Giving Cubicle Dwellers a Square Deal Sharing Workspace With Higher-Ups, Movable Offices Are Among New Solutions By Amy Joyce (Washington Post, August 29, 2004) delves into the pluses and minuses of the "21st-century workplace experiment where there are no seat assignments."

"In one instance, the U.S. General Services Administration moved all of its senior leaders out of their offices and into an open-office plan at the Auburn, Wash., offices. "  No more empty executuve offices while the leadership was traveling, leaving the cubicle dwellers in interior office space. "The theory on rezoning of that office space was that it would be more collaborative."

If those are the pluses, the minuses seem to center around noise - noisey cubicle neighbors to be exact. Barbara Hampton, vice president of knowledge management at CoreNet Global, a corporate real estate association says she sees the reduction in assigned office space already. She's also seeing other changes in the way work gets done that impact office design.

'One example is JetBlue's virtual reservations desk. The company's call-center employees operate out of their own private call centers -- their homes.

'Hampton also has seen an increase in collaborative space, where a team sits together in a generic setting to work on specific projects.

'In addition, she said, because so many people can work from home now, they come into the office for more than just a place to do work. "When people come to work, they don't come to go to the office anymore. They come to work to get a cultural and social experience." '

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