Category : privacy screens

One of the questions we often get is how cubicle shields and divider panels are different and if one is better than the other.

Our initial response is that they’re different and which one you choose should be based on your office’s needs, what you’re trying to accomplish in your workspace and what your budget is.

But, there are more intricacies involved than just those general ideas. Exploring each of those topics – needs, goals and budget – will help you get a sense of whether a cubicle shield or a divider panel is best.

Cubicle Shield vs. Divider Panels: Your Office Space’s Needs

Take a minute to think about how your office is running right now and what each team member needs. Do you run a call center where space is limited and moderate sound reduction is needed? Are your employees handling sensitive information that requires premium noise reduction between cubicles?

We find that many offices are designed with space in mind but, in some cases, visual and auditory privacy is either forgotten or neglected. This is a mistake we often see and it’s easily remedied with cubicle shields or divider panels.

In situations where you need sound privacy and you have desks with existing low walls around them, cubicle shields are a good choice because you can easily attach them to the existing walls to add height around the cubicle and deaden sound.

If your office has more of an open feel and there aren’t walls around each employee’s tables, then a desk-mounted divider panel can provide a huge privacy boost and, as we’ve pointed out before, increased privacy leads to increased productivity.

Cubicle Shield vs. Divider Panels: What Do You Want to Accomplish With Your Workspace?

Many of our clients want to create a workspace with increased productivity and privacy. These topics go hand-in-hand because, as we mentioned in the previous section, studies are clear that privacy is a human need and that workers thrive when they feel like they have a certain level of autonomy.

We also know that traditional workplaces have a desire to modernize and, in this era of office design, open concepts are easily the most popular trend.

A lot of businesses hear the phrase “open floor plan” and automatically think of bean-bag chairs and free-form work areas with standing desks and community tables.

We believe that an open concept can be achieved with cubicle shields and divider panels because both are designed to offer enough auditory and visual privacy without disrupting workplace community.

Cubicle shields and divider panels provide a functional, effective middle ground between head-high cubicle walls and wall-less open workspaces.

Cubicle Shields vs. Divider Panels: The Cost Factor

One of the things that’s most appealing about cubicle shields and divider panels is that they’re affordable and effective.

Prices tend to vary most when you’re deciding between panels that provide visual privacy and ones that provide audio privacy.

Our fabric-covered sound-reducing panels are different than our other shields and dividers because they contain STC- and NRC-rated materials that absorb sound and prevent it from moving from one cubicle to another.

While the performance of our cubicle shields and dividers is among the best, our price points remain reasonable, making both options a good choice for your office.

Wrapping It Up: An Overview of Cubicle Shields and Divider Panels

Your office’s cubicles are an important part of how productive your team will be. The thought you put into your shields and dividers will either mesh or clash with your employees’ needs and your own vision for how you want your workplace to function.

Head to our Contact Us page to send us an email or give us a call. We’re happy to talk with you about what you want out of your office and how our products can provide a simple, cost-effective solution.

Your workspace is where you will spend the majority of your career, and its ability to inspire motivation and creativity is crucial to your success. So it stands to reason that your office should possess the perfect elements that encourage and aid your unique work ethic while still allowing you to interact with your co-workers.

This balance between collaboration and individualism is delicate to maintain. For many, focusing can be difficult with the multitude of distractions surrounding them in an office, impeding their ability to produce the greatest quality work possible. However, complete privacy is not possible, as you must be able to pool your collective productivity with your fellow employees to benefit the entire company.

So how does one reconcile these issues?

The answer is privacy panels. Privacy panels are usually made of clear glass or thin material, offering a superficial wall between desks that allows you to work in relative seclusion while still not preventing communication between you and your coworkers. Below are five of the main benefits of these panels, and why you should invest in them.

1. They block visual distractions.

People are visual creatures, and wherever our eyes are drawn, our mind usually follows. This is a detrimental trait when working in an office, as they are constantly full of activity. Whether it is co-workers wandering to and from the fax machine, arranging their desks, conducting phone calls, or a multitude of other things, an office never rests. For you, this can pose a problem as the constant movement is a distraction. Even with intense concentration, the movement in your peripheral vision keeps from you fully focusing and building up the necessary productive momentum.

With a privacy panel, this superficial wall will create a barrier between you and the rest of your office, subconsciously separating you from the activity. Although the visual block may only be a thin piece of fogged glass, it will block the immediate movement, as well as making the rest of the office a second priority in your mind. However, you can still stand to look over the barrier, communicating with those around you.

2.They give a sense of privacy.

Sharing space with several other people can become unnerving. For some, the feeling of being watched or having others look over their shoulder can be a constant distraction, even if they have nothing to hide. Whether you are truly under inspection or not, the feeling may linger in your mind and draw your attention away from your projects.

