Give me back my office cubicle! Please!

I was moved from a cubicle to an open-desk environment — and lost all my productivity.

Last month I was a happy camper. I was in cubicle land and was productive.

That was last month. A week ago, I was moved to an open-desk environment. My life has become miserable.

The new office space has seven open desks that ‘frame’ a conference set-up in the middle of a 25 ft. by 15 ft. room. The design was implemented to optimize office space and give workers the ability to collaborate whenever they needed it.

That was the theory. But the results are a different story.

The first thing that happened was that everyone placed 30-inch monitors on their desk — most of them have two monitors on their desk. Not because they need big monitors, but it’s a way to replace the privacy they lost when we move to an open-desk environment. The new cubicle walls, if you will.

The noise? It’s horrible. At any given time, least two conversations are occurring at the same time. When a conference is in session, that number can go up to 3–4 simultaneous conversations. There are often two or three phone conversations going on at any given time. Not to mention (OK, so I will mention) the people who insist on speaking 30 decibels…