Cubicle n. (ky b -k l)
1. a small compartment, as for work or study.
Designed to provide workers with individual space, room to pin up work in progress, provide
additional space to see work beyond the traditional In Box and Out Box. In 1968, cubicles were
the hottest thing since sliced bread (and between us, it hadn’t been that long). They were going
to revolutionize the way modern offices functioned and improve worker productivity beyond belief.
But with the development of this new workspace, did our business forefathers in fact create
barriers and enable more efficient gossip machines? Our little boxes were not designed with
secrets and hidden gestures in mind, yet they seem so perfectly suited for our modern behaviors. Water coolers are the stereotypical centers for office rumor mongering, but when you have something really juicy to tell, you know you just pop into your work-buddy’s cube.
Office friendships are more common than not these days. With the line between personal and
work lives blurring with each new social networking platform, it is harder and harder to separate
the people who know what account you work on from the people who know what color your
spring break bikini was. And for all the arguments for strong personal-work relationships, do you really want them to know everything? And possibly more importantly, do you want to know
everything about them?
I have coworkers that religiously protect their non-work persona - declining Facebook friendships, blocking their Twitter updates, and using Linked In as their sole online connection to the work world. Others bring their weekend to work with them and spend Mondays gathered in the Creative Department joking about not remembering where that bruise came from. I labored over my photo selection, making sure to convey a mixture of laid-back and professional, outdoorsy and modern, friend and animal. My work-mates know about my irrational fear of whales, and my adoration of well organized closets. I’d write what they don’t know as well, but then again, what if they read this…
With secrets, as with the rest of life, there is no Black/White outline of propriety. Personal
preferences and comfort levels weigh in on all of our personal decisions; consequently our lives
inside the cubicle walls may or may not match our lives outside of them.
Walking the office halls you get glimpses of personality perhaps, but you never know what is
withheld. The benign collection of family photos, lunch coupons and calendars that predictably
litter most cubicle walls are little indication of the horrors (and wonders) that those cardboard-like structures routinely absorb. I believe the phrase is – if these walls could talk…
Account Director X saunters gleefully down the account services hallway, sly smile upon her lips,
when suddenly she disappears through an ergonomically correct cube opening and dips below
the moderately sized file cabinet for some added privacy as she addresses her colleague in
hushed tones. You feel the vibrations of Account Assistant Y’s phone and she giggles a little on
the other side of the flimsy half wall. All of it makes you wonder - What are my coworkers not
telling me?
~ Originally Published by InvadeNOLA, 2011