Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 November 28

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November 28

Office cubicles; a US phenomenon?

Our cubicle article seems to be focussed mainly on the US (as sadly are many articles), but in this case I wonder if that is because the office cubicle is actually mainly a US phenomenon. Now, I work in academia in the UK, and all bets are off there, but I've never seen cubicles in a European office environment. Mind you, I haven't seen many commercial offices, so hence my question. Are cubicle offices common at all outside of the US? Maybe in Asia? 131.251.254.81 (talk) 16:40, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

What do you have instead of cubicles? A wide-open sea of desks? People seem to forget that cubicles were intended to be an improvement on that kind of environment. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:47, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Well, in one of my workplaces I'm in a small office with 8 desks or so, and in my second workplace with 2 desks. But yes, in general, I think that's what happens. That's why I'm asking the question, I don't know. I don't see however, why anybody would want to work in a cubicle, no chance of having a chat or even seeing someone else? Surely it's lethally boring? But I digress. 131.251.254.81 (talk)

I work in cubicle enviroment in Bulgaria, Europe. If you take the first picture in the article as reference- there are 7 of max 8 panels used to separate the space. Here 4 of 8 panels are used and cubicals are arranged into larger "cubicles" of 6-8 desk cubicles.Gergo vassilev (talk) 16:58, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

I'm in the UK, and I've only once worked in an office with individual cubicles. It was an insurance company, we weren't allowed to talk to each other and we just kept our heads down and got on with our own work. Which meant that when the girl who opened the mail went off on maternity leave, nobody opened a single item of mail for several weeks. That's when they brought me in from the temp agency. I only lasted a couple of weeks. But I've never worked in a completely open-plan office either. Usually you would have sections divided off with standing partitions or banks of filing cabinets, inside which you'd have maybe eight or twelve desks, some of them back-to-back in groups, with the section manager usually having his/her own stand-alone desk. It's a decent compromise between individual cubicles and open-plan, more sociable and less dehumanising than either, and means people voluntarily pitch in to cover when others in their team are absent, because they know what everybody does and how much they depend on each other. My current employer tried to introduce rotation and hot-desking a few years ago (as part a misbegotten attempt to organise a service activity according to Lean manufacturing), but it didn't take. --Nicknack009 (talk) 17:23, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

• The IP geolocates to Cardiff. The UK certainly has cubicles in its more modern (London) office buildings, which you can see from simply watching British TV. μηδείς (talk) 17:29, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

"No one in the US builds cubicles any more, and in the UK they never really did." I've seen cubicles on only two UK sites, both intended for individual employee study/training rather than as an employee's fixed workplace, and one of them was more than ten years ago. (I have some little experience of German sites, but didn't see any cubicles there either.)

What are extremely common in open-plan UK offices are the half-height dividing partitions between rows of desks and at the end of rows of desks. These are at approximately shoulder level when the employee is seated, so that the employee can converse with the person opposite them by looking straight across the partition; but will not see the person opposite them if they are looking down at work on their desk or at their computer screen (depending on placement). They're also soft-coated so they are effective in deadening noise, and you can stick printouts of Dilbert cartoons (complete with portrayals of cubicles), or calendars or other appropriate items, to them. They also have the effect that whatever is on your desk is partially private, since no-one sees it unless they either walk up behind you (analogous to "entering" a cubicle employee's cubicle) or stand opposite you and peer over the partition (which would be an uncommon way to behave.) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 19:43, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

I thought shoulder-height barriers were what were meant by cubicles, not beehive chambers. Only on Seinfeld did Americans work in closets. μηδείς (talk) 19:55, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Shoulder-height partitions when standing is the (now slightly outdated) American way. Search "The Matrix Escaping from Work Scene HD" on YouTube to see what I mean. As I said, shoulder height or slightly below when sitting, is the UK way, if partitions are used at all. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 03:51, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Whoever said "no one in the US builds cubicles anymore" must not have been in any US offices. Google "Steelcase cubicles" and you'll see a major cubicle-builder. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:59, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Well, that was a reliable source, not a vendor. I would agree, though, that many US businesses are still determined to try to use this method of control. While, at the same time, companies in most other continents avoid it. That's what the OP was asking about. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 01:46, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Every office I've ever worked in or visited has cubicles of some sort. You call it a "method of control". It's actually less controlled than the sea of desks was. The idea was to give everyone a private space to work in. Nowadays they've pulled back from it a little bit, creating little "huddle" areas for impromptu meetings and the like. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:36, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Every office you've ever worked in, Baseball Bugs, has been in the USA. Do you remember the OP's question? --Demiurge1000 (talk) 04:46, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes. Somebody was saying the US doesn't do cubicles anymore. That's false. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:48, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

• I am surprised to learn I was really in London all this time, not New York. Not only was my cubicle shoulder high as I sat, I could raise the seat itself, and regularly communicated with the women surrounding me. μηδείς (talk) 02:35, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

• The OP didn't ask about New York. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 04:46, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

My hovercraft is full of eels? μηδείς (talk) 22:07, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

That explains the problem - you can only see over the partition because you are afloat inside your own hovercraft. Mostly in/on a mixture made from jellied eels.

I am quite sure that using the interior of a hovercraft as office space is not especially cost-effective. --Demiurge1000 (talk)

Possible Burundi centenarian

I have found an old article which says that Lazaro Busuku a 96 year old man from Burundi moved to Omaha in 2007. I would like to know is he still alive because now he would be 103 years old and probably first centenarian and oldest known person ever from Burundi. But if he has passed away is there any article or obituary about him? 62.72.229.12 (talk) 18:04, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Have you searched for an obituary under his name, which is certainly not going to be common in Nebraska? You can also call the state coroner or whatever they call that position in NE. I only found my estranged cousin had died of complications from a brain tumor by calling the relevant dept. In Pennsylvania. μηδείς (talk) 20:02, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

He's in the Omaha phone book for 2014. That doesn't mean for sure that he is still alive, but it suggests he probably is. Note though that ages for people from countries like Burundi are often not very well documented. Looie496 (talk) 15:45, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

In NY State there is no legal right to maintain a local residential phone number listing under the name of a dead person; but so long as no one complains, and the bill is paid, or even if the bill is changed to the name of a third party, the listing will not change unless someone gives cause or complaint. For many decades, the name Howshall, Harry P. was listed in the Philadelphia white pages, but i have not been able to find a recent listing. μηδείς (talk) 02:54, 4 December 2014 (UTC)