The Cubicle was Inherently Flawed, But the Future is Bright for Office Workers

When office workers sit at work like drones, churning away at a computer which grumbles whilst trying to run Excel in tandem with a web browser, it’s rare they take a moment to absorb their surroundings. The office is synonymous with clocking in at 8:58, sitting at a desk and staring longingly at the clock as it ticks towards twelve ‘o’ clock. It’s generally perceived the life of the office worker is full of misery, brightened once a year when Christmas is a few weeks away. Why this is the case is surprisingly easy to track, but the designers of the open office never intended it to be this way. Feel like a walking zombie when you walk into the office? Yeah, you can thank corporate suits for that.

The layout which adorns the vast majority of offices worldwide is 52 years old in 2017. The ‘Action Office Plan II’ as it was known back then has been so successful, that it has only undergone a few minor tweaks and changes since. We’ll get onto why the second iteration was such a longstanding success, whilst its predecessor barely got a sniff. To put things into perspective, George Nelson, one of the designers who assisted in the design of the action office, reflected on the creation. Simply put, the action open office design was “for employees, for personnel, corporate zombies, the walking dear, the silent majority. A large market.”

How the Cubicle was Born and How it Set Out to Revolutionise Open Office Design

The open plan office has been around since architect, Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Larkin Administration Building in New York, in 1906. Its design took inspiration from factories of the time by incorporating as few walls as possible. Workers would sit in lines of desks, surrounded by their managers. The idea being there was a constant figment in their mind they were being watched. For sixty years, office workers were merely seen as cogs in the machine. If the cog does not work efficiently, the bosses at the top simply pop out the ineffective part and replace it with one which does work. The concept of humanisation was hardly popular at the time.

George Nelson and Robert Propst finalised the designs for the ‘Action Office I’ in 1964. The result was a combination of their theories of how the office should operate. This design was the first to consider that flexibility and freedom might have some place in the office. It was well known at the time that Nelson and Propst rarely saw eye-to-eye. However, they collaborated to create an office which would promote productivity, privacy and health. Unfortunately, these factors come at the cost of space efficiency and the ever-important tipping point; money.

Early reviews raved about this modernist approach to open office design. It was supposed to mean liberation for workers who were trapped in their classroom style layouts. However, for corporate managers, even during a period of economic boom, the revolutionary design simply was not worth the outlay. As offices grew, they wanted a design which would cram them in tighter. Nelson was removed from the project after refusing to accept this, but Propst finished the product. What became known as ‘Action Office II’ would forever burden him with the tag as the ‘Father of the Cubicle’.

How Open Office Design is Changing in 2017 and How Those Ideals Are Finally Being Realised

The Action Office II sacrificed style for sustenance. While Propst managed to incorporate privacy and adaptability into the design, it’s unlikely he realised the human cost. Corporate managers loved it, cram them in like cattle, cut the cost over a long period, with the only offset being that they must give employees a bit of privacy. So here we are today, victims of a demand for a ‘cubicle farm’. The Action Office was conceived to help people enjoy the office environment, rather than being racked by stress, anxiety and depression which the mundane nature of the work often induced. While the design was certainly a great solution for corporate bosses, both Nelson and Probst knew that it failed to achieve what they set out to create.

52 years on and there may be light at the end of the tunnel for white-collar workers. Led by start-ups and forward thinking businesses, the new generation of corporate bosses are beginning to realise the value of developing a happy and healthy workforce. While it is elementary now, it is baffling that for nearly 100 years, nobody latched on to the idea that keeping people happy and healthy would lead to better results, more efficient results and increasingly innovative results. Who knew that treating employees like humans would lead to a more productive business, boosting the flow of money into a business’ coffers?

How the Office Pod is One of the Key Tools in Realising These Ideals…

Courtesy of new technology, modern open office design is finally starting to achieve the ideals of freedom and flexibility which the Action Office never could. Being anchored to a desk is becoming a thing of the past. Rather than all employees being clumped into a large cattle-grid, offices are now being laid out into ‘neighbourhoods’, keeping relevant groups together. For noisy group work, separate spaces are even being created to maintain harmony in the wider office. It all sounds so simple, but the effect it can have is substantial.

Acoustic screens, adjustable desks, ergonomic chairs, the office pod and glass walls, all just a snapshot of modern furnishings. 50 years ago, office furniture was manufactured to be cheap and needed replacing every few years. Now, quality is at the heart of modern designs and they are produced with the future in mind. Rather than being viewed as a constant outlay every few years, businesses are now realising the value of designing offices as an investment. With adaptability at the core of the design, the office can flex and grow in tandem with the business.

At Rap Industries, we have manufactured office partitioning to meet client’s demands for over 40 years. During this period, we’ve seen the market shift and all of our current products are designed with this mind. For many information on the products we produce, please get in touch. Either send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com or give us a call on 01733 394941.