Cubicle farm!!!

[albireo13]

So, my lovely MegaCorp has decided to relocate us to
a new location in a major city where commuting will
be a nightmare.

One gift of the change will be moving into the latest
trend of office technology ... the farm.
Workers will be packed closer, having basically 6’ x 6’
of space.

So you get to tap away on your keyboard while
the guy across from you is picking his nose while
the neighbor to your left is nursing a terminal flem attack.
Meanwhile your neighbor to your right is doing
the left-cheek-sneak after a breakfast of refried beans
and stale tuna fish!

Can't wait to retire.

 

[Born2BRetd]

The horror! I hope you have a great headset.

 

[albireo13]

I am thinking of doing the phantom employee ...
just stop coming in to work and see how long it takes
before anyone notices.
Meanwhile I get a paycheck.

 

[KenZ71]

I'm in the same boat.

I wonder if office relocation would qualify as a reason to collect unemployment? We have paid our taxes for these various social safety net programs so....

 

[MRG]

You folks get cubes?

At the end Megacorp, always had nice cubes and offices, decided walls and privacy were optional. They went desktops with no assignments. Come in, find place for the day, and plug in. A few folks liked it, I managed some of them and understand why.


I spent most of my career in an office, started and ended in a nice cube.

 

[JoeWras]

You folks get cubes?

At the end Megacorp, always had nice cubes and offices, decided walls and privacy were optional. They went desktops with no assignments. Come in, find place for the day, and plug in. A few folks liked it, I managed some of them and understand why.

I spent most of my career in an office, started and ended in a nice cube.

Yep. Went from office, to 6x8, to 6x6, to open office (i.e rows of desks, side by side). Nothing like rows of desks, with your best buds sitting next to you looking at your screen, while they blab on the phone.

It was an effective way to get me to press the ER button.

 

[snowboarder]

Lucky for me I'm a traveling consultant so it's either customers' sites or home office. I don't think I could ever go back to a 9-5 cube/office setting. I hear my company now implemented the open space approach at their offices. It's like finding a place to eat in a crowded cafeteria.

 

[Amethyst]

My sympathies. I'd find the change to a bad commute much more annoying than the switch to cubicles.

I worked for 5 years (part time) in an open-plan office with no interior walls, not even for the bosses. Instead, we had four-person "bays" with a double-screen workspace in each corner.

To my surprise, I took to it right away. The workspaces were cleverly laid out such that there was all the space I needed, plus some locking cabinets for my stuff. Most people were considerate about not making noise, and I was either taking part in the conversations, or mentally blocking out the background sounds of people working. But there are always exceptions, like the guy who, on the phone, would get all worked up and make sudden exclamations such as, "BOOM!" or "He said WHAT!"

 

[JackJester]

Welcome to mega corp. I've been in the cube farm for 25 years. Its OK if you have a good/personable set of cube mates. The worst part of what you mention is the commute. Mine is so bad now it has driven me to get to work at 5AM and leave by 2PM ...just to avoid the nightmare which can spiral from a 30 min to a 1+ hour commute in no time. I spend my weekends sleeping-in trying to catch up on before Monday arrives. This is no way to live. But, only OMY for me until FIRE!!!!

 

[ransil]

So, my lovely MegaCorp has decided to relocate us to

a new location in a major city where commuting will

be a nightmare.



One gift of the change will be moving into the latest

trend of office technology ... the farm.

Workers will be packed closer, having basically 6’ x 6’

of space.



So you get to tap away on your keyboard while

the guy across from you is picking his nose while

the neighbor to your left is nursing a terminal flem attack.

Meanwhile your neighbor to your right is doing

the left-cheek-sneak after a breakfast of refried beans

and stale tuna fish!



Can't wait to retire.

Guess its the new fad, My move is end of next year to the new down town location, already in a 6x6 cube new location is open space. Trying to get a position in one of our other locations, thought i had it locked down then a hiring freeze happened and i think they just eliminated the position. I already do a 50 minute commute, downtown has no good access or egress grom my location

Working on ER

 

[aja8888]

What kind of jobs are these where you sit in a 6' x 6' cube all day long?

 

[FreeBear]

One gift of the change will be moving into the latest
trend of office technology ... the farm.
Workers will be packed closer, having basically 6’ x 6’
of space.

Wow! Cubes are so early 2000's, probably even earlier. Hope your Mega is more up to date on critical aspects of the business!

Lost my huge office, complete with locking door in the 90's. As a junior guy, I had a roomate, a very pleasant fellow actually.

