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Cubicle Etiquette? 194

Posted by Cliff from the cubicle-farms?-how-dilbertesqe dept.
zrgn asks: "Our team is moving to an open office type environment in a couple of weeks. The problem is that most of them have never worked in that type of setting before and thus may not know the do's and don'ts associated with a cube farm. I have two questions: what types of cubicle etiquette things have Slashdot readers come across that may help us in the new environment? (ie. don't listen to your voice mail on speaker phone); and What are some creative ways to relay 'cubicle rules' to the rest of the team?"
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Cubicle Etiquette? More

Cubicle Etiquette?

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  • This is my advice. (Score:5, Funny)

    by elvesRgay ( 685389 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @07:43PM (#6819745)
    First remember to be considerate of your fellow cube mates. If you are listening to some good tunes, don't withhold its enjoyment for your own personal pleasure, crank that stuff up! Let everyone enjoy! This creates appreciation for your fellow workers.

    Second, in the interest of improving coordination and communication among all the people who you work nearby, make sure you hit the speaker phone button and turn the volume up, and don't forget to speak REALLY loud (remember those speaker phone microphones can't hear so well). This way everybody can hear your phone conversations since there are no pesky cube walls to block the sound. This will save you the time of having to explain the conversations that you just had will your coworkers that may be directly involved with what you do. Also, people who don't have anything to do with your job will get a chance to know how important and hard working you are.

    Third, get some screen reading software. Use this all the time with the volume turned way up. This, like the previous advice will increase the likelihood of your coworkers getting valuable information from what you do, which they previously may not have been aware of.

    Fourth, consider the savings of not having to call or email your co-workers! After all they are sitting just 40 feet away! There's no need to get up. Just yell out there names and have your conversation with them from your desk.

    Fifth, you will be most comfortable and productive in this environment if you don't worry about hiding certain activities which where previously blocked from view. Go ahead and pick that annoying booger and whip it under the desk, feel free to scratch where it itches. We are all human anyway, and everybody was doing these things before, so to hell with it.

    Sixth, buy a second monitor. Make it point the opposite direction of your monitor and mirror its content. Since your screen and the actives you are performing are already in the public view you might as well save the people the hassle of walking behind your monitor to peer over your shoulder. Note that this was not an option before the cube walls where taken down. And your nearby co-workers will appreciate the latest and greatest of your comments that you posted to slashdot. Note this step may not be necessary if followed the third piece of advice.

    Hope this helps! Before I did all these things nobody ever noticed me in the office, and so I was often over looked. But now I'm the most talked about employee in my office!

    • Nice list but I have to add one thing:

      Get voice recognizition software to go with the screen reading software. That way your co-workers can hear both sides of the conversation between you and your computer.
    • I couldn't agree more with your first suggestion! I bought a set of speakers [klipsch.com] for my desk, and I like to turn it up. I have even had people put in requests for what music they want to listen to. Of course, it is nice that I work for the company that makes those speakers, so this kind of behavior is acceptable.
    • If you are listening to some good tunes, don't withhold its enjoyment for your own personal pleasure, crank that stuff up! Let everyone enjoy!

      Remember, everyone loves hampsters. [mercedes.nu]

  • Just common couresy (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jtev ( 133871 )
    Basicaly just don't do anything that's going to have an unwanted disruptive effect on your coworkers, That doesn't mean that you don't disturb them just make sure that you keep in mind that they can hear you.

  • l'etiquette d'cube (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @07:48PM (#6819775)
    1) the aforementioned listening to voicemail (or any call) on speakerphone.
    2) Play your music on headphones
    3) ditch the amusing new mail sound. Silence is golden.
    4) Get your own lighting so everyone can leave the nasty overhead fluorescent lights off and light to their own specifications. better on the eyes, too.
    5) To get someone's attention, arc a rubberband over the cubicle wall. Or hand-toss a nerf dart.
    6) If you're the nervous twitch type, don't thump your pen on the desk incessantly, or whack your heel against the side of your chair, or whatever irritating thing you do.
    7) If you have any brains, get some earplugs or a noise-cancellation headset.
    8) Set the temp to a standard 72. Deal with it however you need to. "Space-heaters & deskfans for some, miniature American flags for others!"
    9) Talk to the Claw! Don't stand around chatting with someone when it's obvious they're trying to get some work done. Be considerate - cube farms are hard enough to work in without a Chatty Cathy around.
    10) PROFIT! :)

