- Install "white noise" machines. Extremely effective,
these speakers create just enough noise so that workers can't
follow the thread of conversations.
- Install a conference room or pay phone areas
where employees are encouraged to place sensitive calls.
- Keep your voice low on the telephone to protect
your privacy.
- Use the boss's office or an empty conference
room for private calls.
- If your neighbors are consistently noisy, let
them know you can hear them (in a polite, non-threatening way.)
- If you lose your temper with your ex-husband
and everyone overhears you, forget about it. Your co-workers will
understand - just vow not to let the call get that far the next
time.
- Use body language to let doorway hangers-on
know that it's time to get back to work.
- Install pictures of your family, pets, and
hobbies to make your cube homey.
- For private messages, use email.
- Buy some headphones for yourself or your music
loving neighbor.
- Install a green marker (ribbon) if it's OK
to visit, red if you need privacy.
- Keep a neat cube, particularly if you share
it.
- Move meetings to a conference area or the caf?
- Avoid strong perfumes or clipping your nails.
- Recognise that the cube is a public space -
don't say anything you don't want everyone to know.
Will
the cube movement last?
If you talk to the big office furniture companies,
or the beleaguered facility managers who have built walled offices
only to knock them down again, the answer is yes. Cubicles are the
present and the future. But, we have heard of a Connecticut drug
manufacturer that installed private offices for every scientist
in the facility. The reason: it could not attract new workers if
they had to work in a cube.
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