If your organisation uses a cubicle environment, you probably get complaints about the noisy and uncivilized habits of co-workers, the general lack of privacy, or some perceived loss of status. Welcome to the open office, or the cubiclization of America. It's a phenomenon that shows no signs of abating soon.
Proponents of cubicles cite their many advantages: lower costs, greater flexibility, and improved networking and productivity. Yet there are also disadvantages, and as a HR manager you've probably heard most of them.
15 cubicle tips
The staff of What to Do About Personnel Problems recently moved to a facility where, with only a handful of exceptions, private offices ceased to exist. Here are some suggestions from Bob Brady, the publication's editor in chief. He suggests that HR managers lobby to have the management-level suggestions implemented, and share the rest with your workers as a way to defuse potential problems and improve morale.
- Install 'white noise' machines. Extremely effective, these speakers create just enough noise so that workers can't follow the thread of conversations.
- Install a conference room or pay phone areas where employees are encouraged to place sensitive calls.
- Keep your voice low on the telephone to protect your privacy.
- Use the boss's office or an empty conference room for private calls.
- If your neighbours are consistently noisy, let them know you can hear them (in a polite, non-threatening way.)
- If you lose your temper with your ex-husband and everyone overhears you, forget about it. Your co-workers will understand - just vow not to let the call get that far the next time.
- Use body language to let doorway hangers-on know that it's time to get back to work.
- Install pictures of your family, pets, and hobbies to make your cube homey.
- For private messages, use email.
- Buy some headphones for yourself or your music loving neighbour.
- Install a green marker (ribbon) if it's OK to visit, red if you need privacy.
- Keep a neat cube, particularly if you share it.
- Move meetings to a conference area or the cafe?
- Avoid strong perfumes or clipping your nails.
- Recognise that the cube is a public space - don't say anything you don't want everyone to know.
Will the cube movement last?
If you talk to the big office furniture companies, or the beleaguered facility managers who have built walled offices only to knock them down again, the answer is yes. Cubicles are the present and the future. But, we have heard of a Connecticut drug manufacturer that installed private offices for every scientist in the facility. The reason: it could not attract new workers if they had to work in a cube.
