Penned In

Sure, cubicles are nasty. I particularly dislike trying to get work done when the person on the other side of the partition is (loudly) carrying on the kind of personal, non-work-related conversation that keeps me from getting my own work done. Oh, that's right, I don't have that problem anymore. But I did once. The only thing I can think that would be worse would be to find myself in a sea of desks like the really old days.

So I'm not surprised that they're figuring out now that cubicles may not have been such a great idea. With space being at such a premium though, I'm not sure what the answer is. We'd all like offices (probably not the one I'm working in now and no, I'm not going to show you a picture even though that would be the logical thing to do) but is it really feasible to give everyone office space?

Maybe sharing two or three to an office would work like I've seen in some older buildings that don't have the open floorplan needed for cubies... even so, that's still a less efficient use of space. The end result is that I'm perplexed and don't really have any answers for that one though I am interested in whatever other alternatives people would consider.

Tell me - if it was your business and you were the one who had to choose where to spend your money, what would the desk space for your staff look like? Send your thoughts to me at techsurvivor@soaringmountain.com and let's brainstorm a bit to see if we can come up with a better solution. Everyone will thank us.

What trade-offs are you willing to make to have what you want?



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Kimm Viebrock is a Certified Professional Coach who helps technology professionals and service-oriented technology groups develop and use their skills more effectively and increase their value within the larger organization, allowing them to do more, do it better and have more fun doing it. Kimm is devoted to finding the connectedness in life.