As a resident in many cube farms for many years of my career, I have a fondness for stories involving this topic. This article – Why Silicon Valley Firms Are Rethinking the Cubicle – provides probably more insight than the average person cares to know about this topic.
But this caught my attention:
Intel Corp. is often credited, or blamed, for popularizing the office cubicle. Now it is joining some prominent Silicon Valley peers in reconsidering the concept.
I didn’t know that, but later in the article you find this statistic:
Sun Microsystems Inc. is particularly aggressive about flexible work styles; the computer maker estimated that about 55% of its employees work from home or a remote office as many as two days a week. To accommodate these workers when they are in the office, Sun offers drop-in desks and places terminals in offices, cafeterias and other common spaces.
Now that definitely is a trend I foresee taking off over the next 10 years. We already have customers that have these areas and they allow us to use them when we are onsite for a day of interviews. This convenience is much appreciated since the PDA phone can get old when you are trying to read attachments and write out long emails.