    End of Line

    • Re:l'etiquette d'cube (Score:3, Interesting)

      by trompete ( 651953 )
      Some additional pointers from my experience in cube land...
      11) Don't yell at your kids when the people around you are actually trying to work.
      12) Talk at a normal volume when you're on the phone with your boyfriend/playmate/f*ck buddy. Whispering is actually more intense than talking and much more difficult to block out.

      Our situation was really annoying where I worked because I was a developer on the border with the testing area. I would code all day long, and the testers would just try to break softwar
      • 12.B) Don't tell your boyfriend/girlfriend/creature what you plan to do to/with/in them over the phone at any volume. I don't want to hear it as it's a mental image I don't want.
        13) I can hear you fart/belch/slurp, so don't rip 'em while your in your cube. You'll find your chair missing in the morning if you do... And no, *smiles* I have no idea where your chair went. Was that the expensive one you brought from home?
        • The good thing about if they talk at a normal volume is that it is easy to dismiss as background noise. Whispering is so easy to hear and so distracting that I would always put headphones on when my cube neighbor was on the phone.
    • Do not play with thermostats except to set them back to 72 after someone else dicked with it. Wear shorts or a sweater if it's too hot or cold for you, don't make everyone else suffer because you're a temperature pussy. Some loser where I work keeps setting the thermostats to 85. When you walk into this area, your clothing instantly sticks to your skin and if you're wearing glasses, they fog.

      At least I have the satisfaction of knowing as soon as we figure out who is doing that, they're fired.

    • Not just any headphones (Score:4, Informative)

      by superyooser ( 100462 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @02:00AM (#6821605) Homepage Journal
      2) Play your music on headphones

      Not just any headphones. You need the over-the-ear kind that actually seals over the ears. A lot of headphones produce almost as much second-hand noise as regular speakers.

      Headphones that cover the ears provide some benefits:

      • They keep the sound inside, reducing the noise that others might hear.
      • They block out external noises, so you don't have to turn up the volume as much.
        • This also reduces the noise that others might hear.
        • It allows you to hear your music more clearly.
        • It helps to prevent you from incurring hearing loss (not total loss, but partial loss; a serious and common result of using headphones)
      If you intend to use them often, I recommend buying a high-quality pair. Don't consider anything under $40.
    • 72 is *much* too warm. I tend to fall asleep at that temperature.

      69 is appropriate, something just about everyone can handle, and for those who want it slightly warmer, can use a warmer piece of clothes, a sweater, or even a heater.

      Conversely, if at 72, there is little way to cool down other than taking off clothes, which is generally not an option.
    • "3) ditch the amusing new mail sound. Silence is golden."

      Ditch all OS sound effects. Whenever I set up a new machine for someone I always turn off the sound effects. This is especially important on laptops so they don't wake up all the people within a 10 foot radius on the train.

  • Flaming Nurf Darts Are A No-No (Score:4, Funny)

    by thecampbeln ( 457432 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @07:50PM (#6819787) Homepage
    I once worked in an office where a developer thought it would be a good idea to return a volley of Nurf darts stuffed with flaming toilet paper... Needless to say management was not to pleased with this decision! So I guess this should be slotted in the "do not do this" section of cube etiquette ;)
  • My favorites...
    1. use speakerphone whenever possible
    2. turn up the volume on your speakerphone
    3. forget vibrate on your cell, download cool polyphonic ring tones...turn the ring volume all the way up
    4. Have meetings in your cubicle. No need to waste conference room space
    5. Enable stupid event sounds on your PC and turn the volume up. Use southpark or similar themes
    6. Talk to yourself
    7. laugh out loud for no apparent reason
    8. Even better, learn to make that "snort" sound when you laugh
    9. belch, pass gass, etc.
    10. as a follow

  • Dont stare.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by camilita ( 694206 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @07:54PM (#6819811)
    Seriously. If you are not going to talk to somebody, dont stare at their work area without a reason.

