The lowly office cubicle ... ugh...

The New Atlantis's Winter 2008 issue features a piece putting the evolution of the office cubicle in its historical and sociological contexts. The big conclusion:

The ideal of the cultural workplace and its embodiment in cubicles also moves against another longstanding distinction of office work—the distinction between managers and workers. The ideal of a boss-less company has not been realized on anything like the large scale the management writers dreamed of, if it has in fact been realized anywhere. However, the impulse to equality and management through culture has led to something like the opposite of the boss-less company with bosses everywhere. As the managerial role is increasingly shorn of “authoritarian” tendencies and managers adopt the stance of a servant and facilitator, the scope of demands upon ordinary workers has risen. Observation, evaluation, encouraging the proper attitude and habits in other employees—these are all managerial tasks that are supposed to be shared. Such is the nature of being a team member. Cubicles may not be inspiring, but they have clearly contributed to new obligations.

Having been an office work since college graduation, I'd have to say that my favorite work environments were the ones where there were no walls at all separating me from my bosses, where I could just turn to him and ask a question, share an experience, etc. True, it flipped the idea of privacy upside-down; I had to walk outside the building to have a private conversation with a friend, or retire to a conference room. But being in full view of my managers empowered me to make decisions, be creative, and solve problems in all directions. It was all one big collaboration. However, for the most part, I think that in America we lack the skills to merge in this way. We pretty much don't like each other, don't trust each other, and would do what we could in most situations to advance ourselves rather than help someone else advance.

And now for a little mental health break -- the great printer scene from Office Space:




By the way, if you're reading this, you might have noticed that I take a lot of my ideas on what to write about from Andrew Sullivan, who is a deep source for interesting ideas. Plus, he does it full time while I only have about an hour a day to look around for new things.