Matt Mehlhope

From Office to Cubical: Preparing for a Personal Productivity Plummet

While there were several facets of my first salaried gig out of college I didn’t like, the one main perk I had was an office with a window. Little did I know how fortunate I was to be able to see the outside with such ease, much less the ability to close my door at a whim for undisturbed work. As anyone that has ever done web development and/or design knows, when you get into “the zone” your code and design seems to flow effortless from your fingers onto the screen; however, the moment that “zone” is interrupted, you’ve lost it, sometimes for the rest of the day.

What is classified as an “interruption” is often the same for most people: a phone call; someone asking you a question; a barrage of IMs – things that require your direct attention. Disturbances, however, are very different from person to person. To one person, the sound of a keyboard’s clickity-clack may be reassuring and welcome, while to another a more heinous sound could not be made. Similarly, some prefer a fan in their bedroom or the sound of traffic while they sleep and others demand absolute silence.

In a private office interruptions and disturbances are often minimized as the environment is controlled. With a shared office, the environment can strongly depend on who it is shared with. In a cubicle farm there is no control.

With Office Variety Comes Variable Productivity

As I briefly mentioned, my first salaried position came with a fairly nice office in that it wasn’t particularly confined, I had a door, a window, and the ability to seclude myself when needed. After moving on I found myself doing a lot of freelance work in-between jobs, enough that I was able to work many months before really feeling the need to get back into a true office environment. With the change of “jobs” also came an extreme change in environment, as I moved from a private office to a home office and coffee shops.

Somewhat surprisingly, working from home is full of interruptions while working from a coffee shop is full of disturbances. At home, things like the dog needing walked, my wife asking me to run errands, and a copious amount of ever-enticing entertainment demand my direct attention and prevent me from doing any work at all; though, when uninterrupted, things are quiet and I am able to focus to my heart’s intent. At a coffee shop, interruptions are rare but disturbances are plentiful. Fortunately for me I am quite good at ignoring generally disruptive sounds such as dishes smashing together, loud conversation, and doors opening/slamming shut — some are not so adept at this. If I were to compare the two environments, I would say that my level of productivity at the coffee shop remained much higher for much longer as I was able to consistently enter and remain in “the zone” with few, if no interruptions.

As I moved into my next salaried spot I was placed in a large cubicle with a “cube mate” in a rather quiet environment with the exception of being right next to the main entrance of the area. Without the ability to seclude myself combined with the fact that our cube area was literally void of sunlight and half-lit at any given time, the environment was utterly dismal and ridden with interruption. It seemed as though the moment I entered “the zone” and started working optimally I would be interrupted by a colleague hovering over me awaiting to be noticed so they could ask me a question. Now, this hovering is not the colleague’s fault by any means — they have a question and I am the one to answer it. The fault is of the office space’s design as it does not allow for any type of signal that says, “No go away! I am busy!”

After a promotion I moved into a private office shared with another colleague, whom I get along with quite well. Being quiet people we put our headphones on and dive into work, only to be interrupted by the occasional phone call. If we both have a lot of work to do, we often close the door and rid ourselves of potential intruders. This situation is equally productive to my original private office, with the benefit of having long hallways with ceiling to floor windows that I can stroll down frequently to stretch my legs and grab a glass of water. On the whole, the situation is quite desirable.

Migrating to a Cubical Farm

Movies such as “Office Space” depict cube farms as a layer of hell that most middle-class white-collar workers have found themselves stuck in. Whether or not a cube farm is really bad has been a long-debated topic and I’m not here to continue that battle. I am, however, expecting a personal plummet in my productivity without an effective way of secluding myself from interruptions. Being close to my team is wonderful for bouncing ideas, getting clarification on projects, and just generally enjoying their company, but this proximity benefit has its negative effects as well. The chances of me getting deep into a zone and have someone ask me for a clarification or update are very high whereas they may have pinged me on chat (which I can ignore for some time with a polite away message), they may literally step into my cube and tap me on the shoulder — as many of you know, there are few things worse when you’re “zoned in.”

Compounding my apprehension towards moving to a cube farm is that the ceilings are low, I have little outside view, and the decor is going to be void at best. As a creative-type person studies have shown people like me work best in high-ceilinged, open air environments where our minds can wander to figure out problems. Even in college I was always drawn to the vaulted ceilings of the library to write rather than a cubby where I often saw engineering friends happily huddled away. I would like to imagine a place where I am excited to go to work and enjoy the environment I am in and the things I am doing within it. From experience, even if you’re working on an engaging product, a continuous flow of interruption and a non-ideal work environment can take your edge off quite quickly — I am hoping this is not the case in the new environment.

As a professional, regardless of my circumstances, I will always maintain the same level of workmanship regardless of my environment…it may just take a bit longer to get there in a non-ideal one. Though, on the same token, if I were job-hunting and applied at a company that utilized cube farms to hold its personell, I may very well think twice about accepting the offer knowing that my performance may not be as ideal as it could be elsewhere.