Life in the prison of a 8 foot by 8 foot cubicle is going the way of the Dodo. At least if you want to move your company forward.
With Generation Y moving into the office, the thought of a small cell isolated from others is about as appealing as going to prison. At least they get a sink and toilet!
A cubicle not only stamps them as being securely in the “Office” culture, which no one really wants to be a part of, it also doesn’t allow for easy interaction with others. Gen Yers are collaborators. They work best in teams, able to bounce ideas off one another with ease. A cubicle hinders that and as businesses progress, I think you’ll see less and less cubicles and more and more “shared spaces”. Or even no spaces as at all. Just cyberspace.
With twitter, IMing, email and VOIP, employees can work from anywhere in the world at any given moment. 9 to 5…forget it. Locking younger workers into a fixed schedule will spell disaster for the employer who isn’t flexible. In fact, younger workers will actually work more hours if given the freedom to work outside a typical office environment. They’ll log into work more often after hours and on weekends. It’s our old regimented “you have to be here at 8am so I can prove your working” style that is fading out to the “here’s the assignment, get it done” type of productivity. When they work is not as important as getting the work done.
So ditch the cubicle, the 9-5 mentality and start building your company towards the future.
