Well said. Let's not live in our cubicles any longer than we have to.
I love the fact that this guy feels there is a huge gaping hole out there, and that he intensely wants to do something about it. For me, that counts for more than fitting in as a company man.
This is what I've observed in my open office workspace. It's really counterproductive, and a big reason (I believe), why so many employees work from home much of the time. Then again, for most places the alternative is a cubicle farm which isn't any better in my book. Man, nothing makes you feel like a drone like working in a cubicle.
Cubicles are nice for getting work done, but they make for boring office photographs, and every company nowadays wants to be a hip place to work. Nobody wants to look like the Initech from Office Space.
When I was still working as a software dev in a shared cubicle, my cube-mate and I would bitch about the distracting psychological effect of having that open door behind us while we worked. The cubicle walls were decently high -- you had to be pretty tall to peer over them -- but we were in a central location, so other developers, managers, execs, etc. were constantly walking by and scanning us and our screens.
Not that we were doing anything reprehensible, but the idea that we could work for 4 hours straight then spend 5 minutes on Slashdot and be shoulder-surfed by just the wrong person didn't sit well.
Well, during a tour of the new server room, we found a little side closet containing... leftover cubicle pieces! Knowing it probably wouldn't fly, we ran the idea by the boss anyway: can we take the leftover pieces and build an entryway to our cubicle?
Hmm - he'd check on that and get back to us. Soon the word came back -- kudos for our creativity, sure it was a neat idea, but due to fire regulations we couldn't extend our cube into that main hallway.
Okay, so he didn't want to mess with the status quo but didn't want to have to argue about it, so he was passing the buck, which I admit annoyed me a bit. Fortunately, it's pretty trivial to call the local Fire Marshall and check this sort of thing, so I did. Turns out that if your hallway is still as wide as the exit door, you aren't breaking any regulations, so the cube-mate and I brought lunch the next day, waited until the rest of the office went out to eat, and got out the allen wrenches.
We were just tightening the last bolts when or manager got back.
--Hey guys, now wait a minute -
--Ah, don't worry! It's okay: I checked with the fire marshall, and we actually could expand by another 5 or 6 feet and still be fine! We're sticking to the original plan, though...
He didn't have much response to that beyond a wry smile.
Cubicles, as opposed to an office with a door that closes mean someone is likely to walk by and see what you are wasting time doing. Once in a while everyone has 'compiling' time to waste, but eventually it gets obvious
Put that time and effort into getting out of cubicle land.
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