    People already feel without privacy without the looking.
    • What do you need privacy from? Most companies that have large amounts of cube farms have rules in place against personal email/chatting/surfing for porn/etc so what do you need privacy from? If your not doing anything to hurt the company then you dont need privacy. Its as simple as that
      • *sigh*, have you never thought people might like privacy, for the sake of privacy, most people don't like others "standing over your shoulder" and a cube-farm induces just this (the feeling, not necessarily people doing it).

        It's like that feeling that you're being watched. Nobody likes that feeling wether you're doing something you shouldn't or not.

        And believe it or not, a person's private life does not only exist outside of the workplace, you can't just check it at the door, sometimes your personal matt

      • Re:Dont stare.... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by AlecC ( 512609 )
        I find that my typing rate drops by about a third and my number of errors doubles if I think someone is watching ove my shoulder. Just nerves. But, from an employers point of view, that would be a serious drop in my productivity.


      • If your not doing anything to hurt the company then you dont need privacy. Its as simple as that

        I can't stand having my monitor point into the open area ... and that has nothing to do with goofing off.

        When I'm working on a design, there is a point where it is 'ready' to be seen by others. During the process, I may be playing with some things (that woudn't ever go in the final) just to get a sense of how some things go together (color, shape, etc.)

        I can't stand it when somebody walks behind me and sa

  • The rules of food. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Syncdata ( 596941 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @07:57PM (#6819830) Journal
    If I had my druthers, no food would be allowed in the common cubicle area. If this isn't acceptable, please, no seafood, and no smelly foods, particularly early in the morning.
    One coworker of mine would bring a bacon cheeseburger into the cubicle area for breakfast. Noone needs to smell beef and bacon that early in the morning.
    If only common sense were more common, noone would need rules like this.
    • Not even in the lunchroom! Jeebus, that stuff reeks. There should be a special microwave, outside under an awning where the smokers sit, specifically for popcorn. It should be popped, shaken, opened, aired-out, and half eaten before bringing it indoors.

      Waving your smelly popcorn in my airspace is an invitation for me to overindulge on burritos tonight, and tomrrow spend a lot of time inspecting the bulletin board right next to your cubicle.

      Ditto on the perfume thing, people don't realize how intensely tha

  • The proper food is important (Score:3, Funny)

    by the_other_one ( 178565 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:02PM (#6819873) Homepage

    There's nothing like Fish and Chips with lots of malt vinegar. I keep extra bottles in my desk. It's also good on plain potatoe chips.

    Garlic has many health benefits and I recommend chewing it raw as often as possible.

    Beans are also healthfull.

    Also crackers with a healthy hunk of lindberger cheese is a great snack in the mid afternoon.

  • Stealth eating (Score:4, Informative)

    by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:03PM (#6819880) Journal

    My biggest gripe in a cube farm:

    Eating.

    If you want to eat in your cube, fine. Just keep it within your cube. I don't want to know about it. I don't want to smell your questionable fish-and-garlic-suprise, I don't want to have to wipe your barbeque sauce off my white board, and whatever it is you are eating I don't want to hear you chewing it (or doing what ever that guy in the fly did to consume his food).

    And speaking of flies, take your trash to the lunch room as soon as you are done. The janitors will not dig through your pile of printouts to find your week-old pesto pieces, but there are six legged clean-up crews that will.

    Thank you.

    -- MarkusQ

  • Seriously- i worked at one place where the woman near me wore perfume that made my eyes water and my athsma go off... her kid had bought it for her, so she wore it every day until i finally convinced her to stop by threatening to go to HR and discuss with them that i'd already gone over my medical issues with the woman and was having to use my inhaler several times just to get through the mornings that she came to work.

