The Cubicle Dweller’s Dilemma.
How we can create a space worth working in.
“We’re going to use our VR technology to take over the cubicle business. Write a program that makes users feel as if they are working in a fabric-covered box.” — Scott Adams (Dilbert).
Give Me Some Space.
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In the hallowed halls of businesses, universities, and industrial-complexes everywhere, how a company designs its borders can be found in articles explaining the atmosphere a company is striving for or even what they want their employees to feel. With these steps in mind, it should come as no surprise to hear the familiar clichés such as culture, family, de-stress zones, work-life-balance, recreational-area, and care among everything from Fortune 500 companies to the leanest startup.
Bearing this in mind, you have probably seen pictures detailing the zany insides of offices such as Google, Lego, and others of their ilk. If the stress of helping run a billion-dollar company is accepted with the jobs at hand, then at least the company can put one foot forward and claim to provide facilities to keep employees happy and healthy.
(Or so they claim).
On the flip-side, businesses operating with no-nonsense-structures are more likely to provide scaled-down and simplified versions of working-space. These come in the form of tables and chairs ordered en masse and may contain neutral colors or unobstructed shapes. These involve basic desks, tables, computers, phones, and office supplies, bulk-shipments of staplers in cardboard boxes, and stuffy rooms filled with paper that measures 8½ by 11. The ceilings are filled with fluorescent lights that may or may not be working at any given time. Corners and hallways contain vending-machines from 1999 that somehow never got replaced. You know. Those offices.
Which of course brings us to the punchline of this whole article: what’s the one thing that’s been used since post-industrialization-time-immemorial to give entry level employees a place to work? A place to work which doesn’t involve carving out individual offices?
The cubicle.
And along with the cubicle arrives the cubicle-dweller’s dilemma.
A Cog in the Machine.
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The cubicle was invented for functionality, not prestige.
If librarians, inventors, scribes, and bankers from centuries past used to cram themselves between desks and tables in attempt to complete their projects, then the modern equivalent is literally just a desk that wraps around. You might be given a chair, a phone, a computer, some notepads, a stapler, and a junk drawer — but the buck stops there.
You may end up putting some photos or things around the desk-wall…thing which remind you of home or your own individuality. Because if you look around the office, there is a good chance that many other employees will have a desk that will look the same as yours.
Not feeling important enough in the company’s grand scheme of things — while a legitimate gripe — is the easy target to go for. While it may feel like your individualization is taken for granted, many companies allow their cubicle-dwellers to decorate their space to make it their own. Make no mistake however: nothing beats a private office.
However, a company’s willingness to downsize work-space brings a mutual understanding between the employer and employee; if you’re not the CEO, don’t worry about getting a CEO-sized office. If you want a private office, you will need to climb the ladder and get the job which demands a private office.
So the newly acquired employee complies.
Mostly.
Most of the time.
Because even if the employee excels in their field, has the cubicle walls decked out with family photos, calendars, sports teams, bobble-heads, and post-it-notes, the main problem with cubicles doesn’t stem from their physical limitations…
…but rather the lack of personal limitations they can invite.
Four People To A Desk. Fifty To A Room.
“Hey Spongebob, remember that little talk we had about…personal…space?” — Squidward Tentacles, Spongebob Squarepants.
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Not all office spaces are the same, nor are they all created equal. Regardless of how they are designed, it does not account for the veracity of the human mind; some employees may be lucky enough to sit in cubicles which give ample space between one another. Most will not be so lucky.
The cubicles might be arranged in a row or even facing each other in a circular motion. Some will be against a wall and some might even be lucky enough to get a window seat. In any case, you will have neighbors. It is usually unknowable if they will be good neighbors.
In any company, people are going to butt heads — this will happen in public forums, private meetings, party arrangements, etc. Even when push comes to shove, people will need space to cool down if emotions or arrangements get heated. A floor filled with cubicles typically does not allow this. There are three major problems with the office-cubicle-design as it stands in terms of space and human relationships.
1. Other people can impede your productivity — In between your co-workers’ propensity for describing inappropriate-life-events, refusing to follow personal-hygiene standards, or just being a general nuisance, all of these can chip away at your productivity. Drawn out conversations about nothing can lead to a loss in focus, which can lead to a loss in productivity. Catching up with everyone is important but not so important that you need to hear about their latest experiment involving sheep and hydrogen peroxide.
2. You easily run out of storage space for physical objects — If you are blessed to not have psychological limitations and disturbances thrown onto you, then you may experience the rising pressure of not having enough room to store all of the necessities. Papers and documents will overflow and binders will find themselves sticking out of drawers. Finding the items you need can be a time-sink.
3. There is no ability to take a private moment in your ‘office’ — those who operate in high places may have this luxury. Those who’ve watched an episode of AMC’s Mad Men will note how not only do some of the characters have private offices but even have spaces where alcohol is stored and consumed. While the accuracy of the excessive drinking in historical workplaces is something to be debated, the idea of a cubicle offering such a respite is laughable. If you attempt to go into your cube and take a rest, a good number of people will be more than willing to give you something to do…or listen to.
Can We At Least Have Doors to Close?
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Bearing all of this in mind, there are strategies cubicle-dwellers everywhere can take to make their workspace bearable. For all those fearing retribution from disgruntled coworkers and the psycho-physical metaphor of literally boxing yourself in, there are two directions that one can take.
1. Try to establish ‘house rules’ if your spaces are too close for comfort — if you work in a space with a lot of people, try and get everybody on the same page when it comes to sharing stories or ‘water-cooler talk.’ Most companies will already have rules about appropriate speech and behaviors but there’s usually that ‘one coworker’ that can threaten to throw everything out of bounds. If a worker’s missteps are good-natured instead of foul-natured (e.g. Bill thinks people appreciate three-and-a-half-hour movies from Poland just as much as he does and wants to talk about them), then setting designated boundaries or areas to talk outside of the cubicle-rows might be necessary. If you don’t work in a phone-centric workspace, having ‘quiet hours’ may also be an option.
2. Ask your immediate supervisor or floor manager about designating extra space if the job requires it — if there is any unused space or rooms at your work facility, see if you can’t have a designated place for people to put their things — both personal and professional. Although the need to keep thousands of files or documents on hand is shrinking with more companies moving to cloud-based-storage, the need to have physical backups will grow in correlation. Add to the number of spare hats, gloves, scarves, coats, briefcases, and purses that may pile up and a company may have to designate a ‘wear room’ just to keep up with the seasonal changes.
Conclusion.
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Look, cubicles aren’t fun and if they are fun, then it’s usually a punchline. If you find yourself the unlucky owner of a house without a ceiling or floor, establishing certain grounds and rules can help make the experience more bearable.
After all, it’s not like you’re living there…
…right?
…right?
