There are cubicles and then there are the low wall cubicles. I can tolerate the high wall cubicles, some of which come with doors, but I hate the low wall cubicles. Every place where I worked with low wall cubicles also had the worst management I have encountered in my careers. I did have one place with no cubicles; it had a number of desks in a big open room, but that worked okay in that environment as it was a big team environment with a lot of going out into a warehouse for inspections.

Thanks for the replies. I suspected that extreme opinions would emerge.

I can see value in the open floor environment and I think that is what the organization is going for. They are on the 4th floor of a building and nearly all exterior walls are glass. So that helps. Right now my office is about 12 x 9 with two large windows. It is really nice to do as I please.

Aside from all the noise, one of my biggest hangups is feeling like someone is always looking over my shoulder. I know all of you work 40+ hours a week and never spend time on forums or whatnot. I just don't want to feel like someone could be keeping tabs on me. Having my own office allows me to really do as I please.

I miss being in a cube. They fixed up old houses around our headquarters and moved different divisions into each house so people could have their own office. Now no one talks, no teamwork on projects, it's just one big mess. I hate it. I hate the inefficiency.

---

http://timeoutdoors.blogspot.com/
Photo Blog - App Trail Thru Hike March - Sept 2009

For less than $300K? Hell, I'll pay you nothing! =P

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

>$300k.

I'm dumb, remember?

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Now THAT would be a deal breaker! I don't do well in open environments. I have ADD and don't do well in environments like that. Its not just the distractions, but everyone looking over my shoulder and seeing me screw off on Facebook and ST. It also doesn't help when they grumble that I'm never on task and then have to accept that we are at the same level because I do just as well as they do despite all the screwing off I do.

I once had a dream after an interview in an office like that. In my dream, the managers sat in tennis umpire chairs so that they could keep an eye on all of their employees.

I work from home now.

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Last job was more the open concept, although 2 of us mid-level supervisors were in kind of a 'L'-shaped offshoot w/ 1 cube divider between us so we were in sorta 'half-cubes' and not quite as stuck in the open as the more junior crew; only the Head Cheese had his own hard-walled office w/ door. Good for collaboration and just chit-chat (a lot of the graphics work could be performed on the computer while holding a conversation at the same time), but it did suck when some other part of the group was having a 'meeting' in the open which became disruptive. I really did get annoyed when they created sort of a 'bullpen' space where they had scheduled meetings instead of using a proper conference room next door; although it made sense for less formal ad-hoc meetings, if you know in advance you're going to be inviting in outside people, that's what the frickin' conference room is for.

Current job is best of both worlds ~ 4 of us to a large "office" so we each get a corner w/ 2 hard walls & 1.5 cube sides, so there's a little privacy from outsiders coming in from the hallway (a doorway w/ no door) but among the 4 of us we can chit-chat over the cube walls while typing & clicking away... Phone convos can sometimes be a little annoying, but none of us spends that much time on calls so it's minor. If I'm going to make a personal call of any length/consequence I'll use it as an excuse to get up and stroll a bit like BLeP, either find a vacant office or conference room or go stand in the outer vestibule if it's not too busy/cold out. Most of the other rank & file staff are out in the larger cube farm which would be a serious downgrade IMO, but the managers w/ private offices would seem too isolating to me. As long as I'm here, I mostly enjoy the company of my 3 immediate co-workers but am glad we're separated from the rest of the masses.

I love how you have what looks like work email open on the desktop, and slow twitch on the laptop!!

I've never had a job that wasn't outdoors at least part of the time. I couldn't imagine working in that kind of environment.

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

Would it be crossing the line if I said I knew because your wife told me? =)

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Cube farms aren't too bad. They are actually better than offices, in a lot of cases.

Having said that, I always found it somewhat amusing yet disappointing that the cube farm where my last desk was had four windows in the entire area, and they built offices around the windows so that the top 4 managers could have offices with windows blocking the sunlight from the rest of us.

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

I can handle it.

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

It drives me nuts sometimes. Like I said, I made the seating chart so no one sits beside me and my back is to the wall. At one point I sat in the inside of the circle you can see. So everything was happening around and behind me all the time. Ithe drove me nuts and the manager I had at the time was a dick so he gave me shit about not liking it. Then they moved managers to the same setup and he got stuck in the middle. I got around it by scheduling conference rooms a lot.

When you have something complicated to code it is a giant PITA. Just so hard to concentrate.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

I left a position where I had a nice office and managed to take a role with a better manager, became an individual contributor, and took on a commute & a cubicle. The only downsides were the commute and cubicle (mostly lack of privacy, noise, wearing headphones instead of music & podcast on speakers). It took a year, but I was able to reduce the commute to half the days, the other days in our local office, and another year later entirely local. They reshuffled the local space and I was going to get moved to a cube, but moved to an office nobody wanted (tucked way out of the way, but still near people; cold as hell, but space heaters got snuck in), later moved to another office, and now have an entire floor to myself because of cuts to roles for other departmental people that were on my floor. Yeah, having an office is far better than a cube; working from home is better than either; a happy and satisfying work environment is best of all. I fortunately have much satisfaction in my role now, lots of flexibility & autonomy, and am treated great. It makes me not even consider the opportunities to leave and make more money elsewhere. If all things are equal, take the job with an office, but if cubicle land is better except for the cube, you'd be remiss to let that be the deciding factor.

I've had both and much prefer cubes. You get more done, they are much better to monitor employees, and the vibe of the office. I always spec low cubes with 48-54" total height , the last 18-24" are double paned glass so good sound isolation + can see what everyone is working on. Most of the $400m - $3b finance companies in my industry do it this way with everyone, including all the C levels out of an office.

Most of the investment banks are going one step further and doing away with assigned cubes, just log in and plug in your Bluetooth headset and everything you need is there.

Offices make it to EZ to hide and are less productive.

---

____________
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers

Yeah i found it sucked my life away. I went from working outdoors on a golf course to doing some call centre work after i injured my back, was made redundant after 3 months and i wouldn't do it again. Not having any windows was so depressing after having an outdoors job. I missed the simple things like watching the clouds build on a Hot Summers day and being by myself with nothing but the sound of nature... or a diesel mower lol

I think some people just aren't cut out for that environment.