A privacy panel, no matter how superficial a barrier, gives the sense of seclusion that eliminates this ever-present thought. Additionally, the impression of privacy is given to your co-workers as well as you. Without a panel, your workspace seems open and inviting, encouraging others to speak with you during work when you desire seclusion. With a panel, however, your workspace seems reserved and personal, discouraging others from entering uninvited. This allows you to focus on your own work without several interruptions and without the sense of being watched. However, your workspace is still easily accessible and allows your co-workers to visit you without trouble.

3. They block distracting noise.

Along with the constant visual activity, an office is a noisy place. This noise can range from co-workers talking beside the water cooler, phones ringing and co-workers speaking to clients, noisy machinery such as a fax machine, or perhaps a waiting room nearby with customers chatting. All of this is normal and to be expected of an office, but is incredibly distracting, especially if your work requires intense care to detail or if you experience trouble focusing already. With a privacy panel, although too thin to literally block out the noise, the barrier will create a subconscious separation from the rest of the room, allowing your mind to block out the noise in a way you cannot do when open to the entire room.

4. They help prevent sickness.

During the flu season, an office can be a hotspot for sickness which spreads rapidly between employees. Workers touch the same surfaces, use the same facilities, breathe the same air, and communicate in close proximity, making it ideal for spreading germs. With a privacy panel, you are creating a real obstacle between yourself and your co-workers, blocking airborne sicknesses to a noticeable extent. With this, the odds of catching a sickness are greatly reduced, while still allowing you the necessary connection between workers.

5. They give you a sense of ownership

A workplace should inspire creativity and the motivation to work towards your greatest potential. A privacy panel is low in cost and easy to assemble, creating a secluded and intimate workspace that cultivates all those positive emotions. With this addition, you are adding your own personal touch to your office space, creating a sense of customization and ownership. This will make you feel more comfortable and authoritative, encouraging a sense of prospect and ability. With this newly endowed sense of control, you will have the enthusiasm to take on your work.

Conclusion:

An office is a place to create and develop, no matter what your chosen field. If you wish to work to your maximum potential, producing the service necessary to rocket you forward in success, you must feel comfortable in your workspace. With the help of a privacy panel, you can cultivate that ideal workspace in a simple but efficient way.

While the definition of poor work performance changes, the causes of the performance gap seem to be universal no matter the industry, company, job description, or typical group of people. Some causal factors of low or high performance are employee – centric issues and others are organization issues. These tend to overlap. Most issues are influenced by both the employee and the organization. For example, if Employee A’s manager asks him why he has only been averaging seventy – five phone calls per hour, he could hear one or both of the following reasons:

Example #1: “I am distracted because my wife is due to have a baby. Every time I hear a phone ring I think it is her calling to tell me that she is going to the hospital.”

Example #2: “My coworkers are bothering me. The one on my left keeps laughing really loud and the one on my right asks me a question every few minutes. I can’t concentrate on my own calls with all of these interruptions.”

The first example is an employee issue. His life at home is leaking into his life at work. In other words his work / life balance is off. The organization can do little to help him. He is in control of how distracted he is or is not. Example #2 is an organization issue. Because of the way the office set up its employees right next to each other, and because of the managers’ ineffectiveness to keep his coworkers quiet and train the rookies, he is distracted by factors he can’t control. Because companies have little to no influence on what is happening in the employees’ life that might cause disruptions, they have to focus on the organization’s factors. Below are the top five causes of poor work performance, specifically ones that companies can cause or allow to happen, and therefore they are the ones that can be fixed.

1. Lack of sound privacy. Every worker is unique. Employee A might be productive when there is loud music in the background. That same music might be distracting and annoying to Employee B. Employee A could train himself to hear his coworkers conversations as simple white noise in the background while Employee B can’t help but listen intently to whatever is being said. Additional noises such as tapping on computer keyboards and squeaking chairs are also big distractions. This cause can be fixed with additional partitions and noise-cancelling headphones.

2. Lack of visual privacy. No employees have reported that they like it when someone is looking over their shoulder. Those who have their desks set up right in their manager’s line of sight say that adds additional, unnecessary stress. Managers typically think that their presence makes employees more productive but the result is the exact opposite. Workers are less likely to play online games and surf social media sites when someone can easily see them, but studies show that does not improve work performance.

3. Lack of personal space / Overcrowding. Open office models typically put four to ten people around one table. They each have their own chair, their own computer, and their own basic office supplies like pens, but nothing else belongs to them. They are literally bumping elbows and they do not have the opportunity to make the space their own. No pictures of their kids and their pets, no calendar with quotes from their favorite comedian or politicians, and no jar of their favorite candy. When an employee feels “at home” at work, he works better. Companies need to give employees the opportunity to personalize their space.