    Also, don't transact personal business on the telephone unless you REALLY want the whole office to know about it. That goes for making appointments, calling friends, the works. Sound carries well, and people tend to talk louder when they're on the phone with people they know well, because they're more comfortable.

    Don't listen to music without headphones, don't pop popcorn and bring it to your cubby, and remember that anything you put on your wall may be seen by anyone at anytime.

    that said, personalising your cubby can make you feel more comfortable. Even hanging colth on the walls is oke in some places, so get a good set of guidelines put out for what IS acceptable as well as what isn't. Offer, if possible, several types of whiteboards, corkboards, whatever, so that people feel that they can customise it at least a little.

    • I used to work with a woman whose presence was known because you could _smell_ when she was in when you stepped off the elevator. Funny though it all ended the day a guy walked in and said "What smells like French whore?"
  • hell, make em a gift to everyone, its a gift to you as well.

  • Engineering loves cubicles (Score:5, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:10PM (#6819967) Homepage Journal
    I reside in the Engineering cubes. We like to pretend we're on the Enterprise by tapping our chest and shouting the name of whoever we wanna talk to. Couldn't do that when we had offices.

    (Note: I'm not really being sarcastic here.)

  • Just download some inappropriate audio file and leave it in thier messages. (Gotta love portable MP3 players aye?)

    Make sure you use the boss's (or better yet your boss's boss's) phone after hours so the offender will think it's important.
    • I worked in a cube farm where somebody was always using his speaker phone to check his voice mail. One day while he was doing that, a bunch of us went into an empty office, dialed his voice mail number, and left a message where we screamed at the tops of our lungs "STOP FUCKING USING YOUR FUCKING SPEAKER PHONE TO CHECK YOUR FUCKING VOICE MAIL, YOU INCONSIDERATE FUCKTARD". We all went back to our desks and when he got to the end of the messages, we heard the "beep - you have one new message", and grinned a
  • I useta take paper airplanes and write "S.C.U.D. Don't worry, it probably wasn't meant for you!" on them. Then, I'd throw them in a random direction from my cube and see how many would come back. Then my boss brought one back. Evidentally, doing something like that more than once is a problem.

    Lesson learned: Only fire one SCUD from your cube.
  • Make sure that you hoard those nice red staplers that will now be in plain view.

  • List of rules (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:35PM (#6820138) Homepage
    Here's a list of rules [slinkycity.com] for behaving in a school computer lab; they should work equally well in a cubicle farm.

  • Depends on you! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bluGill ( 862 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:41PM (#6820174)

    People tend to hire, and like to be hired by people who are like them. Thus most people will want the same thing. 3:00 nerf ball fight is expected for some, grounds for dissmissial in others. So customise all the rules you read for your enviorment.]

    When you read all the funny posts that others have made, try to figgure out how violating that rule can be useful. In tech support you might want to turn up the speakerphone volumn when a really dumb caller is on for instance, so everyone can share the laugh. (or maybe not? what works for you)

    Anyone who doesn't decorate their cube with pictures of the kids/spouse, and their "art" is not human and not someone you want to work with. I mention this because some companies try to enforce a no cube decerations policy. That said, keep it up to standards. (Even if everyone in the office is a nudist don't have nude pictures, customers may visit if nothing else)

    Make sure their are whiteboards in every cube. I found that the whiteboard was the most useful thing in my cube, and so did most of the others I knew.

  • Get a laptop! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:48PM (#6820199)
    Get a laptop with 802.11. Take it into the bathroom with you and you'll have an office with a door!

  • Open Office? (Score:5, Funny)

    by aspjunkie ( 265714 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @08:51PM (#6820216) Homepage
    Moving to an Open Office environment, eh? I'd start here! http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/faq-questions.html [openoffice.org] Ohhh, open office.... :P
  • Keep the cellphones on vibrate and don't leave them on your desk while you go to meetings. Tell your friends and family that you are at work and not call every 10 minutes.
    (if you work with me and leave your cellphone at your cube while in a meeting....I remove the battery after the second call. Yeah, I've pissed two people off, but I have 20 fans.)

