Cubicle or Open Office

Which do you prefer to work in? A cubicle? Open-Office? Why?

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Out in a field with my hands in the dirt, and in a shop surrounded by wood shavings and sawdust! Homesteading/woodworking 4 life!

Those are my dream jobs, anyway

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I work in the recreation staff at a huge resort and have NO office for plants to die in. One hour I’m in the arcade running an 8 Ball or Ping Pong tournament then I’m in another room doing arts and crafts with kids then I’m in another room hosting Family Feud then I’m in the gym getting a kickball or dodgeball game started (and lots more) but what’s cool is that before an activity I can pull out a yoyo and practice and management does not care because it fits the environment because all the vacationers are there for a great time and yoyoing does not make me look unprofessional! If any of you own timeshare points and come stay at Wyndham Shawnee Village in PA, ask for Activities Chris!

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I planted sunflowers in the field behind my apartment building and liked getting my hands in the dirt. A groundhog ate all the seeds. Nothing grew.

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The gardener’s lament :heart:

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In answer to the question, it depends on the task. Where I work now is an office environment in need of a warehouse, so it’s a matter of the right environment for the job.

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Way off topic here. Sorry. Next spring I will start seedlings then replant them. I wanted the sunflowers to just shed their seeds and grow back the next year but the groundhog will just eat them. I’m not hatin’ on lovely creatures, but I really want sunflowers out there!

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Telecommuting FTW.

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Definitely not open office. Not a huge fan of cubicles but a least I didn’t have to worry about people coughing and sneezing across the room

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I’ve worked in both a huge open bay with about 200 desks wall to wall, and a place that had cubicles. Prefer the semi-privacy of a cubicle over the open bay. Also at one time actually had a private office. That was great.

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As a computer consultant for many years, I have worked in most all configurations that are out there. I seems that working at a picnic table with six other engineers is considered cutting edge these days. To me, it is like working at the school cafeteria. I guess they save money on buying cubes.

The best environment I ever worked in had private offices with two people per office. Just the best. But that was like 1989… Sometimes I wish we could go backwards just a little bit :slight_smile:

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I prefer a cubicle to an open office, but only because it’s the lesser of two evils. I’ve worked in both, and I prefer the semi-privacy of a cubicle, since I’m better able to focus on my work with fewer distractions. Here’s an article about the inventor of the cubicle, and what it came to mean to him:

https://www.businessinsider.com/cubicle-inventor-propst-hated-creation-2014-10

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You are correct. As far as I know, there was no scientific research prior to the open office craze. Once they looked into it, it was found to be counterproductive, but so many companies had sunk so much money into the arrangement that they just ignored the data and doubled down on open offices. Not surprising considering the cost associated with going back. I’ve always thought that cost was also the attractive reason for going to open offices. Basically it’s “here’s a big room with a cubby in the corner for meetings. You all figure it out” and if you can’t, they find someone who can.

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Out and about, no walls. Cruisin’ the streets.

I work for a small company now but I can wear jeans and I have my own office so it could be worse

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I’ve worked in both, and cubicle all the way. It’s just nice to have privacy.

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The open office thing is nothing new, just popular again. The 200 desk bay I referred to above was at Boeing in the mid 1970s. It was a popular concept for all the aerospace companies and probably most other large companies. They’d used it for years before that.