behind you. Things like writing emails or
checking bank accounts are especially uncomfortable.

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alaskamiller
Intel cube farms are horrendous. The only motivation for employees to stick
around is the high salary they pay, but even then I'm sure most spend theirs
on Paxil and Prozac.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPmD2h7mG-I>

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stuki
It's pretty sad that thousands, maybe millions, of people may be wasting away
in cubicles partially due to silly regulations regarding depreciation
schedules for cubicles vs. permanent walls.

It's also telling that Microsoft seems almost alone in bucking the trend
amongst large computer industry companies. If their competitors had spent
their money in ways that enabled their engineers to be productive, instead of
on lawyers, lobbyists and pr firms blaming MS for 'monopolistic' practices,
maybe they could on occasion produce something people would pay for, too.