  • Speakerphone (Score:5, Funny)

    by eric.t.f.bat ( 102290 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @09:17PM (#6820370)
    1. Find out who's the highest-ranking pillock to use his/her speakerphone to listen to voicemail.

    2. Have a friend of an appropriate sex call him/her up and give him the following message:

    "Darling! Last night was the most amazing experience of my life! Did you really mean it when you said you'd leave your wife/husband/etc and run away with me to Madagascar? I'll be round at [some time about half an hour after he/she usually listens to voicemail] with my suitcase and string bikini! See you soon snooky-wookums!"

    3. Watch the results.

    4. [Please note how I did not add "3. ... Profit!" to this list. Are you amazed at my originality?

    : Bat :
    • We used to have a guy at the office who got hilarious voicemails. His number was very easy (2 digits only, something like 545-4454). He used to get little kids who mashed the numbers and would get his phone, then talk into the phone. One little girl was singing for him for about 2 minutes before mommy took away the phone.

      Playing those silly voicemails for us in the morning always amused us. The great thing about a shared-cubie environment is that if you get along with your cubemates it makes the day pass
  • 1. No smells
    2. No sounds

    Our peaceful little IT section got invaded during a rebuild upstairs. 2 women in nearby cubes would call each other, and talk. On speakerphone. Loudly. As my little domain was exactly equidistant from these two harpies....I got both sides of the conversation, in stereo.

    Yelling would only get *my* blood pressure up, so I endured until bliss was restored, and they moved back upstairs.

    Similarly, a woman of foreign descent would bring in lunch. And cook it in the microwave. And eat i
    • As my little domain was exactly equidistant from these two harpies....I got both sides of the conversation, in stereo.

      You didn't work for Global Crossing, did you? Because I was in the same situation there - listen to 4 sides of a two sided conversation BETWEEN TWO WOMEN WHO SAT 10 FEET APART!
  • I think the most important thing is to not take anybody's red Swingline stapler.

  • Monitor placement (Score:3, Funny)

    by DavidLeblond ( 267211 ) <meNO@SPAMdavidleblond.com> on Thursday August 28, 2003 @09:53PM (#6820569) Homepage
    Make sure to place all your computer monitors as close together as possible (ie on the other side of the cube wall). That way when someone presses degauss it will degauss the whole office!

  • Realize there are others around you (Score:3, Funny)

    by emag ( 4640 ) <slashdot@nosPAm.gurski.org> on Thursday August 28, 2003 @09:58PM (#6820597) Homepage
    Pet peeve of mine at my last job:

    A coworker had this habit of brining in noisy toys, like the talking Sponge Bob Square Pants, dancing hamsters, etc. He'd routinely set them all off in succession several times a day. It didn't help that he himself had 2 voice levels, loud and bleeding eardrums. Nothing spoils your concentration like having to listen to a hamster sing "Kung Fu Fighting" followed by Sponge Bob's laugh, followed boing various "Boing!" "Crash!" etc sounds.

    Others insisted on routinely using speakerphones for conference calls, even when several people in the same area were on the phone. Still others didn't understand the concept of "headphones".

    There was also the guy who, when lobbing nerf darts and hitting someone, would scream out "OOOOHHHHHH!!!!" regularly. He'd also try to sing and play a guitar.

    Now, if there were a normal office, it might possibly be semi-excusable (assuming you don't mind this stuff, or have a good set of earplugs--I recommend ones with the highest rating you can find, usually they're in the shooting supplies subsection of the sports equipment section of your local Mega-Lo-Mart), but this was a support center, where several people would routinely be on the phone with customers. The last thing THEY want to hear are all those sounds that drove me up a wall.

  • DONTS! (Score:4, Informative)

    by josepha48 ( 13953 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @10:02PM (#6820617) Journal

    DONT leave your cell phones ON at your desk and leave your desk. You may like your ring tone but it will probably bother others.

