Posted on 03/16/2006 5:08:05 AM PST by Professional Engineer
NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity."
Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence. More from FORTUNE Living it up on Wall Street Saving trees the smart way The First Mogul FORTUNE 500 Current Issue Subscribe to Fortune Photo Gallery launchSee more photos Photo Gallery launchSee more photos How I work E-mail and voicemail; yoga and personal assistants; structure and grooving: A dozen accomplished people tell what works for them. (See the gallery) Click here to e-mail us your own tips on how to manage your work life more efficiently.
See a gallery of cubicles -- from futuristic workspace to box.
Reviled by workers, demonized by designers, disowned by its very creator, it still claims the largest share of office furniture sales--$3 billion or so a year--and has outlived every "office of the future" meant to replace it. It is the Fidel Castro of office furniture.
So will the cubicle always be with us? Probably yes, though in recent years individuals and organizations have finally started to chart productive and economical ways to escape its tyranny.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Stop the Mexican invasion and many of these poor souls can get second jobs in the fields picking fruit.
Didn't you get that memo?
Oh, like someone else wouldn't have thought of it eventually.
LOL!
Yep.
When I was a young buck, I was a professional roofer.
That's hot work down here in Louisiana.
I would carry 70-85 lb bundles of shingles up a ladder and across a large roof all day.
Tearing off old shingles was even harder work. Much harder.
After years of doing that in the blazing 100 degree Louisiana sun, I could kiss my cubicle.
I can only imagine what your sales presentations must be like....
Funny movie.
Want to know something scary? I have a current project at work in which I need to produce "TPA reports".
Please turn in your TPS reports before you do that, mmmhmm.
My thoughts exactly!!!
When I got my first job and they showed me my cube (they called it a "pod" back then), I thought it was pretty cool. That was a long time ago. But, despite the bad rap, I still think cubes are pretty cool.
You must have used the old cover sheet....
:D
Neal
So have you gutted any fish on them yet?
Nope but if I don't stop freepin' and get to work I'll be a gutted fish on them! Now if only I could bring myself to remove this sleeping kitty from my lap, I could go out and earn that living of mine.
Without cubicles, there would be no "prarie dogging!"
I've got a cubicle. Sort of... I'm next to a window, on the 15th floor. That's never happened to me before. I work in IT, so I've always worked in a cave. It's nice being able to see sunlight through a window every now and then.
Mark
ummmm, yeah. I'm gonna have to ask you to go ahead and come in on Saturday.
Sweet gig ... I work a 9/80 and get to work from the house every other Friday.
I'm still trying to get the powers that be let me do it any day I don't have meetings.
Nice screen name.
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