Slums

Today I was talking to Joe about telecommuting, which we both agree is the future of our profession. It just doesn't really make sense for us to show up to some physical place in person when what we do is concentrate and manipulate a virtual space. I can see having common meeting points to keep a group cohesive, but our particular profession is extremely poorly suited to the continuous interruptions of an office environment.

Programming aside, I think the closer an "office" is to your home, the better. And I don't mean physical proximity. In that regard, today's typical office is more like a homeless shelter.

The much touted reasoning for cubicles is that they lead to better collaboration, but I call BS on that. What leads to better collaboration is better common spaces. In a house, if people want to collaborate or be social, they go to the living room, family room, dining room, front porch, or back yard. These are all areas that are understood to be somewhat social in nature, and the person is allowed to choose when to participate. If the person wants to be private, they stay in their office, bedroom, or study. The point of these rooms is privacy and the ability to concentrate.

How this logic escapes the designers of offices just astounds me. Each worker should have a private space in which they can focus and get things done. Its walls should go to the ceiling, and it should have a door that can be closed.

In addition, the workplace should have several common areas, each suited to slightly different situations. One should have lots of food and comfy chairs and couches, and plenty of entertainment options (but not TV). This is for employees to blow off steam, chat with a coworker, or just eat their lunch. (I say no TV because it tends to destroy any interaction between people in a room.)

Another common area should be several office sized rooms with tables, outlets, and connections for small groups of 3-4 to work in the same room if they need to. If you don't know what I'm talking about, visit a good college library. These allow groups to work together without disturbing other groups.

The last area type really depends on the size of the company, but optimally you want a place where everyone can fit at once, for those all-staff events like kicking off the Next Big Thing, or just a company movie night.

The first area is like a living room and kitchen, the second area is like your dining room table, and the third is like your back yard. The private offices are much like your office/study at home. We have all these areas in a house because they serve a social purpose, allow us to establish boundaries and collaborate at will, and make the house comfortable and varied.

In contrast, modern offices are like homeless shelters. Everyone is in a shared room, cubicles being the metaphorical equivalent of bunk beds. There is no food, or at least nothing that doesn't come out of a vending machine. Also, the common areas are usually places of dread (meeting rooms) or discomfort (lobbies and lounges).

Meeting rooms usually have to be scheduled, so they don't allow spontaneous collaboration. It's no big secret that cubicles don't actually allow collaboration, since you have just enough privacy that you can't talk face-to-face with anyone without shouting. So how are your employees supposed to actually work in a team?

Lobbies and lounges are stark places with no relaxation value. "Oh man! I get to go sit and stare out the window by myself in a completely silent room lit by fluorescent lights!" If you don't believe me, ask yourself, which would you rather do? Go take a 15 minute break in your company's lounge area, or take the same break in your living room? You get the point.

The idea of a cubicle doesn't makes sense at all. As far as I can tell, it's only attractive in two situations. First, you need to be able to shout at your coworkers constantly. Maybe this makes sense in the bull pen of a stock trading firm, where the movies tell me brokers shout at each other across the room to get orders made. Thankfully, your typical office worker, much less a programmer, doesn't need to do that. If they need to talk to someone in person, they walk to that person's cubicle, which is really no different than walking to that person's private office would be.

The other reason cubicles are attractive is the ability to cram a lot of people in one big room, leaving flexibility to change the floor plan nearly at will. While this actually makes some sense, it doesn't necessitate that cube walls are only five feet tall. If you want to have modular office walls, make them go to the ceiling and put doors on them.

So think about it, would you prefer to live in a comfortable house or a homeless shelter? My guess is you picked the first one... so why do you allow your employer to keep you in the second?