    DONT use a radio without headphones. Background noise is what it will come off as to others, no matter how low it is it will probably annoy others. Some people don't like it. ASK FIRST!

    DONT humm or make lots of weird noises, it may annoy those arround you.

    DONT use the hands free on your telephone, cause most people WONT want to hear your conversations. You should use a conference room for meetings even phone meetings.

    DONT surf porno sites, other may be offended, also watch what you do surf, as others may be offended. Yes many places have no web surfing rules, but most places are pretty laxed about it.

    • Re:DONTS! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by _Spirit ( 23983 )
      We have made a rule for people leaving their phones on their desk:

      If it rings we hide it :-)

      Good places to hide it:
      - tape it under the desk, you'd be amazed how long it takes ppl to find it there
      - put it inside their computercase (the shielding might make locating it a bit of a hassle ;-) )
      - in some places you can easily lift the ceiling tiles
      - bring a screwdriver ; be creative :-)

      Be a good sport and leave it turned on, most ppl's directional hearing isn't as great as you would expect, and watching ppl l
      • If it rings we hide it :-)
        A fellow i used to work with would put the phone in their desk drawer and then lock it. (he was pretty good at picking desk locks) It was always funny to find out that no one had keys.
    • One of the few features that my really really obnoxiously bad thinkpad [google.com] did right was somehow making the speakers so that they sound fine while you are right up next to them at a quiet volume, but isn't audible if you aren't sitting in front of it.
  • Don't let them steal your red stapler.
  • * Think before you act. If it would annoy *you*, chances are
    it may annoy the guy nextdoor, also.
    * Keep the noise down. If you must have sound from your PC or
    stereo, get headphones. If you need to carry on a conversation,
    go to the person, rather than yelling across the room.
    * Don't do anything you see done in a Dilbert cartoon.
    * Shower or bathe at least once a week whether you need it or not.

    There may be a handful of other things peculiar to the environment,
    but I'm certain that you can get 95% o

  • The #1 rule (Score:3, Funny)

    by andy@petdance.com ( 114827 ) <andy@petdance.com> on Thursday August 28, 2003 @10:31PM (#6820740) Homepage
    The #1 rule
    Do unto others as you would have done unto you

    The #2 rule

    Check the employee manual
    • I always love this rule... especially as I'm a sadomasochist, so doing unto others as I would have done unto me usually involves whips and pain. Oh, and I *love* being tickled until I pee. And all my friends, they're such neurotic self-descructive whiners, they actually feel more cared for when people are giving them shit and yelling at them.

      Who invented that stupid "golden rule"? It's about the worst way you could possibly treat someone.

      How about doing unto others AS THEY WOULD LIKE TO HAVE DONE UNTO THE
  • Everyone can see what you hang up. So put up things that everyone will enjoy viewing. If your going to put up porn, make sure it's high quality porn hand picked from your collection and printed with a good printer on photo paper. Make sure to have a variety of male+2xfemale, 2xfemale, and 1xfemale action so there is something for those of all sexual preferences to view and nobody is offended.


  • Assign everyone large, heavy, foam-covered clue sticks so you can play Whack-a-mole [c2.com] with your cube neighbours.

    Invite the nearest PHB to play, but take the foam off first.


  • I learned from reading 'Dilbert'.

    Seriously, unless the the job/team is really cool, polish your resume, or find out if you can work from home a lot.
  • I worked in an area where several different phones were close to each other. You never knew which one was going off, but then I found out that you can modify the rings on the phones. So some phones go "burrringgah!" and some went "rrrinnngahring!" These were Lucent / Avaya phones, others may have different features.

  • cameo (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jayrtfm ( 148260 ) <jslash AT sophont DOT com> on Friday August 29, 2003 @02:12AM (#6821627) Homepage Journal
    JWZ may have some ideas [jwz.org]

  • The Golden Rule (Score:3, Insightful)

    by achurch ( 201270 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @02:16AM (#6821643) Homepage

    Just remember what they taught you back in elementary school:

    Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

    Others have posted good lists of what to do and what not to do, but it all boils down to the same thing: if something would annoy you, then it will also annoy others, so don't do it. And remember that not everyone shares your tastes.

