

The Utopian Origins of Cubicles - lurkage
http://thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-moral-life-of-cubicles

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sethg
Joel Spolsky (<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/04/13.html>) has a
more convincing explanation for why cubicles are so popular.

As far as the IRS is concerned, improving your office space is not a business
expense, so you can't deduct it; the most you can do is depreciate the cost
over time and take the depreciation as an expense. If you build walls to
create separate offices, you have to depreciate the cost over forty years. If
you buy cubicles and install them, you can depreciate the cost over only seven
years. If you _lease_ the cubicles, the monthly lease _is_ considered a
business expense, and you can deduct all of it right away.

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dmh2000
>the invention of double-entry bookkeeping, calculators, and spreadsheets are
unlikely material for a captivating History Channel feature

i disagree completely. double-entry and calculators fundamentally changed
society.

~~~
astine
Indeed, Double Entry is one of those fundamental shifts in business that
helped to reshape the economy in untold ways. our entire financial system is
build on it.

~~~
dbreunig
The BBC show "The Secret Life of Machines" did an excellent episode on the
history of the office space. They're even hosted online for free! Scroll down
to the second last episode.

<http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/SLOM/>

I recommend watching them all. Great stuff.

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t0pj
"...the average office space per worker in the United States dropped from 250
square feet in 2000 to 190 square feet in 2005."

Wow, two-hundred and fifty square feet on average!

I can feel my ego shriveling as I twist in my chair, taking in a panoramic
view of my allocated 7 x 7.

~~~
antiismist
Those numbers aren't for cubicle size, they are for (the whole office) / (# of
employees). So don't feel too bad about your 7 x 7, as long as you have a nice
bathroom, canteen, etc.

~~~
watmough
My cubicle is 'en-suite'.

Oh wait! It's not?!?!?

~~~
antiismist
I like how sometimes fancy words are used to describe not so fancy things.

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lpgauth
[http://gizmodo.com/5012983/security-cam-footage-of-
cubicle-r...](http://gizmodo.com/5012983/security-cam-footage-of-cubicle-rage-
to-the-extreme-is-every-cube-dwellers-fantasy)

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alex_c
An utopian ideal for equality goes horribly wrong in practice. Not the first
time that's happened, is it...

The interesting question is - what will come after cubicles?

~~~
astine
Telecommuting.

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davidw
Sounds vaguelly like the "shopping mall" envisioned by this guy:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Gruen>

He wanted to recreate the downtown of a typical European city, but it ended up
as "lots of stores packed together", and he eventually gave up and moved back
to Europe, disappointed with the whole thing.

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gibsonf1
Ok, its hard to resist posting this here:
<http://www.breitbart.tv/html/108653.html>

Its a cubicle working going beserk, caught on tape, destroying part of the
office.

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lpgauth
I hate cubicles.

You get no privacy (noise), yet you're isolated from others.

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edw519
I have experienced only 2 kinds of effective workspace, a private office and
sharing a large room with my coworkers. Cubicles are neither.

I always likened them to jail cells where you still have to pay for your own
lunch.

~~~
astine
I dunno, I prefer cubicles to open space. Some privacy is better than no
privacy at all.

~~~
dreish
To each his own of course, but to me they offer just enough privacy to breed
mistrust, and just enough exposure to feed paranoia.

It's hard to tease out a central thesis from this article, but I think I would
focus on the claim that offices are part of a bureaucratic system that is
slowed by paperwork, and that pushing people together encourages them to
wander over and chat about work rather than constantly draft memos. I think
that view is out of date, in the age of email and IM. Cubicles divide people
enough that they don't feel like they're side-by-side on a team, yet distract
technical workers and break their concentration.

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dbreunig
_Reader Alert_

The New Atlantis is quietly a _very conservative_ publication. Just FYI.

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aswanson
Like socialism, their heart was in the right place...

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alexk
Cubilcles are frustrating - no freedom, just cells, cells, cells with people
inside...

