Once upon a time I had an office, and it was good. I was actually able to focus on the work that I was doing. I was able to concentrate on difficult problems without overhearing someone else's discussions, lunch, gossip or impromptu meeting.Unfortunately the majority of the jobs I've had involve cubicles and cubicles suck. This means that any job I have, or have had, that involves a cubicle sucks too.
The biggest problem with cubicles is noise. Everything, when you're trying to concentrate on something, is noise. I certainly respect people who have the ability to block out everything except for what they're working on. I'm not one of them. I think it's really great that you can wear your headphones if that's how you block out what you consider noise, but that doesn't work for me for more than an hour or two. After a while my ears start itching or even they become as distracting as the reason I put them on in the first place. Headphones are really not the solution.
The solution is people becoming less of an asshole. People have really become self-righteous assholes. It's almost as if their ability to speak trumps any common courtesy whatsoever. I'm working on fixing some fucking problem preventing people from using the services that bring in revenue, but 3 people need to have a discussion about the benefits of oat-bran muffins in the next cubicle over. What's worse their mothers never told them the difference between their indoor voice and their outdoor voice. Perhaps a manager needs to have a 30 - 45 minute meeting in some guy's cubicle about some damn thing. Never mind the fact that the manager has a fucking office and the meeting could have been held there.
To me this is no different than those assholes that need to carry on cell phone conversations while standing in a line at the bank or some other place. It might be marginally better if you lowered your voice a bit, but I understand why they don't . . .
Because they are self-indulgent assholes. They love the sound of their voice. The primary reason they have conversations is to speak. They probably believe the world stops and the stars and moon line up just because phonetic melodies stream from their oral orifice. It is music to their ears and, in their own mind, a river of wisdom flowing to everyone within earshot.
I got news for you. Shut the hell up or have the discussion elsewhere.
Cubicles may suck...but I can hear EVERY word that a senior manager is saying in the huge office next to my office - all day.
Yeah - that indoor/outdoor voice thing - a thing of the past.
@Max
You have to remember that Senior Managers are a whole other ball of wax. Now we're talking about pompous arrogance. So, essentially, take self-indulgence and multiply by 10 to determine the level of asshole. Then you have the degree to which they need to be heard by others - perhaps wall thickness needs to be increased by that amount?