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Q&A: Designing the office of the future

In my cubicle I have: three or four works in progress, books, journal articles, trade magazines, 23 music CDs, tissue box, mug, glass, plastic eating utensils, pens, scissors, family photos, reminders, white board, reading glasses, reprints, award plaques, my lunch, 3 large UPS, 4 UPSs that need new batteries, 4 dead UPS batteries waiting to be taken to recycling, umbrella, coat rack (with emergency sweatshirts), manuals, candy, lab notebook, blank CDs and DVDs, tape, stapler I've had for 20 years that actually works, staples, funny comics, spare monitor cables, three computers, 4 shelves of textbooks and software (plus some OTC medicine), 4 filing drawers filled with paperwork, ... , and a bunch of other stuff. I know exactly where everything is, and when I go to get it, there it is, even if I haven't used it for years.
KEEP YOUR PAWS OFF MY CUBICLE, YOU G*DD*MN FILTHY APE!!!!!

That's quite a collection.

you know that "horders" show on tv? well this is the office version of it.
instead of OTC medicine, maybe get some OCD medicine.
4 dead batteries waiting to go to recycling??? well, take them to recycling already! 23 music cd's??? you haven't ripped all your music to mp3 yet???
4 file cabinets full of paper??? start scanning, as other people may need access to that info as well, and it can be indexed and searched if on your company's hard drives/servers.

although, there is nothing like a sturdy working 20yr old stapler - things were just built better back then! so keep that!

In all building constructions the cost matters hence use of optimum in materials consumption and limitation in design and infrastructure comes into the picture.
Builders sussex

When I worked in electronics engineering, I turned down an offer from a major company, because the only way they operated was on an "open office" array, and I cannot work that way. I wanted a private office, as the presence of other people tends to distract me, but they said they couldn't offer it. I said, "Well, I'm sorry, but I can't work for you," and the meeting was, I thought, over. As I was walking back to my car, the man who had interviewed me ran after me and asked if I could reconsider. "Private office?" I asked. "No can do," he replied. "Well, then there's no deal," I said, and I left. A few weeks later, I was working for a company that did provide a private office. My point, here, is that everybody works differently, and the company, that cannot understand that, loses.

I retired from electronics engineering at the end of 1994.

Over the years, employers have done every possible thing to cut out costs out on employee comfort and general office costs with no thought at all to how much efficiency is lost when employees are not comfortable and in a quiet place to work.. They also don't realize how much confidential information is exposed.

They do not consider any of this because those decision makers are ensconced and in some cases entrenched in offices with doors shut and a/c blowing according to their own thermostats. A perfect la-la land of unicorns and rainbows while a silent carnage reigns outside.

I guess they imagine the cube farm to be good enough, but it is not. Running the a/c in the common spaces at a minimum in the summer, and as i was promoted from one employer to the next, the lowering of cube walls from 6 FT then 5, then 4 with the top 1FT with transparent plastic panels which transmit every noise (no glass thankfully). Designing workspaces where the worker faces away from the aisle or entryway, back to the door, and every sound from the aisle is reflected off his monitor and wall, and the busybodies and 'time waster' co-workers and even supervisors come stand at the entryway staring over people's shoulders, even though the company knows that from one person to the next, confidential and secret information can be displayed (company intellectual property we work on, as well as our personal banking which they allow, if we wish to use the internet briefly.) Why, then are these more and more open and un-private arrangements put in place? Don't these other employees have enough work to do?. Where does it end. Maybe it will end when one employee shoulder surfs another's bank login, steals, and the police show up in the office one day. Or worse, when an employee shoulder surfs the new process I am working on and posts all about this great idea on facebook to make himself look smart, or he goes to work at a competitor and talks to ther engineers about it.

Countermeasures in such an environment are putting charts and white boards up covering the inside of the glass panels, and moving the workstation display and keyboard so one can sit facing, or see, the entryway at all times in case a co-worker comes to discuss business, and to ward off time-wasters, and to prevent idlers and snoops from seeing the screen.

I don't want to see what the person across from me is doing, what work is on their monitor, hear about so and so's new baby or their teen's junky car, or anything else. It is distracting and interrupts my thoughts about work, exposes the company to liability, and raises stress thereby destroying productivity.

While employed, I traveled to Belgium and France offices for work and was shown to a workspace. It's very different there. No one speaks in a normal room voice, it is very soft words. This is because there is no privacy at all and no walls. The office furniture there is basic square tables maybe 4FT on a side, with 4 chairs, and the divider is a 1 FT tall "X" partition. So you see the people's stuff, hear every phone ring and half of each conversation, etc. But look at the bright side of it, everyone at the table can hold hands!! (no, this was not going on..) So they have a more polite office culture of being quiet, but it does not help that much, and anyone can shoulder-surf. A gross error. The people were really decent, but their office furniture was horrible. The worker bees also BTW tend to wear coats and ties much more often and in summer. This means you, mr. Engineer. We in the USA are fortunate to avoid that, but I've heard it said that businesses want to gravitate towards that furniture idea, and office furniture companies will surely push it and go along with it.. just think, same sales price per seat and half the materials.

I find it amusing that in the USA, most offices (real offices with doors) are doled out according to pay grade, not according to the employees' requirement for silense and privacy to work wit secure or critical data. Salespeople and engineers should all have offcies, otherwise even the janitor will know and share everything everyone does.

If your workspace is made up of office cubicles, you are sure to benefit from the versatility of cubicle shelves. Apart from the fact that these items are visually appealing, they are also functional when it comes to keeping those small office equipment and supplies off your desk.