Via ResourceShelf's DocuTicker (one of my favorite sources) comes a couple of items on the real MySpace – the cubicle. Steelcase, a cubicle manufacturer, has released The State of the Cubicle, 2006, which discusses the future of the cubicle in the wireless, mobile office.
There are many conversations about where the cubicle goes from here, but most people agree that the one place they are not going is “awayâ€â€”at least not for a long time. They’re not going to get bigger either. According to a recent article in the National Real Estate Investor, cubicles will continue to occupy a central place in office planning and “corporate space planners believe they can shrink space another 21% without affecting productivity.†That adds up to some very serious reduction, as the size of the average cubicle has already dropped from 250 to 190 square feet since 2000, based on survey findings reported in the article.
On the flipside, a Fortune article, Cubicles: The great mistake says that while the "workstations were designed to be flexible, in practice they were seldom altered or moved at all. Lined up in identical rows, they became the dystopian world that three academics described as "bright satanic offices" in a 1998 book, Workplaces of the Future." There’s also a gallery of workstations/cubicles from 1964 to 2004 – a sidebar to the main Fortune story.
Another article from Knowledge@Emory, Do Cubicles Help Productivity or Hurt It? discusses whether the semi-privacy of cubicle life helps or hinders workers’ creativity. "A major shortcoming of cubicles is walls that define an individual’s boundaries but do little to stop disruptive noise and other distractions," the article says. "On the other hand, disruptions may also help to augment the creative process."
It’s all in what you get used to, I suppose. I’ve worked in a very quiet home office for 10+ years. The good news is that I can work uninterrupted on a project for several hours without even realizing time is passing. The bad news is that my trips to the office are best filled with meetings.
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