Raze the cubicle maze
WE HAVE heard of road rage, football rage, airplane rage, marrage (oops marriage, skip that) and now it's a new syndrome called `cubicle rage'. Note how closely rage rhymes with cage! Cubicle rage is therefore defined as the rage felt in a cage - somewhat like how fish in an aquarium or animals confined in enclosures might feel. Except that they seem to handle it better than the humans put into cubicles. So, what's the big deal about cubicles anyway? They are just flimsy domino style inexpensive movable walls that can be erected and pulled down at will. Apart from causing spatial boundaries, cubicles create mental barriers. Any form of physical delineation gives rise to an invisible line of control.
People feel these aren't just physical walls; they're a state of mind. Though they are so lightweight, they are strong enough to ward off others and make you feel isolated, `compartmentalised', or even over-important. There's also a tendency on your part to hide behind these almost transparent walls, as if they're going to protect you from the `outside' environment. Cubicles have been designed with a view to provide some sort of privacy, minimise distractions and improve productivity and creativity. However, those that operate out of cubicles should realise that the privacy is not so absolute that they can conduct private phone calls and other personal matters within these sound-transmitting walls. One can hear everything that is going on, which is fun at first, but constantly overhearing (you can't escape it!) the phone calls of your neighbour is more than enough to push you over the edge.
There are glass panels on the door that people walk past every now and then and pause to stare in through, almost like they're checking to see what you're up to. You also tend to lose touch with the grapevine circulating outside your cubicle and start getting paranoid that everybody is talking about you - though that might not entirely be untrue either.
These cubicle walls also create a specious feeling of being overly important. Then overnight you get `demoted or dethroned' when, due to lack of space, they suddenly decide to do away with your `kingdom'. Often, in order to accommodate more cubicles, the management resorts to squeezing your room so that more folks can get theirs. Offices and workstations nationwide are shrinking as companies try to maximise space and save money, as every square foot counts. But those who study office space say the trend toward smaller offices has long-term ramifications. A compressed office space, affects air quality, ventilation and health. Isn't today's culture of open spaces, transparency and teamwork contradictory to cubicle culture? Can't we do away with them? With such glowing reports on the fruits of teamwork and the need to `mix n' mingle', it's only natural that all kind of boundaries need to be eliminated. Management wants employees to bond, to foster team culture, to share ideas and multiply results - all of which are not possible if people are divided into 8x8 feet cubes that scream `stay off my private property' or `trespassers and eavesdroppers will be prosecuted by me'! Also, despite their non-sound proof property, they are not really conducive for flow of thoughts and exchange of ideas. So, there's need for large, spacious, ergonomically and economically designed floors for teams and departments. Only the really big bosses can have their own offices, which are actual rooms. But, they too are encouraged to walk out of them every once in a while and hit the floor. This practice is called MBWA-Management By Walking Around-as this is the only way to see things as they really are, and be accessible to people. The stress should be on interaction, not isolation. Thinking `out of the box' is also much easier when you're physically out of the box! Creative and innovative solutions thrive where there are many people generating and volleying them. Physical walls tend to limit such free flow of ideas and profusion of thoughts.
Without the cubicle maze you get to enjoy the office environment and develop personal contacts. You learn to get along with people you didn't like and conveniently avoided in the cubicle system. And, you discover they are not as bad as you imagined. It was your aversion, which was further exacerbated by the four walls that caused you to burn more bridges than build them. Now that you're out in the open, nobody seems overly interested in what you're doing anymore. Nobody stares the way they do at monkeys in a cage, or goldfish in a bowl! Because now you're all in the same zoo!
Of course, as with everything else, there is the flipside to doing away with the cubicle culture. But, since the results of `de-cubiclisation' are gratifying, modern companies are going a step further - doing away with office spaces altogether. Employees can now carry laptops and work in natural surroundings amidst waterfalls and fountains, ducks and rabbits! The philosophy is to free the mind in order to make it reach its maximum productivity - as the best thoughts thrive in liberty not captivity. Or maybe, Management hopes that like Newton, you can discover something by sitting under the apple tree!
SALMA ALIAKBAR
faqs@cnkonline.com
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