Office cubicles and IT

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While office cubicles are to be found nowadays in virtually every office and administrative departments of companies and governmental organizations everywhere, the IT industry has had a special affinity to the office cubicle. In fact, many office cubicle historians attribute the very invention of the office cubicle to the computer and information technology industry. Many state that the Intel Corporation was the first to invent the office cubicle in the early 1960s. Many historians claim that the design of the original office cubicle owes its origins to Mr. Robert Propst who worked for the office furniture maker Herman Miller, Inc.

In either case, the IT industry has had a special attachment to office cubicles. Because these office cubicles are enclosed in three sides and the fourth side is open, an administrator or supervisor in an IT programming office can simply walk in quickly to an employee’s area without losing time ( and therefore money ) knocking on doors and waiting, etc. Call centers that really got their boost from the computer and IT industries in the early 1990s allow for smaller cubicle height and narrow width designs that allow for the placement of a large number of people in a small office space. The IT industry has had a love affair with office cubicles, because unlike the administrative offices of insurance industries, warehouses and the administrative offices of heavy industries, the office space of the typical IT industry has a bunch of programmers that keep entering code and the only sounds that emanate is the gentle striking of the keyboard keys. With the sound level being generally low, and the voice level generally non-existent, the IT industry loves cubicles.

In fact, recent estimates show that the IT industry is one of the largest buyer of office cubicles worldwide. The typical IT worker brings his own laptop in a small briefcase or attache and can do his work on the company’s workstation typing away his programming code and can communicate with other office co-workers or clients by e-mail and instant messaging without really speaking loudly and disturbing other office personnel. While modern office cubicles do provide plenty of overhead storage facilities and shelving if needed, the typical IT office cubicle is devoid of all these frills.