4. Inability to control the environment. An employee who is shivering because he is cold, or sweating because he is hot, is an ineffective worker. The same employees need to be able to adjust the curtains or shades on the windows when the sun is getting in their eyes. He needs a chair that can be adjusted up and down, left and right, and is not different the next day because someone else sat in it after he did.

5. Second – guessing, or excessive mistakes due to poor training. A company’s first priority should be making sure that their employees are well trained. That way they will not be interrupting each other with questions, or doing their own work slowly because they are struggling to remember what to do next or how to do it.

In order to get ideal work from their employees, businesses must create the ideal work environments. This goes beyond ensuring occupational health and safety. It goes beyond making sure that the workplace is clean, beyond having water fountains and bathrooms that work, and beyond managerial accountability. With so little influence over an employee’s ability to balance work and life, work must be the focus. Recently big name companies like Google, Facebook, and Square have been praising the open office model. In order to improve managerial accessibility, transparency, and employees’ opportunities to collaborate, their workspaces have done away with enclosed offices and individual cubicles. They have literally taken the walls down between their employees.

Those same employees agree across the board that the open office model does get them more face – time with their coworkers. However, they also report the following negative consequences of it: lack of sound privacy, lack of visual privacy, overcrowded workspaces and an inability to control their personal space / environment. Only twenty five percent, that is one in four workers in the United States, say that they work in the ideal environment for peak job performance. The causes of poor work performance are not a problem for that twenty percent because they have sound privacy, visual privacy, and their workspaces are not overcrowded. Companies must prioritize and invest in creating these ideal environments not only for their employees but for the business at large.

In 1967, two designers, Robert Propst and Herman Miller ventured to improve the privacy and lower the buzzing level of confusing distraction that office workers had been living with. They invented what they called, the “action office.” Recognizing that people are more productive working within their own territorial enclave that they can personalize, the inventers found a way of making walls around desks to provide flexible mini-office spaces.

Propst’s concept was to structure desk space with two or three-sided vertical divisions that defined a territory and provided walls for privacy and without hindering the ability of workers to view and participate with others. These walls were are also entirely flexible and adaptable allowing for multipurpose use. The idea of the “action office” was nearly universally adopted by 2005.

The desk mount allows offices to construct privacy spaces around the structure of individual desks flexibly and without damaging the furniture itself. Desk mounted privacy panels easily attach to the desks themselves using special mounts. They come in a variety of custom colors, frames and fabrics to enhance and match any office décor. The desk mount system quickly transforms open office designs into mini-office space which a person can call their own.

The carrel structure afforded by these desk-mounted panels also provides privacy for study in libraries or special classrooms or test-taking environments. Recent studies have shown that students with certain forms of learning disability function much better within structures defined by carrel spaces that cut off peripheral distraction.

This year marks 45 years since the invention of the “action office.” The concept has revolutionized the work environment of millions of busy offices. OBEX desk mounted panels can improve any open office environment. Please contact us to explore the options we offer.

Here at OBEX, we provide excellent products in this area, which help executives reshape their cubicles and desks without shuffling things around. We know how much offices often need restructuring in order to accommodate growth or when new employees are added to the payroll. We’ve experienced this firsthand as we’ve grown our own company.

Our cubicle extenders have a design with ease of use in mind, as well as easy installation. With simple placement on existing cubicles using an Allen wrench and screws, you can install our extenders in a matter of minutes. By doing this, you can divide up an existing cubicle into separate quarters without being obstructive or giving any feeling of claustrophobia.

Saving You Time, and Providing Comfort

When you need maximize all the time you can get out of a work day, you don’t want an office space redesign for new employees you need in your staff. By using our cubicle extenders, you save time and money. Office restructuring usually takes an entire day, which means a huge financial money loss just for moving desks around.

Using our extenders, they’re ready to use out of the box. At the same time, they provide privacy, yet leave enough room so employees can see light from nearby windows. While this depends on the layout of your office, you have plenty of customization for height and width on our extenders.

Contact us here at OBEX to find out more about our extenders and similar products. Don’t let an office restructure get in the way, while still providing perfect working quarters for the new hires.

When Robert Propst developed the concept of the cubicle, he had specific ideas for the perfect office space:

“Conceived as an alternative to open workrooms that lacked privacy or personality, its modular elements could be customized to accommodate employees’ changing needs. “Action Office,” as the cubicle and its components were officially called, was the invention of Robert Propst, a brilliant artist/inventor.”

