by Cody Hodge

Created on: September 03, 2010

In the stereotypical office setting, a bunch of employees all work at an office in a bunch of little cubicles. They all have their own space, and they can be decorated and personalized as needed. However, a cubicle must be a very depressing setting to work in, and I almost didn't take a job after learning we had to work in cubicles. They are just ineffective for a variety of reasons.

The first reason is that an office should not be separating its workers from other workers. This is very depressing and can give a worker a sense of isolation. On the other hand, a sense of isolation can lead to a larger sense of not being professional since it can be very easy to play music loud or slip back into personal habits because you don't think people are watching you all the time.

A cubicle is also not very effective because a good office needs communication in order to run well. When you are in a cubicle you are going to be relying on a computer network and lots of emails to communicate with other office workers. While this can be a good thing to keep workers focused while communicating with each other, it can lead to other problems.

If you allow workers to communicate almost solely through email or IM you are allowing a bigger problem to creep in. You are saying that it is OK to use an instant message system, and you risk that slippery slope from using it for work purposes to using it for social purposes or other ways in which you can be wasting company time.

Cubicles are just outdated anyway. Are we back in grade school where everyone has to keep their eyes on their own work and not interact with others? if so, the boss should just become a babysitter and make sure that everyone gets a gold star at the end of the day. So much for allowing people to be individuals and use their unique talents to help out the company. A cubicle just promotes conformity to the extreme.

Cubicles are great, but they don't allow you to do anything more than separate people. It doesn't really help employees work when they can't communicate with others, nor does it help when they are encouraged to resort to online communication. A cubicle is outdated and just doesn't fit in the business world of today.

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