The corporate world has been steadily moving away from the office model and towards a more closely knit workforce for years now, and one thing we’ve learned is that cubicles CAN work – if done right. Panel extenders can be a large part of that “rightness”.

According to Forbes,

“…even a small distance impacts employee communication and collaboration.  Once employees are 200 feet away (or more) from each other, the chances of them talking to one another is virtually zero; you might as well have employees be hundreds of miles away. The point here isn’t to say that face-to-face communication is dead, because it isn’t, and we certainly don’t want to get rid of human contact (at least most of us).  Instead organizations need to implement more flexible work environments for employees to allow them to decide how they want to work.”

Panel extenders let you keep employees close to each-other while creating a privacy shield that gives each worker a sense of their own space. Most workers are happier and more productive if they have both the option to hunker down and blaze through a pile of work and the option to pop around the side of their cubicle for some human interaction.

For workers assembled into a team, who need constant interaction to be productive, lower cubicle walls provide the ability to make eye contact and speak to each-other without yelling. For workers who work solo, panel extenders can raise the height of their walls to create an area they can work uninterrupted in – without completely removing the possibility of human interaction during working hours.

Back to the Forbes article – the new generation of cubicle workers isn’t the same as the last generation.

“Millenialls are projected to be the majority of the U.S. workforce by 2020–just a few years away.  This is a generation that is used to being connected.  Millenialls grew up with social platforms such as Facebook , Twitter, and Google and they are comfortable sharing and engaging with people and information;  it’s a part of our daily life.  This is a generation that doesn’t know what it’s like to get 200 emails a day while sitting in a cubicle. Organizations need to adapt to this employee.”

Allowing employees some measure of freedom as well as the occasional telecommuting day, work out of the office day, and so on can make cubicles more appealing for when serious work needs to get done. Panel extenders can create spaces that aren’t shunned and which work well with the idea of flex space!