As an elite department, we got deluxe giant cubes, well spaced apart. I actually liked the layout; we had some pretty nice furniture. Decades later, I'm still literally sitting in the same chair, now in my home "office", donated by mini-tech 2 remodels ago. This 20 year-old chair is more comfortable than the Ikea-ish junk that replaced it.

In the end, our department was in decline due to offshoring and we got the well used 1980's cubes from accounting. Lets just say I could tell what the petty cash guy had for lunch the day before...

Actually, I didn't find cubes so bad, probably because I was that loud guy on the phone with the quick hyena laugh! Sorry guys, I'm sure you're almost as glad I FIRE'd as I am. Almost...

 

[omni550]

What kind of jobs are these where you sit in a 6' x 6' cube all day long?

Knowledge workers.

omni

 

[aja8888]

Knowledge workers.

omni

Distributing or accepting?

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

terminal flem attack.

Arg, yes! Bad memory. Just before I FIRED, they had yet again crammed more people into the same bullpen area, now with short (4') "walls". And the guy in front of me had TFA. Oh joy. The sounds of him working the green flem up, all day long, was unblockable. I tried earplugs, headphones, music. How are you supposed to concentrate? So glad I'm gone.

 

[jollystomper]

You'll need this...

 

[GalaxyBoy]

By the time I left I was pining for the good old days of full height cube walls. Our regional director was an architect and controlled the layout with an iron fist. Our office was an 1800s warehouse that was divided into tenant suites. We had no ceiling, a concrete floor, and exposed brick walls. Looked cool, but with his bright idea of a wide open office with no walls at all, it was a nightmare. On top of that, the tenant upstairs walked back and forth all day in high heels on the exposed wood floor. Directly behind my chair was an open conference area and I got to listen to every conference call at full volume. I can’t concentrate while listening to music in headphones but sometimes it was the only option.

But it’s synergy and collaboration! We’re all working together! And why is your project late with so many errors?!

I couldn’t leave fast enough.

 

[ransil]

I had flem guy as a cube neighbor, also had a guy call about his colonoscopy, set it up and was there for the results, he used to bitch at his wife daily on the phone.

 

[joeea]

So, my lovely MegaCorp has decided to relocate us to
a new location in a major city where commuting will
be a nightmare.

So find a new non-cubicle, better-commute job.

 

[JoeWras]

I had flem guy as a cube neighbor, also had a guy call about his colonoscopy, set it up and was there for the results, he used to bitch at his wife daily on the phone.

I didn't talk about my colonoscopy at the open office desk. I talked about it at a department meeting.

Yes, I evangelized about it. Over 1/2 of our department was over 50 and needed the kick in the ass.

I can hear my coworkers now: "Glad Joe left, now we don't have to hear about colonoscopies anymore."

 

[Ronstar]

I had an office down a quiet hallway for many years. Then a major storm and a clogged rooftop drainage system caused a partial roof collapse that flooded my office. During reconstruction, I lived in the cubicle farm next to the engineering techs that did my work. It was great for workflow having our group close together.

I was down to 1-2 days a week at work when my office was rebuilt. But I never moved back in. The company moved to a new office across town, where I again had a cubicle next to the techs and close to my replacement. A convenient place for my transition to RE.

I had a strange group of cubicle people. They rarely made a sound.

 

[Bamaman]

First we had open offices, then we moved and had engineered cubicles.

Next up will be consolidation of offices in either a few large cities or some off the wall city--neither of which no one will want or can afford to live. No one will accept the transfer.

Our 75 person office ended up 7 people working out of their houses. I saw the writing on the wall and moved to where we were going to retire to.

Lastly comes a downturn in the economy (2008), and everyone's sent home permanently with a big, fat severance/retirement package. Thank you, Megacorp.

 

[JoeWras]

I lived in the cubicle farm next to the engineering techs that did my work. It was great for workflow having our group close together.

I didn't mind cubes for workflow. Agree it worked really well. I can even see the benefit of open office in this regard.

However, what left me perplexed was when we were told it was all good for workflow, yet our team was asked to work closely with off-shore people. Rarely did we work with the people next to us! That caused more phone conversations, etc. It wasn't adding up.

 

[Aerides]

6' x 6' cube? that's luxury mate!

My MC moved to open seating - we called it picnic tables. Long narrow tables where the only separation from you to the person the other side is your pc monitors. And someone next to you doing the same.

Lockers for personal things to leave overnight. It's all part of Agile we were told. More like cheap real estate...

 

[MRG]

Hey stop whining. Our local McDonald's just reopened after a several month remodel to the lobby and outside. The poor slobs who worked in the kitchen and drive thru worked through the construction.