Alternatives to cubicles in the modern office

In My Humble Opinion
1

Apparently the inventor of cubicles isn’t feeling it, decades after they’ve become ubiquitous in American workplaces.

What’s the alternative? I’ve seen old-timey workplaces on TV and in the movies and such, and it looks like those who don’t have private offices are all just seated at long tables next to their colleagues, nothing separating them. That seems counterproductive - the noise and distractions would make work impossible, to say nothing of confidentiality when and where it matters.

So what could Corporate America do instead?

2

If only there were a period of a few years where people could work from wherever they pleased, such as their homes or coworking spaces, and we could test that impact on the economy.

If only, then, supposing it went well, the powers that be didn’t unilaterally retract that possibility a few short years later, for no real reason.

If only.

3

Don’t know the terms of art … but IMHO, “low-walled” cubicles (where you can still see everyone’s heads when seated) are much less isolating than “high-walled” cubicles.

I worked in one office where there were high-walled cubicles, but the cubicles were huge – enough to seat four people with plenty of room to spare. More like a handy little room. It was a situation where I had to collaborate with my cubicle-mates frequently … and we all got along, so it worked out well.

4

Is that an improvement over the usual open floor plan arrangements? You still hear all the clickety clack of keyboards and the chatter when people are in meetings or on the phone.

5

We’re fairly spaced out. I don’t notice keyboards sounds or mouse clicks at all, though others’ mileage may vary. I also don’t mind someone eight feet away from me taking a phone call.

As far as taking meetings, nine times out of ten, we’re able to either duck into the conference room or into an unused office. But someone joining a Zoom or Teams call at their desk is no more disruptive than a phone call.

I may not be the right person to ask about this. I can tune ambient noise out fairly effortlessly.

6

One office I worked in had a whole building white noise generator that kept intra-cubicle noise down to a minimum. We never even noticed the white noise until those rare occurrences when it got turned off for some reason, then the difference was shocking

7

I feel anxious in open floor plans, like someone is always looking at me. I prefer something which offers privacy. My preference is an office, private or shared. If not that, then a high-walled cubicle. If the office was open floor plan or low-walled cubicles, I wouldn’t really be productive in that environment. I would seriously consider looking for a different position or go to a different company which did not have that kind of open environment.

8

In a few decades of working at Silicon Valley tech companies, I’ve witnessed the devolution from when engineers had offices, then cubicles, and finally open plan arrangements.

I think there are just two issues here.

  1. Offices are more expensive per head.
  2. With open plan, the boss can walk around and see that you’re ‘working’, not goofing off.

Of course that kind of boss is incapable of understanding that a knowledge worker who seems to be staring off into space may well be thinking deeply about a solution to a technical problem.

9

It is counterproductive, it’s awful.

People hate cubicles because they materialize the unpleasant reality that workers are just sort of replaceable cogs in a modular machine.

That’s something worth getting angry about, but they misdirect their anger at the cubicle itself, rather than the dysfunctional social relations that underpin it.

So everybody complains about cubicles, management realize that open-plan tables are not only cheaper than cubicles, they offer better surveillance of employees plus easier means to shoulder-tap them. Management says “we heard you” and nukes the cubicles. One big table for everyone!

In my informal survey, everyone who ever had a private cubicle and lost it 100% wants it back, however they previously felt about it.

10

It’s funny but thinking back, I have only ever had a cubicle once in my job history.

For a long time my jobs were things like working in retail or doing labor, and obviously no cubicle there; I was literally on my feet all day.

Then for my first office job I shared an office with one other person, just two desks in a small room.

My next job after that was the only time I ever had a cubicle. I was there for more than a year. And I actually liked it. I had zero problems with that cubicle. I had a desk to work from, enough space to do my job (which didn’t need much space really), padded walls that muted distracting sounds and gave me enough privacy to be comfortable, etc. It wasn’t bad at all.

With my next job I had my own office, that was the first time having that. I was there for just over 5 years.

Then my next job was a crappy arrangement. I was sat at a desk in an open floorplan. Even worse, my desk was right outside of the main boss’s office, and I used to be mistaken for his secretary. People would come up to me and ask what his schedule was, and I’d generally say something along the lines of, “How the Hell should I know, I’m an IT person.” That whole organization was a mess to be honest.

My next two (very brief and temporary) jobs after that were also desks in an open area. And that was okay because they were small areas where the only other people nearby were people I collaborated with so it worked fine.

And then my current job, I have my own office again (I’ve been doing this job for over a decade).

So the only job where I had a cubicle, I had absolutely no problem with it, and in fact it was the next best thing to having my own office. Replacing cubicles to me sounds like a solution in search of a problem. If there is a specific issue being caused by using cubicles, I’m sure that among the many other options for a workspace solution there is one that can resolve it. But I see nothing wrong with a cubicle itself, it’s a perfectly fine way to work in my experience.

11

And between the clamor of typewriters and the higher frequency of phone calls, white-collar workplaces were even noisier back then.

12

My last job search cycle the two biggest contenders were one with cubicles and one with open office plan. I ended up getting an offer from the cubicle company but the open office was a big sticking point for the other firm. I had friends who worked there, and they all loved the place with that one exception.

13

I’ve been a lawyer for all of my post-school career after graduating in 1986. When I started, 10 or so attys had assigned desks in a large room. We had maybe 5 such rooms on 2 floors. (Yeah, you could smoke in the office back then too!). It was a BIG DEAL when we got a limited number of cubicles in one of the rooms. There was a lottery for who got them. I had a nice old desk facing a big window, so I wasn’t interested. Sometime after that, they cubicled all of the big rooms, with 2 attorneys per cubicle.

Less than 5 years into my career, we moved to a new building in which our space was built out with 100% private offices. I always thought that somewhat of a waste, since we had ZERO in person client contact, and not even much telephone contact. Basically, we all sat and typed all day. I always advocated something like 2 attys per office with generous telework.

Now I have a quite large office awaiting my return at the end of February. (I’ve been going in 2 days a week, even though my contract did not require it.) Our floor has probably twice as many cubicles as we have support staff.