When we enter office climates, we are usually confronted with a maze of
worker cubicles, this being the current wisdom for office organization.
Cubicles are used because they are deemed to be more efficient – or
perhaps, make these companies more efficient. More than anything else
cubicles find their way into office environments because they are cheaper
to build and they fall into step with ‘everybody else is doing it’.
I am here to say this is a ridiculous situation for all companies and if you have the
desire to be a winning company, you will consider replacing cubicles with walls.
What do people in cubicled-environments say?
- I have trouble concentrating sometimes here because of the
conversations all around me – noisy and disconcerting. - Although I don’t have personal matters every days, on those I do, I have
to speak almost in a whisper. - If the personal matter is serious, I have to leave my office and find a
private place to have the conversation. - If I have a delicate business call, when my voice might raise, I can’t
handle it as well as I might if I was in a private space. - To talk with a co-worker or a person who reports to me about disciplinary
or confidential matters, our conversation is muted and not nearly as
effective as it should be, or - I seek a new place to meet the co-worker, finding a private space
somewhere and it is not easy to find. Besides, other co-workers’ casual
upward glances have a questioning look of: ‘What’s going on?’, which
doesn’t help any of us. - For me the worst part of cubicle living is having people drop in on me any time to discuss matters quite unrelated to office work.
Not really measurable is the degree of prestige conferred onto each employee
who has a private office vs. those who don’t.
At CCCC we have an adage “Let the numbers do the talking.” So, shall we look
at some numbers?
Although we have put in some figures, (in the following table on the next page)it
makes more sense for you to put in your own numbers to see what happens for
your situation.
