Monthly Archives : July 2012

Often, Twitter is just noise. But sometimes, there are really good ideas flitting around! @LeeHasAnxiety recently suggested that there should be an Extreme Makeover: Cubicle Edition. That’s a fantastic idea. Let’s brainstorm what a cubicle makeover would look like. Not one of those “world’s best cubicles” that has mahogany paneling. Keep it real with products that are actually within reach for the average business. Here are some ideas to kick things off using panel extenders. These suggestions are based on the top complaints workers have about cubicles.

Add Privacy

Cubicle walls are kind of like hemlines – the height changes depending on what’s in fashion. Today’s cubicles feature ultra-low walls that offer as little practical protection as a miniskirt in a blizzard. It’s time for the pendulum to swing in the other direction. Fortunately, you don’t have to replace your cubicle “wardrobe” to accomplish this. You can tailor each cubicle to the desired height with panel extenders.

Reduce Noise

Working in a cubicle with low walls is just as annoying as living in an apartment with thin walls. Employees really don’t want to know each other that well – they would much rather have some peace and quiet so they can work. Our acoustic tiles feature Soundboard fiberboard covered with textiles made from recycled materials. They block sound about 50% better than non-acoustic panels.

Manage Light

Having too much light is just as problematic as having too little. Our semi-translucent polycarbonate panels help employees manage lighting in two ways. First, they can separate workspaces to prevent one worker’s task lamp from casting glare on a coworker’s computer screen. Second, they allow natural lighting to penetrate into the cubicle so there’s not so much gloom.

Incorporate Color

Choose from our library of fabrics, pick a bold polycarbonate hue, or request custom panels in any color of the rainbow. We can add graphics and other design features to your panels to keep the work environment beautiful and interesting. No more dull, gray, featureless cubicles!

What cost-effective cubicle makeover tips can you dream up?

Here we are, a month after the biggest event in the office furniture industry. Everyone who attended has now had the opportunity to digest what they saw and experienced (and it was pretty mind blowing). That means there’s a wealth of information online about what NeoCon 2012 was like. Here are some of the most interesting perspectives:

BI Watercooler

Business Interiors offers a 4 part video highlights series that you won’t want to miss. Browse this collection of short clips to get clued into the latest and most innovative tech, trends, and materials on display at the convention.

Nurture

Get day by day coverage of NeoCon that focuses on the people rather than just the products. Here’s the scoop on what everyone was talking about in the healthcare sector of contract furniture. In the midst of a bustling event, Nurture provided an oasis of calm.

Architizer

This firm introduces you to a number of vendors and provides a peek at some gorgeous showrooms. This blog is all about the design and materials on display. They also clue you in to a contest about sustainability for the interior design and architecture community. Expect to hear terms like “leveraging the built environment” and “bio-mimicry” getting thrown around in the video about the contest.

Dream Walls Glass

This company blogs about the stuff you really care about – where do you get the best food while you’re at the convention? Oh, they also have some fabulous photos of their own products as well as the booths they found most inspiring.

ASID Live

ASID has a website set up solely for the purpose of live blogging NeoCon. Read feel-good stories about an outreach effort that put a smile on the faces of attendees. You never would have guessed that shoes would be the main attraction at an office furniture event. Don’t miss the slideshow – it’s beautiful!

We came across a funny infographic on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago. In it, “Five O’ Clock Fred” opines the 8 drawbacks of working in a cubicle. In the spirit of a humorous response, we present: the 5 benefits of working in a cubicle that’s equipped with panel extenders.

Benefit #1 – You Get to Be Selfish

With noise-blocking panel extenders, coworkers are less likely to hear you eating candy. An acoustic panel dampens the sound of rustling candy wrappers, the squeak of the drawer hiding your candy stash, or the crunch of a Kit-Kat bar. If you hate to share your candy, the cubicle is a great place to eat it!

Benefit #2 – You Can Enjoy Extra Vacation Time

In an open office plan with low dividers, people get in the habit of casually spying on one another. But with higher cubicle walls, you could fail to show up for days at a time with no one the wiser. Of course, you do want people to come looking for you eventually. Don’t turn into one of those news stories where no one notices a dead employee in a cubicle. Come to think of it, maybe you should share your candy more just so coworkers will care enough to notice that you’re gone…

Benefit #3 – You Can Keep Your Weirdness Under Wraps

Number 8 in the original pinned image says if you talk to yourself in a cubicle, everyone pops their head up over the wall because they assume you are talking to them. Of course, in a cubicle with walls low enough for people to see over, coworkers usually can hear you if you are talking to yourself. That’s yet one more reason to install panel extenders that help block sound. You have the privacy to carry on a conversation with yourself to your heart’s content without being rudely interrupted.

