Four Walls and a Door

In 1992. I was working at Apple. Apple had recently completed and opened a new R&D center — 6 large buildings, across the road from where I worked. Our group wasn't moving but we'd heard the rumors. Everyone in the R&D center had an office with a door.

In 1993, I went to work for Taligent, the Apple-IBM Joint Venture. Taligent was about to start construction on new office space. They studied what Apple had done, then proceeded to follow the same model — a hard-walled office for every employee, complete with a door.

The space wasn't large; it had less floor space, frankly, than my former cube. But it had real walls and a door, a door I could close (and often did). It had its own lighting controls.

It was private. It was conducive to thought and productive work.

Consider the effects of four hard walls and a door. First of all, it's quiet. Even with the door open, most extraneous sounds are greatly reduced. I don't hear my neighbors' typing, this one's telephone conversation, that one's talking to herself as she works out a problem.

In one cubicle environment where I worked, the guy on the other side of the wall would "Umhmm" out loud at 3 or 4 minute intervals. Aargh.

As a side effect, there's less contention for conference rooms when everyone has an office. One-on-ones and even interviews can be handled with ease.

I worked at Taligent for another year and a half, then went back to Apple where, this time, I was in the R&D center. I had a different office, with a different door, for the next three years. I promised myself then that if I could do it, I'd never work in a cubicle environment again.

Except for one more year at Apple, between 1999 and 2000, the only way I've been able to keep that promise has been when I work from home. My self has never quite forgiven me.

It's not entirely my fault. Companies that provide offices with doors are few and far between. Despite the proven relationship between productivity and lack of distraction and interruption, companies persist in believing that cubicles are the best approach to organizing technical workers.

Cubicles have become such an icon of nasty workplaces that it's shocking that the companies who manufacture them still have the chutzpah to pretend that they're efficient, productive, and pleasant. Peopleware calls this "lying by repeated assertion."

-- Whaddaya Mean, You Can't Find Programmers? - Joel Spolsky, June 2000

The Company That Employes Me currently takes a very egalitarian approach: everyone, individual contributors and managers alike, has a cubicle. Everyone is equally distracted. How very democratic.

Voices, typing, stereo "bleed", and general activity are constant. People call to each other over the tops of the cubicle walls.

Speaker phones (don't get me started) deserve an essay of their own! (The good news: our people don't use speaker phones; the bad news, we're not the only people in the area.)

As a result, conference rooms are at a premium. People grab a room for one-on-ones, impromptu meetings, or just to find a quiet place to work uninterrupted.

Our current arrangement takes the cubicle environment to a new level of Wrongness. Twelve of our people are in "shared" cubicles — minimum four to a space. One such area holds six people at present.

It's a wonder anyone gets any work done at all.

We're a very social group at this Company. This makes for a great Team. Don't get me wrong; I like my co-workers. But, sometimes, I really don't want to hear all of them all of the time.

I can have social time at lunch. We can talk about work in meetings. When I'm at my desk, I have my own projects and tasks to concentrate on. Unfortunately, concentration is difficult to achieve.

My solution? Two days a week I work from home. The rest of the time, I plug in the earphones and survive.