You can reclaim the freedom and productivity dreamed by the inventor of the cubicle with all the benefits of 21st century style with the help of OBEX. Redesigning and customizing your office does not have to be a costly endeavor with tons of new furniture. Here are ways to keep your office looking professional and functioning well for each employee:

1. Desk and table mounts: Turn any desk or table into a cubicle easily and efficiently with pieces that mount directly on your existing furniture. We offer different sizes, so you can create the space you need, whether you need the extra height to clip a lamp to increase desktop space or need an extra sound barrier to reduce noise levels for phone calls.
2. Cubicle panel mounts: If you already have some cubicle dividers, you can customize your office space with panel mounts. You can get the extra height you need, as well as add to the decor. We offer a variety of styles and colors, so you will be able to create the perfect functional and fashionable office space.

If you are ready to reinvent your office space, please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re opening a new office, or you’re adding new staff to your existing business, you have probably noticed how expensive office furniture is. You know you need to give your employees adequate work space, but adding work space should also be affordable. The truth is, you don’t have to buy a whole new suite of office furniture to provide more space for your employees. With table mount panel extenders, you can create instant cubicles.

Any Table Will Do

You don’t need a special type of table to create a functional cubicle, in fact, any table you have that’s between ¾” and 2″ thick will be just fine. As long as it’s sturdy enough for your staff to do their work on it, you can add a table mount panel extender. Don’t have a spare table? You don’t even have to go out and buy one. Consider renting tables if you only need them temporarily. Table mount panel extenders won’t do any damage to them.

Super Fast Set-Up

Your time is valuable and the last thing that you want to do is spend it putting together furniture. In a matter of minutes, you can install table mount panel extenders then you can get back to work. You won’t need an engineering degree or a giant box of tools to get the job done either. They come with a thumb screw and an allen wrench and that’s all you need. They’re so easy to install that anybody can do it with no trouble at all.

Versatile Configuration

In business, you’ve got to be agile enough to change and your furniture has to be versatile too. Whether you want to use a single table against a wall, or two tables back to back, table mount panel extenders are the answer. You can install one set along the edge of the table, to create a center divider and others to divide the table into work spaces. Even better yet, if you ever want to change the configuration, you can do it nearly instantly.

Temporary Or Permanent

If you only need cubicles for a short amount of time, or if they’ll be a permanent fixture, table mount panel extenders are the solution. Instantly install them for temporary employee testing desks or training centers. Take them down, store them flat in a storage cabinet and pull them out again when they’re needed. Or, just leave them in place and they’ll hold up to daily use for years to come.

Compliments Any Decor

Your business image is incredibly important and the last thing you want is to have furniture that looks like it was haphazardly thrown together. Table mount panel extender frames and panels come in a large variety of colors to perfect match any office décor. You can also choose the material for your panels, from fabric acoustical tiles to polycarbonate and either clear or frosted acrylic.

If you would like more information about table mount panel extenders, please contact us. Our friendly staff will be happy to answer any questions you have. We’ve helped many businesses, just like yours, and we’ll be happy to help you choose the best option for your users.

Last week, we reviewed a laundry list of opinions about open offices vs. closed offices. This time, let’s get more specific and list some issues that can crop up in the unfettered landscape of the entirely open office. Here are a number of valid complaints that office workers have about personality conflicts in open spaces:

• The lack of privacy in an open office actually restricts honest communication because of all the eavesdropping.
• Coworkers’ manners are a huge obstacle in open environments. They talk too loudly, don’t respect the privacy of others, and have conversations on speaker phone.
• Introverts pay a “social penalty” for not engaging on the same level as their coworkers. It’s unfair to expect all personality types to work in the same way.
• Theft is more likely to occur in an open office. It’s a hassle to have to lock your purse inside the desk if you get up to go to the copier.
• HR ends up with way more work to do in smoothing ruffled feathers when everyone is in everyone else’s business in an open office.

Collaboration and Creativity

What about the perception that open offices are the best bet for keeping people connected and getting all the bright ideas flowing? Not everyone is on board with that viewpoint either. In fact, they point to a number of alternatives:

• Small shared areas work better than completely open offices. People working on the same project can be clustered together in small teams to promote collaboration.
• Closed floor plans make teamwork more productive because meetings have to be scheduled for a real purpose.
• People who work inside their heads need private space. They don’t want to be pulled into conversations or make everything a “team project” in an open office.
• Open spaces are OK for “creatives” working together on the same project, but people in operations roles need less distraction.
• The workstation isn’t the place for socialization. It should be a place to concentrate get work done. Meetings are the right environment for communication and collaboration.

Can We All Just Get Along?

There is room for common ground in this ongoing debate. Most people do agree that the right solution is industry and job dependent. Confidentiality, privacy, and ethics are important considerations. There’s also widespread agreement that an ideal workspace makes room for both private areas and collaborative areas. OBEX panel extenders and desk panels offer a solution that’s easy to retrofit into any space to achieve just the right ratio.

Do you have opinions about open offices to share? Let loose in the comments!