    I work in a Japanese office; for those of you not familiar with Japanese offices, they basically consist of huge rooms (my office has about 90 people in it) with rows upon rows of desks, and if you're lucky a back wall to your desk. It takes getting used to, but if you can deal with having other people around while you work, it's not that big a deal. It may also serve as an impetus to reduce your Slashdot browsing time. (Or then again, maybe not...)

  • Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit.
    Go home and check out the listings on monster.com.
    Life is too short to live in a cubicle.
  • You'll need to rent this http://imdb.com/title/tt0151804/ [imdb.com]
  • People have posted various lists of things to do/not to do - most of them pretty obvious, IMO. Our office is pretty polite, and most of these things happen without rules needing to be stated. The one thing that does cause problems is ad-hoc meetings. A goes to ask B a question, C walking past or at a nearby desk joins in, they call over D, who also has an input to the problem.

    In one sense this is good - communications between the members of the team has improved. Those interactions might not have happened

  • I am the Asshole (Score:3, Interesting)

    by haplo21112 ( 184264 ) <haplo@epithnaFREEBSD.com minus bsd> on Friday August 29, 2003 @09:05AM (#6823169) Homepage
    ...I work in a cube farm and I use my Speakerphone for everything! I'm a programmer, and when people call its typically because they have found a bug, or something similar that needs to be addressed in the code. I NEED! both hands when trying to address such a phone call.

    So...

    1. Shutup and Deal!

    2. Encourge companies to realize this and either use high wall cubes(The Walls are 7-8 feet instead of the standard 4 1/2 - 5)...or put programmers in offices...and managers in CUBES!

  • Seen it done well, and done badly (Score:4, Insightful)

    by travail_jgd ( 80602 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @09:15AM (#6823268)
    Our team is moving to an open office type environment in a couple of weeks. The problem is that most of them have never worked in that type of setting before and thus may not know the do's and don'ts associated with a cube farm.

    I've been in a couple of environments where cube farms have worked well, and a couple where they've caused more problems than solved.

    Since you're moving into a new environment, make sure that a couple of things are taken care of. These are more management-oriented, but they're things to think about.
    • Verify that all of the office equipment is conveniently located for everyone. Having to walk down the hall, around the corner and down another hall just to get a one-page print-out gets very tiresome and wastes a lot of time.
    • Try to plan for additional staff. Any new hires won't do well if they're stuck by themselves on the other side of the building because you ran out of cubes.
    • If possible, have a meeting room (or just an unused office) for your group only. Personal calls can be made there, and having 3 or more people discuss projects is much easier. This also works well as a lunch-room!
    • Be careful of "land-grabs" from other departments. I know one company that was pressed for space, and put minimum-wage phone-slaves right next to the programmers. (Think "sharing cube walls".) The minimum wagers didn't care about etiquette, so their radios were turned up, conversations were loud, and office supplies (including chairs!) were "borrowed" from other cubes.
    • Get a large wastebasket that you can put in a somewhat isolated area. Let everyone know that any food-related trash should be put into the large wastebasket, and not at their desk trashbins. It's one thing to have someone eat something stinky -- another to deal with it for the rest of the day.
    • Try to get locking drawers for the cubes. While common sense says that people shouldn't leave anything of value around, some people do need to store medication and other personal items.

    For the general etiquette tips...
    • As everyone else has said, keep the noise levels down. Headphones are good, and speakerphones are usually bad.
    • Announce yourself before entering someone's cube. There is nothing worse than having a coworker walk right up behind you and suddenly start talking. Wearing headphones compounds this. (There are little "rear-view" mirrors that aren't too expensive in case anyone doesn't get the hint.)
    • Don't hover outside someone's cube "door" if the person is busy. If the person acknowledges you, then you can sit down. Standing around like an idiot isn't going to make anything go faster. Standing around like an idiot for 15 minutes annoys you and them.
    • Don't throw things over cube walls. Murphy's Law dictates that beverages will attract projectiles in the worst possible ways.
    • If anyone has a walkman or portable stereo, write down the serial numbers. If (when?) it vanishes, there's some proof of ownership in case it appears elsewhere in the building.
    • You don't work in a deli. Just because you're in an open environment doesn't mean that users can just walk in and place requests.
    • One thing I forgot.... Screensavers. Try to reign them in early.

