On: Why open-office layouts are bad for employees, bos...

[SomeCallMeTim]

There's another huge reason the cubicle office is dominant: Cubicles are immediately tax deductible, while building out offices is considered a capital improvement, and therefore has to be depreciated over a longer period of time.

Tax law all too frequently shapes behavior, and this is one of those cases.

[lotu → SomeCallMeTim]

Honestly this is horrifying. The idea that companies are making damaging decisions because they have favorable tax benefits and congress probably didn't even realize it. Well that makes me sad.

[haliburton → SomeCallMeTim]

Yikes. I'd never even considered that.

Do you have any other (terrifying) examples?

[akgerber → haliburton]

I have heard it asserted that the reason for poor construction quality of postwar US commercial buildings in their 39-year depreciation life: http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/irs-depreciation-schedule-...

Hence the lack of much brick or stone, built-for-the-ages construction beyond veneers.