The more control employees have over their own workspace, the more satisfied they tend to be with their work environment as a whole. Task lighting is one type of workstation customization that can brighten an employee’s mood while making it easier for them to see what they’re doing. An articulated or otherwise highly adjustable task lamp is a helpful tool. But you can run into problems when one employee’s lamp casts a glare in a neighboring coworker’s eyes or on their computer screen. Desk mounted privacy panels provide a shield against this unwanted illumination.  So, don’t keep your workers in the dark by forgoing task lighting – just add some panels to help keep the light where it belongs!

Employers typically want to achieve 4 things when they start arranging office furniture:

1. Make efficient use of space
2. Ensure productivity
3. Promote collaboration
4. Make workers comfortable

Unfortunately, these goals can sometimes come into conflict with each other. This has led to a lot of experimentation with workstation configurations over the years – with mixed results. It can be difficult to achieve everything you want with one layout. That’s why objective #4 on the list above is usually given the lowest priority in an effort to save space. For example one of the most awkward arrangements for coworkers is to have their desks directly adjoining so they are facing each other. They end up just a few feet from the person sitting across from them. People in Western cultures tend to have a sense of personal space that extends out further than that. So, employees may spend all day every day at work feeling like someone is “in their space” or “in their face”.

This problem is compounded if one coworker tends to:

• Make an aggressive amount of eye contact
• Eat foods that produce bad breath
• Talk too much or too loudly

If you’ve ever been stuck across the desk from someone like this, you know how grating it can be. One solution to this problem is to let employees pick who they sit across from. However, that approach is likely to lead to a never ending game of musical chairs as people change their minds. Plus, there will always be a few employees that no one wants for a workstation partner. The more sensible way to solve this problem is by adding a simple divider to separate the worksurfaces. Our desk-mounted privacy panels make it so that coworkers can work together in peace – even if they can’t stand the sight of each other!

Way back in March, we took a look at some nefarious cubicle weapons and how cubicle wall extensions might help keep workers safe. Well, the cubicle arms race is far from over. More and more ingenious weapons are being invented all the time. You can check out the latest array at Arnold’s Office Furniture. The list of “Weapons of Mass Cubicle Destruction” include such childhood favorites as the popsicle stick and plastic spoon catapult. On the high tech side, there’s a smartphone guided foam missile launcher. Yes, you do need to click through and see that pricey toy to believe it! Let’s stop this senseless stockpiling of cubicle weaponry. Use cubicle panel extenders as your strategic defense initiative.

Have you ever witnessed the turf wars that can occur between two coworkers who are forced to share a workstation area? Whether it’s a long bench style table or two desks shoved up against each other, one employee always seems to take up more than his or her fair share of space. Their piles of paper and office supplies keep creeping over the line into their neighbor’s territory. This can lead to a lot of angst on the part of the coworker whose space is being encroached upon. The passive aggressive behavior on both sides can get really out of control, raising the tension in the workplace to unbearable levels.

Isn’t it time to put a stop to the petty feuding once and for all? With desktop mounted privacy panels, your employees can set firm boundaries separating their workspaces. They won’t be in your office complaining about how their coworker’s stapler is 2” over the line into their desk space. Just like good fences make good neighbors, our desk dividers make good coworkers.

Despite rumors that the cubicle is going out of fashion, there are still folks out there looking for ways to give this much maligned workstation a makeover. PearsonLloyd, a British design firm, has determined that what employees want isn’t a more open office with less privacy, but secluded areas they can call their own. Thus was born the “Me Place”. These cubicles offer a curved, wraparound wall that encloses the user on up to 3 and a half sides (leaving just a small open doorway for entry and exit). The single, curved panel is nice and high to keep coworkers’ prying eyes from peeping in over the wall. The whole thing is fabric covered to offer sound control.

These cubicles aren’t expansive (cozy is probably the term the designer would use) and they offer just a worksurface, a shelf, a task light and a hanger. This means they have somewhat less functionality than today’s high-end cubicles that feature storage space, tool rails, cable raceways, and much more. What sets the Me Place apart is that each cubicle is…set apart. They don’t share walls with each other. Instead, each unit is separate from the others. This means they can be rearranged across a floor plan very easily. However, making every single cubicle separate with walkways between also means they don’t make the most efficient use of space.

That’s one reason we don’t predict the Me Place will catch on in most work environments. Space simply costs too much to make this design attractive to employers. Fortunately, there is some middle ground between these isolated cubes and a totally open office with benching workstations and no privacy. Our new desk mounted privacy panels provide both visual seclusion and noise control. They can be fitted to your existing desks or worktables for a cost-effective makeover that takes only a few minutes.