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 ...
Feel like a number!
Got me a window office with a door ... I'm the king of the world.
The only number that matters is the one on your pay stub.
People will do crazy things for a six-figure salary.
LOL
I've been fortunate for a number of years as well.
If you are a cubicle-dweller and have not seen this gem of a film, you need to go out and rent it today. It motivated me to quit my last job (though I stopped short of burning the place down).
Window office on a controlled access hallway. Just a few folks can get in.
This is a good one.
I've managed to work my way up to a soulless office.
"Got me a window office with a door ... I'm the king of the world."
I work at home in my underwear. :-)
As long as I can listen to music, I can put up with the cubicle farm. The day I can't rock out to Bruce is the day I quit.
Someday I really need to see this movie.
I enjoy working on the computer but, if I had to work indoors, it would kill me quickly.
when I saw that fat man keel over and die, Michael, I realized that we don't have a lot of time on this earth. We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings weren't meant to sit in little cubicles, starring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.
I like the soulless cubicle in which I toil.
You need to rent it today.
Really.
Pick it up on the way home.
Watch it two or three times.
I lasted exactly 3 weeks in a cubicle environment. As I grow older I know I can't continue to work out in the field, but dang the cubicle deal is nasty.
Share an office with a team of 3-4 people, sure in the field that's easy. The project keeps you out of the office most of the day.
A 'cubicle' day in, day out...not for me.
That was on AMC last evening. I walked in the door just as it began.
Yep.
I picture Jack Lemmon in "The Apartment."
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