The Cubicle Continuum

He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company.  Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column.  Under the guise of wanting to increase ‘transparency,’ the new organizational trendsetters are touting the benefits of the horizontal work space...that is, the cubicle and (worse yet) the bullpen. So, and from the lowest clerk to the highest CEO, everyone is now expected to march in lock step and function in an open, and thoroughly non-private environment. These theorists would have us believe that the loss of privacy and the increase in noise is indeed a very small price to pay for this more democratic environment. Yes, we’ll not only increase productivity, but we can also foster diversity, eliminate class distinctions, etc. ad nauseam. Of course, most of the folks promoting this stuff have never really worked for a living, but why should that … [Read more...] about The Death of the Office

 He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company.  Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column. Once small, neat and almost petite, the object he now held had, almost before his very eyes, expanded, swelled and grew to disgustingly bloated proportions. Like a pulsating tumor, the ‘employee handbook’ has grown and, in fact, metastasized. That portable, lightweight and generally benign and somewhat even helpful booklet has now been replaced by a dazzling array of rules and guidelines crafted in deliberately confusing, complex language. And, to add the proverbial insult to injury, today’s model is now often packaged in a loose leaf binder, so that every week or so, new pages of rules and procedures can be issued and added to the ever-growing tome.Really, it’s almost like the biggest non-producers in any … [Read more...] about The Ever-Expanding Employee Handbook

 He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company.  Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column.The red light bulb blinked-blinked-blinked its silent warning; and the office boy hustled over and pulled the large black lever, opening the pneumatic slot. A series of glass and metal tubes eagerly began to cascade out; each encasing a yellow telegram message. As he opened each one, he worked rhythmically to time stamp, then sort and finally place each in a separate envelope for routing. Messages for honchos from all the corners of the world; some even hand stamped with a red 'urgent' or even 'eyes only'. There was, he had to admit, a certain satisfaction in answering the call of the unyielding red light.But no sooner was he absorbed in this mindless work then he was awoken from his reverie by shouts of "you there, boy!" It … [Read more...] about Ode to an Office Boy

 He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company.  Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column.The photo in the magazine showed a harried executive standing over his pert, proper and suitably concerned secretary. Tie askew and with a frenzied look in his eyes, the text tells us that this man has just learned, once again, that his field office managers had failed to follow instructions, and caused him to miss another deadline. How was he to explain to his boss this all too frequent lapse? Sure, he knew that once again his subordinates would claim that they never received the assignment, or that their response was lost in the mail, or employed a plethora of other excuses; ones that would even make a lazy high school student green with envy. ‘Ah, what to do?’ the ad asked…and then of course answered its own … [Read more...] about The Verge of Fax Extinction