Slaying the cubicle
From the Halifax Daily News comes Generation Y slays Cubicle.
Experts say the sea of sameness among cubicles will give way to a work environment that offers workers quiet spaces for thinking and wide open spaces for collaboration.
Generation Y workers, people younger than 35, enjoy the communal buzz that comes from working in open environments, Verbeek said. They like to sit at what the office design industry calls “benches,” without the noise-screening benefit of baffles.
Shalinsky says the concept of mobile space in offices is coming. “Some people need quiet. Some need activity. Ideally, you need both. Designers are moving away from cubicles to free-flow open space.”
I recently visited the offices of a design company I’ve been working with in Guelph, Ontario. It was a converted old house, with computers in various rooms and no real defined ‘offices’. It was one of the most appealing workspaces I’ve ever seen.
Even with the emphasis on working at home and working remotely, there’s still going to be a need for offices for most types of business. But employers should look at office space with an eye toward making workspace both collaborative and aesthetically appealing. Creative industries are doing this, but there’s absolutely no reason it should stop there. With Y employees being more selective, you’re not going to be able to get away with beige walls, ugly fluorescent lights and coffee-stained carpets any more.
Photo by mrleone. Licensed under Creative Commons
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 3:43 pm and is filed under At Work, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