      Some of the MS Windows screensavers have sound effects -- make sure those get turned off. Likewise, try to make a policy against political, social, or religious commentary on banner-style screensavers.... Sooner or later someone is going to spout off their personal beliefs and get people riled up (and not in a good "talking about the issues" way).

  • A couple of other horror stories (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ptomblin ( 1378 ) <ptomblin@xcski.com> on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:52AM (#6824197) Homepage Journal
    I worked at Frontier/Global Crossing, and it was the worst environment I've ever worked. Besides the fucktards who used the speaker phone to check voice mail, and the two women who used speaker phone to talk to each other when they sat 10 feet apart (which I've already mentioned), I also had the following. Note that instead of desks, we had these overgrown shelves that hung off the cube walls.
    1. The guy opposite me used to drum on his desk, hard enough to make my monitor shake. When he wasn't drumming on the desk, he was stamping on the floor hard enough that I could feel the shaking through the floor.
    2. The woman next to me had a poorly sheilded fan that she put right on the other side of my monitor which on hot days would turn my display into a bad drug trip.
    3. She also had frequent visitors who would sit on her "desk", causing my entire desk and monitor to bounce up and down when they sat down or shifted weight. Just leaning forward or back would be an annoyance.
    4. When "Little Drummer Boy" left, he was replaced by a guy who spent most of his work day on the phone talking to prospective buyers of his car, or talking to his former neighbours and coworkers back in New Jersey or arranging tee times.

    Besides the poor working environment, the whole place was a massive cluster fuck of mismanagement, but that's a story for another time.

  • My suggestions (Score:3, Informative)

    by Experiment 626 ( 698257 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @01:53PM (#6826094)
    • Try to position your monitor so that it can only be seen from within the cubicle as opposed to from the surrounding walkway. You strike me as the sort who visits Slashdot instead of working. Remember things like Alt-Space,N and Win-D and you will go far.

    • Avoid being annoyingly noisy. Music should be with headphones, use of a speakerphone should be minimal, avoid obnoxious cell phone ring tones or WAVs on your PC. I even had to pass up a chance to swap my keyboard for one of those wonderful old IBM's because the clicking would have driven everyone crazy.

    • Don't stink. Poor hygene, eating pungent foods at your desk, bad cologne, reeking of cigarettes, etc. are much more noticable than when you're in a different room.

    • Learn to tolerate others. I've worked with a couple people who expect absolute silence in their workplace so they can enter some kind of deep contemplative state. Doesn't work well in cubeland. If you can tune out variations in noise level, temperature, etc. you keep your sanity a lot longer.

    • Keep it light. Get along well with others. Use your whiteboard for inside jokes that develop camaraderie with your co-workers, but bear in mind what is appropriate. Posting a relevant Dilbert strip is always good.

    • Projectiles are great! Rubber bands, nerf darts, etc. Learn who likes to play and who doesn't and avoid hitting innocent bystanders.

    • Have a sense of proximity. Phoning the next cubicle over is silly, shouting across the whole floor obnoxious. Never underestimate just walking over to the person's cube.

    • Privacy comes in small doses. During the next office shuffle, try for a cube away from the main walkway. A cube wall extention or strategically placed bookshelf or filing cabinet near your cube entrance can act as a doorway.
  • specifically "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams," by Tom deMarco and Timothy Lister, and leave them around.

    Not that it will do any good. It's too late.

    But it does make a number of points, one being that cubicles reduce productivity. (They have some pointed things to say about telephones and paging systems, too).
  • If you need ideas on what not to do, it might be time to dig up a copy of the movie Office Space. It'll do wonders.

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