Tips for Cubicle Courtesy and Office Layout
Understanding the Psychology of Physical Space

I remember quietly waiting in a client's cubicle for her to return from a late meeting, at a company that has eliminated all offices except meeting rooms. From the cubicle to my right, I overheard a loud phone call about an interfering, controlling mother-in-law; from my left came the distinctive aroma of tuna fish while a potato chip chomper talked loudly to a colleague.

WOW! That got me thinking about sending you this eletter. My goal is to provide tips for you to create the right ambience in your physical space, reinforce some protocol in your workspace and experience more control of your time.

Open workspaces and cubicles dominate today’s office environment. Although most organizations have specific workplace behavioral rules, they often lack protocols for how employees behave in their private work areas or cubicles. Respecting each colleague’s territory will enhance your relationships, while understanding physical space psychology will help you better succeed in daily interactions.

First, think of cubicle etiquette as a set of unwritten workplace rules for those in cubicles or in adjoining workspaces to help preserve respect and observe privacy. Think you know the rules? Try this quiz:

A Cubicle Etiquette Primer

If you work in a cubicle, you know the challenges, especially the emotional ones, upon moving from office to cube farm. While cubicle life encourages an open, connected staff and enhances camaraderie, studies show that most workers dread the resulting lack of privacy and new noise threshold. These basic ground rules can help preserve workplace productivity and community.
Privacy

• Imagine a cubicle has doors, and never enter without the occupant’s eye contact “permission.”
• First, announce yourself at the doorway or gently knock on the wall.
• Post a sign/flag at your own cube entrance to signal when you can be interrupted. Don’t initiate eye contact.
• Don’t peek over the top of a cube, look in as you walk past, or loiter outside.
• Never read someone’s computer screen or insinuate yourself in a conversation you’ve overheard.
• Keep your hands off a cube dweller’s desk—yes, even their stapler.

Phones

• Answer in 1-2 rings, and set the ringer volume low.
• Limit the use, and volume, of speakerphones. Use a meeting room for conference calls.
• Speak softly on the phone. A headset helps.
• Exiting your cubicle—turn phone ringer off, voicemail on.
• Leaving a cell phone in your cube—turn to off/vibrate.
• Personal/sensitive calls—keep your voice lower yet.

Talking

• Don’t yell; move closer, use your “library voice.”
• Don’t talk through cube walls or congregate outside.
• For impromptu meetings, use a conference/break room.
• Take clients to an office/conference room, not your cube. Talk confidentially only in a private office.

Noise Control

• Use email/IM to communicate silently with co-workers.
• Play radios at low volume or use a headset.
• Set your PC volume low; kill screensaver sound effects.
• Set pagers to vibrate.
• Stagger lunch breaks, giving each of you quiet time in your cube.
• Eat quietly. No gum-popping, humming, slurping and pen tapping.

Smells

• Be careful when eating hot food at your desk. Its odors can bother a hungry/ nauseous neighbor.
• Pass on eating foods with strong aromas like cooked cabbage, crispy fries, pickles, etc.
• Avoid perfume/cologne in a cubicle in case neighbors have allergies.
• Keep an air freshener handy—and your shoes on!

In sum, each cubicle is an individual’s office. Don’t just barge in and begin talking—your co-worker may be concentrating. Make your presence known at the entrance until s/he can talk.
Before I forget, resist the temptation of becoming a pack rat, saving anything and everything. This is not your basement so keep your space clean and tidy. Disorganization reflects poorly on professionalism. And limit your display of personal items.

Navigating and Occupying Physical Space

How do you use your own physical settings for influence and respect?  People use physical space in distinctive ways depending on who they are and what kind of interaction they desire with others. Often we are unaware of what is being communicated.

We tend to look at office space territorially.  For example, if you’re establishing rapport with a direct report, or conducting an adversarial discussion to emphasize authority, whose office do you meet in?

Tip: Hosting such a meeting gives you the upper hand, while visiting someone else shows them greater consideration.

Tip: Remember that it’s always easier to leave a colleague’s office than dismiss someone from yours.

Other features of the setting influence behavior, including the amount and type of interaction among people. 

Tip: Thomas Allen at MIT, studying communication patterns in R & D offices, found that the farther apart people sit, the more markedly their interaction drops off.
 
Here are some strategies for setting up your office to encourage freer exchange in meetings. 

Tip: Move away from your desk.  Group chairs around a small table to increase intimacy, encourage sociability and downplay hierarchy.

Tip: Alternatively, move your chair around your desk to avoid head-on interaction.  Sitting closer reinforces collaboration.

Tip: If behind your desk, angling your chair slightly so that your body is not facing the person directly eliminates confrontation. However, make sure your head is facing the person so they can see you are truly interested.

Edward T. Hall identified four basic distances for human interaction— intimate space (touch-18”); personal space (18”-4’); social space (4’-12’); and public space (12’ or more)—which, he felt, determine the conduct and nature of communication. Furniture arrangements can be key: a desk placed between two people changes a personal space to a social space. Depending on your level of approachability, this partition can serve to distance two people.  

How open are you to letting others know who you are?  In arranging your space, you unconsciously demonstrate your values and message yourself to others. People judge you by

• How you have personalized your office with family photos, etc.
• What you willingly share about yourself to connect with others
• How much you value orderliness
• How much you value hierarchy.

Concluding Thoughts

In short, assess your own space for the messages that others might find there about you.  Create an ambience that encourages comfort, inspires participation and respects all organizational levels.  I truly believe that when you treat others like guests in your home, you will be respected for the effort.  When you treat guests comparably in your workspace, you will be seen as a valued “host”.

Look at how you treat other people relative to their space, be it a cubicle or office.  Your interactions with people will be affected by what they learn about you from your reaction to their space, and from their welcome into yours. 

I hope that this eletter has provided you with some valuable insights.  Don’t hesitate to forward to those individuals who would be interested and for those who require some civilization fine-tuning.