page_title: Cubicle
section_title: Impact on society
hierarchical_section_title: Cubicle / Impact on society
caption_attribution_description: English: a sea of cubicles open office layout
context_page_description: A cubicle is a partially enclosed office workspace that is separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually 5–6 feet tall. Its purpose is to isolate office workers and managers from the sights and noises of an open workspace so that they may concentrate with fewer distractions. Cubicles are composed of modular elements such as walls, work surfaces, overhead bins, drawers, and shelving, which can be configured depending on the user's needs. Installation is generally performed by trained personnel, although some cubicles allow configuration changes to be performed by users without specific training.
  Cubicles in the 2010s are usually equipped with a computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse on the work surface. Cubicles typically have a desk phone. Since many offices use overhead fluorescent lights to illuminate the office, cubicles may or may not have lamps or other additional lighting. Other furniture that is often used in cubicles includes an office chair, a filing cabinet for locking documents away, a bookcase and a coatrack.
  The office cubicle was created by designer Robert Propst for Herman Miller, and released in 1967 under the name "Action Office II".
context_section_description: It is unlikely that any other office furnishings has had as much of a social impact as the introduction of the office cubicle in the 1960s, though the outcome of the cubicle's arrival is still open to debate, in both its pros and cons. Author Thomas Hine has gone so far as to speculate that the cubicle made it possible for women to move into middle management positions in the late 1960s because the introduction of cubicles gave their male counterparts a new office environment in which to place women managers without having to allow their entry into the private "bull pens" that had been the exclusive domain of men.
  Despite becoming Herman Miller's most successful project, George Nelson disowned himself from any connection with the "Action Office II" line. In 1970 he sent a letter to Robert Blaich, who had become Herman Miller's Vice-President for Corporate Design and Communication, in which he described the system's "dehumanizing effect as a working environment." He summed up his feeling by saying:
  One does not have to be an especially perceptive critic to realize that AO II is definitely not a system which produces an environment gratifying for people in general. But it is admirable for planners looking for ways of cramming in a maximum number of bodies, for "employees" (as against individuals), for "personnel," corporate zombies, the walking dead, the silent majority. A large market.
  Scornful as he may have been, Nelson was right that there turned out to be a "larger market" for AO II. By 2005 total sales had reached $5 billion.
  Cultural commentary about cubicles was done in the 1990s and early 2000s. One of the most sarcastic critics of the cubicle has been Scott Adams, speaking through his comic strip, Dilbert, which depicts an IT company employee who works in a cubicle. In 2001 he teamed up with the design company IDEO to create "Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle". It included both whimsical aspects, a modular approach and attention to usually-neglected ergonomic details like the change in light orientation as the day advances. Similarly, Douglas Coupland has coined the phrase "veal-fattening pen", a deprecation of cubicles in his novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Cubicles are depicted in modern films such as the sci-fi movie The Matrix, in which a programmer who is moonlighting as a hacker spends his days in a drab cubicle and the comedy Office Space, which depicted a bored group of IT workers who worked in cubicles.
caption: A floor plan showing repetitive, regimented cubicles
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