New digs

My first job had the most unusual working environment - being a small, 30 person company, the engineers inhabited a big wide open space without cubes. We just had tables arrayed in a square around the edges of the room, with the assorted video, ethernet, and power cables clumped in a haphazard manner in the middle. This was a fun environment that facilitated a lot of teamwork, since we could just yell questions across the room. Two of my coworkers set up a projector in the corner that would continually play movies or music videos throughout the day.

My next few jobs had more conventional cube setups. In addition, I guess getting older has made me more inclined towards privacy at the workplace, being able to be focused without getting interrupted every few minutes.

This past week, we moved into a newly renovated building as the guinea pigs for a new furniture and cube supplier for the company. The work environment is quite nice - the furniture being designed with the focus of mobility and flexibility (read: wheels on everything so you can move chairs and tables into whatever configuration you want). The bathrooms are sparkling clean, with waterless urinals and motion-sensor faucets and soap foam dispensers. The cubes can be smaller now that heavy-duty tables are no longer needed, as big, heavy cathode-ray tube monitors aren't really in favor anymore. The trays and shelves are modular and can be hooked up to where I want them to be. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the cube is - we have a door! There's a sliding door that we can slide shut to get some privacy in order to focus, and open up when we want to have the regular interaction with the outside world. It's like a mini-office, with the exception that you can still hear what's going on with your neighbors.

Check out some pics:

Inside of the cube - notice the rolling file cabinet with a padded top that doubles as an extra chair


From the inside of the cube looking at the closed door


My cube's next to the window with this nice hangout area