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Certainly, the plight of the jobless is more perilous than that of the … er … jobbed. But with increased demands caused by decreased staff size in many workplaces, it sometimes may feel like the walls are closing in.
Perhaps they are.
According to the L.A. Times, businesses in the 1970s would provide 500 to 700 square feet per employee. Now it’s down to 200. By 2015 it could be … well, put it this way, be careful when you back your chair up.
The reasons are predictable: Employers are cheap. But what caught our eye was the finding that it seems younger workers actually prefer it that way.
(By the way, if you don't get the "Office Space" reference, you can read about Milton here.)
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I'd love to have 200. I only have 72. I'm in an 8x9 office. There is literally 4 inches between the end of my desk and my door. Walls end 2 ft from the ceiling and don't stop much noise. I do a lot of conference calls and have had corp. management get annoyed and ask about what's all the noise in the background when I take my phone off mute to answer questions. And I end up wearing headphones a lot just to be able to concentrate to do my work because the idiots put me next to the only sales person (think sales calls over and over and over - remember the switchboard lady in Office Space???) and expect me to do financial analysis.
You have an office? We were moved from 10x10 offices to 6x6 cubicles. With glaring and sickening overhead light we cannot turn off AND a 'white noise machine' running all day through the loud speakers. Luckily, I only have to come in once a week. Even at that it sucks.
Having worked in a newsroom environment for more than 20 years, I can state that it is possible to work without offices, side-by-side with your co-workers as they are interviewing, writing and researching. All our desks were grouped in eights with someone on each side and looking at another reporter across the desk. If you have no other choice, you adapt. Does that make employers cheap for a reason? I was laid off earlier this year, so this economy didn't save our workforce.
Let the walls cave in. It's better to have a job than not to have one.
For once, I get to be on the good side of a dilemma! Due to something called the "272" regulations, our office had to be restructured, and I ended up witha cubicle bigger than my boss's office! I could put a couch and a coffee table in my cube and still have plenty of workroom. I don't know how long this will last, but I am enjoying it! One problem though, have you seen my stapler?
They moved my desk into the basement storage room with the roaches, and I still can't find my red Swingline.
I get a half cubicle with about 5' wide and 4' including my desk :(
We understand that square footage is a big expense. Management should understand that employee morale affects productivity. Here, like everywhere else in the world, you get what you pay for.
It doesn't matter how big or small your cubicle is, people still manage to steel your red Swingline stapler.
I said no salt...NO SALT!!!!!
If everyone worked from home, just think how much employers could save on office space :)
My employers considered having everyone telework at least 3 days/week, but relented when they realized that they wouldn't be able to see exactly what staff would be doing at home --- even if tasks were completed on-time.
And 3 years ago, my employer cut 2/3rds of staff & office space only to realize that our major customers were planning to push a lot more projects to our office --- now we need 2-4 more people, space for workstations, and file storage space to reduce lengthy project schedules.
I work in a cubicle with 11 other people. Advantage- you always have someone to bounce ideas off of. Disadvantage- hard to focus when big groups start chatting. No matter what I'm thankful to have a job.
I am not particularly closterphobic and I don't keep a lot of stuff at my desk, so I don't mind a smaller cubicle. What did bother me was being around a lot of people who talked really loudly, ate really loudly (seriously, close your mouth when you chew), and being right next to my boss, bosses boss, and bosses bosses boss. In a switcheroo, I was moved to a cubicle bigger than my bosses in a corner where no one sees me or bothers me. On the other hand, its a little lonlier over there. I actually liked having people around me even if they did occasionally get on my nerves.
However, none of the above was significant enough to be a game changer.
Having managed corporate real estate assets for a couple of decades I can tell you that on a global scale the US still has workspace twice the size of most of the rest of the world. Problem is a cookie cutter approach never works for everyone - inspite of what we'd like to think are paperless offices I still have to accommodate work groups that move mountains of paper every day - bigger is definitely better in these cases. And a big yes to home officing if management is really serious about saving costs and improving morale. Just sayin...
Keep saying it because it is up to us to get businesses out of paper and into home offices for the sake of efficiency, the environment, AND our general overall helth and well being.
I am VERY thankful that I have kept my job for another year. I don't care if they put me in the basement with the Facilities and Engineering guys! As a matter of fact, I would love to sit with those guys! We have enough to worry about....just give me a phone with headset and a laptop, desk and chair.
Office walls? I predict the office walls will be from our home offices. With the technology we have today, many office jobs can be performed ANYWHERE. Now, that's cost reduction!
Seriously?? LUCKY to have a job??? How EXACTLY do companies, corporations, states, govts. etc figure ANYTHING WILL GET DONE without WORKERS!!!
People!!! You need to switch your thinking!!! THEY are LUCKY TO HAVE US!! The sooner this gets through your thick heads the sooner the whole thing will turn around. THEY NEED TO PAY US TO DO THEIR CRAPPY GRUNT WORK SO THEY CAN GET THEIR 6 FIGURES!!! DUH!!!
AMEN!
What is up with people now a days - Thankful to have a job...? No, you PAY me for my services (and not nearly enough). People need to start running their careers like a business. It's not personal, and no, I don't need to be thankful that I have a job. You pay me a fee for my services and I take pride in the services I provide. I am not a servant and I do not have to grovel to get ahead. My skills SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES!
As long as you act beholding to have a job, your employer will continue to treat you like a peon.
...that's a thought. and a pretty good one, too.
Zesty, you're absolutely right. I used to work for an employer that had the mentality that people will and should just be thankful that they are employed. They couldn't understand why so many people started leaving willingly when they ran the business this way.
Something the author fails to take into consideration is that many office workers needed more space in the 70s. Bulky typewriters, phones large enough to handle multiple lines, and the massive amounts of paper needed to hold the information that computers now contain all took up much more space than our modern systems. Even the communal areas, such as old file rooms or even server rooms for early computer networks have shrunk considerably.
While employers do want to save money on their bottom line by leasing as little area as they can, the advent of smaller equipment makes it easier.
Start your Own Business! Prepare Yourself for Plan B and C and D. in case the JOB we depend on will no longer be there.
Start your Own Business! Prepare Yourself for Plan B and C and D. in case the JOB we depend on will no longer be there.
You have offices and cubicles ??!! We stand three abreast in a bathroom stall and have our computer mounted to the toliet. We also walk 10 miles to work, barefooted in the snow. We have to recycle paper clips as utensils for the cafeteria. Such are the outcomes of these current economic times
I don't really care about office space in the literal sense, as long as I'm not sharing a desk with someone else I'm fine.
All I care about are that my services rendered are being properly and appropriately compensated.
Slave. I am a slave under the Egyptian Master's whip....
God, I love that movie!!!
I'm retired now, but thank God I did not have to work in a cubicle EVER.
It would have killed me.
I call the cubicles at work Veal Pens. Pasty, pudgy office workers waiting management's inevitable axe.
Companies invented the cubicles only to support the 'LAB-RAT' theory! If you can turn your workforce into MINDLESS VERMIN, they won't ask for much in return of services!!
200 SQ FT is the average now? Most office buildings I've worked/been in are only pushing 50. And they are increasingly more open so that it is difficult to have quiet privacy to get your work done in.