Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpihoah!hpirs!nlouie
From: nlouie@hpirs.HP.COM (Nancy F. Louie)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Office Noise (was Offices versus Cubicles)
Message-ID: <4010001@hpirs.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Feb 88 23:46:12 GMT
References: <1658@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 63

In article <2701@sfsup.UUCP> dwd@/guest2/dwdUUCP (45421-D.W.Dougherty) writes:

>I'd really like to know what this discussion (offices vs. cubicles) has
>to do with education!!  Could the conversation be taken elsewhere?
>PLEASE??!??

This may not be what you want to hear, but this "argument" has been the 
subject of varying lectures at my University.  There are many things
to be said for either case.

Cubicles:
pros-

	-provide more flexibility should the office be rearranged in the future
	-allow the company to "make the most" of the usuable floor space
	  (i.e., put as many employees in the alotted space as possible)
	-encourage employee interaction, thus improving communication
	  between group members
	
cons-

	-tend to create noisier environments (as there are no walls to
	  deaden the noise)
	-overhead light tends to create glare problems on terminal screens
	-tends to create isolation effect if person sets up cubicle
	  so that back is facing aisle
	-can become crowded especially when cubicle sizes are reduced to
	  allow room for more employees

Offices:
pros-

	-create a quieter work environment for employees
	-allow the installation of controllable intensity lamps (this is a
	 preferred setting as it reduces the glare when working
	 on a terminal, yet when working at a desk, the intensity of 
	 the light can be increased in order to increase the contrast between 
	 the written material and the background)
	-allow more privacy for those who need a period of uninterrupted 
	 time for more "intense" concentration

cons-

	-creates a "colder" work environment (detracts from employee
	 interaction)
	-inflexible to office layout change

Ergonomically, offices are preferred to cubicles because of the ergonomic
benefits.

Yes, they actually teach us how to analyze this at school.  ...And, in
case you think this is one of those hole-in-the-wall schools, 
it is good old U.C. Berkeley's Engineering program (for Industrial
Engineers) that gets you into this.

There has been much discussion on this issue internationally.  My professor
was from Nottingham University in England, and they had done many studies
on which was better. 

Sorry to get my $0.02 worth in so late, this is in response to a
prompting by one of my co-workers in addition to my manager to take a look
at this string as I had recently participated in a group study that touched
on this issue.