[sutterbomb]

I don't think "office with a door" is an obvious alternative, because it's prohibitively expensive to build out a space with individual offices for every single employee.

It's like saying a study that compared air travel to high speed rail is comically bad because it didn't even consider teleportation. (Extreme hyperbole, but I think it conveys my point.)

[JoeAltmaier]

Not that more expensive. Those cubicles cost nearly as much. I've built out spaces before, and offices are absolutely worth the expense, especially if you consider the improved work performance.

Its like saying light bulbs are comically bad because the sun is there for free. :)

[sutterbomb]

Haha fair enough re: light bulbs.

I still have a hard time imagining that building individual offices, with the additional wiring, AC/heat, individual lighting etc. would be even close to a cubicle build out. Haven't built a space myself though and don't have hard data, so guess I'll take your word for it.

[JoeAltmaier]

Cubicles are wicked expensive. Their price rose to almost that of building an office. Free market principle - charge what the market will support.

Now, you can re-use and re-configure cubicles, so that's often used as excuse to buy them. But moving them around is also expensive - rewiring, mechanical work, they're fragile to begin with.

So I call cubicles a dead loss to the bottom line. That's been my experience.

[empthought]

It's only prohibitively expensive if you have too many employees.