neff@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU (Randy Neff) (01/23/88)
Having spent eight years very large silicon valley company in cubicles, I would never work in them again. 1. Extremely noisy, can hear hundreds of phones ring, hear all the details of the over the wall women's sex/dating lives, shouting questions over the walls (easier than looking in a manual), and continuous interruptions. Carpet was `too expensive', giving an accustically bright environment. I would claim that it is impossible to do `deep' thinking for innovation, creativity, programming, writing, or debugging. Music in headphones was forbidden. 2. I have had the following `borrowed' from my cubicle: pens, paper, calendars, posters, my text books, manuals, my terminal, guts from my terminal, desk chair, personal backup tapes, and my telephone. 3. Note the the high level management types that make the cattle stall decisions all have big private offices. 4. Note that the famous research labs, where the really creative stuff comes from, all have private offices with outdoor windows: Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, IBM Yorktown Heights, DEC WRL and SRC, etc. 5. The office setting shows what the management really thinks of its people, cutting through the management BS, cubicles => cattle, private offices => professionals. Randall Neff neff@shasta.stanford.edu