ItsJustMe, Right?

“It's just me, right? The current trend to put several managers and engineers in the same room, with no doors, and no partitions.. supposedly because it facilitates communication?

It is KILLING me. The constant drone of phones, and conversations, and social interaction is driving me up the WALL!.. Here I am, trying to get some work done, and I can not concentrate for all the COMMUNICATION going on.

ArRRrg!”

“INTERPRETATION: They're gonna catch me real quick posting on TT”

“Lock me in a cubical with some good tunes, leave me the fork alone, don't talk to me and I'll go all day.”

“Exactly!!.. I was serious with this post.. It is bugging the #&%!$ out of me.”

“Would it be rude to bring in your own cubicle walls? How can the boss gripe...if you get more work done that way!!!”

“Naw.. they got this grand idea from the Japanese.. apparently the HOTTEST thing now.. me (Quality).. Bart (Engineering) and Gerald (Production).. where they stick out three desks FACING each other in a CLUSTER.

hehe.. it's a cluster all right.”

“What would they do if you wore blinders and headphones. ;-)”

“I am seriously considering the headphones.

To make it worse.. we are ONE core team. There is another core team about 15 feet away.

PLUS.. support personnel.. so in ONE room.. stuck up over the production floor.. 10 folks..”

“TEN phones.. plus people going in and out all day.. asking questions.. getting information.. passing along reports.”

“Too bad, kinda embarrassing to take a nap between posts!”

“Man, I feel for you. I have a door and I love it. I hope that crap doesn't migrate to this company, we're BIG and prone to those latest greatest ideas of morons who never tried to do the job. The cube area out there is bad enough without clusters. Two words.. Career change.
LOL”

“Nope, it's not just you. Vistakon (Johnson and Johnson) did this to all their enginneers. Fights actually broke out because the "managers" didn't consider personality conflicts. Those with problems literally got put in opposite corners, rather than facing each other. Just like elementary school.”

“Welcome to the team.”

“Oh pleeeeese not here. I'm too loud while I yell at subs on the phone, they'd get me lynched in a week if I couldn't shut the door. Maybe Dawg could do the Les Nessman from the old sitcom and tape walls and a door around his desk, its all in your mind.....”

“Makes you want to dress and act just like Dilbert, doesn't it.”

“The Japanese have a lot of great ideas.

But some of their ideas only work with Japanese people........its another planet over there.”

“Sounds like a room monitor is needed.”

“Sit in your corner with a clipboard, watching the room, pretending to take notes.”

“Don't forget the Japanese work horribly long hours, probably because they can't get a lot done during "regular" hours.

We've got cubicles in groups of 4, but we have short walls, so you can hear everyone's conversations. Supposed to be good for "teamwork". Unfortunatly, not everything in life gets done in teams. I've got plenty of my own tasks to do.

I hear ya, TownDawg, sometimes I can't hear the person on the other end of the phone in this place either. Sometimes I plug my ears while I'm reading something just to concentrate.”

“Things always go in circles.

We used to be in individual offices, but went to the 'new thing' of one open area. It wasn't long before we were back to cubicles. The cubicles evolved into modular soundproof wooden walls with ceilings -- exactly like it was twenty years ago.

In twenty years we have re-organized 4 times, reshuffling the organization chart to 'improve efficiency and communication'.
The latest reshuffling put us back exactly the way it was in 1979.

Every time we 'downsize' we have to add more office space to accommodate the new hires. The last 'downsizing' resulted in increasing the size of the employee parking lot. The office joke now is if we downsize one more time we must add a second story to the building.”

“Eat a big can of beans each day before work.”

“Poster: TownDawg

Infraction: used a space in a thread title”

“Ha! As if the cubicles we live in weren't bad enough.

I don't think they'd like the sort of "communication" that would get "facilitated" here if they removed the cubicle walls.

Somebody's always fixing what ain't broke...”

“TD- you must not have heard of the new "Head Cubicle" concept. You go down to the mail room, find a 12"x12" cardboard box, place it over your head, and you have created your own personal office space! Works for me! [:)]”

“Quit crying!

8)”

“Or come to work with ear plugs in and blinders on. See what comes of it.”

“"head cubicle" ?”

“Scratch the ear plugs and blinders. Someone might mistake you for a liberal. LOL!”

“Know how you feel Towndawg. We recently moved into new offices 3 weeks ago. Some one had the brilliant idea that we should be closer together. Our offices are good sized, but they are open at the top, and they moved us just upstairs over the fabricating shop, so not only do I hear everyone on the phone, I get to hear the whine of saws and routers all day. It's great.Also my old enclosed office is currently empty, dark, and getting musty.”

“Our cubicles were built by "Prison Industries".

Go figure!”

“Head Cubicles=Blockheads (ala Gumby)”

“LMAO!!... you guys are the only sanity in this world.

I asked my AGM about earplugs/headphones. He had no problem with the idea, as long as I actually took them off long enough to 'communicate' to my fellow team members.”

“Why doesn't the whole team post on TT? It seems that TD is a rogue player. Maybe if you got everyone in your team to spend hours on the internet things would be smoother.”

“lol.. remember the D&D post?..

(chaos/rogue)”

“Hey, Dawg, you could always get a job in the exciting world of construction. Lots of outdoor work, year round.”

“People at my job when they whine I just tell them go tell someone who cares.

8)”

“dunadan?.. are ya offering me a job?”

“Hard work is the best get on it TD!

8)”

“Towndawg, it would be an honor to work with someone who displays your level of intelligence. Are you ready to relocate?”

“Something that really cracks me up is phone conversations between two people in the same room. Its like I'm on the phone with them, I can hear both sides of the conversation. Get up and walk over there, for goodness sake!”

“We use the netware services to send each other notes cubicle-to-cubicle, even though were all in the same 30x40 room and can hear each other blink. Cracks me up.”

“dunadan?.. hehe.. what do I tell my wife.. and my kids?.. *lol*”

“You could wear a lampshade on your head, but then you'd look like...... You Know Who, LOL!


I gotcha covered TD. How about a headmounted display(aka 'VR Goggles')?? You really would be in your own little world then, *G*.”

“oh.. that is so AWESOME.. tilt.. I really like how you think.. :)”

“You could have Gina the Survivor program going on those things and forget about the rest of the office.”

“and they're only 3 ounces...

But they cost 500 bucks!!!

but you can plug them into any PC, TV, or portable DVD player...

But They Cost 500 Bucks!!!

(if you want built-in sound, it's $700)”