I CAN Stand For It!

Lindsey Kaufman has a thing or
two to say about open office
spaces. Today's winner of MIO's
Finger Wag Certificate of
Achievement.

A certain Lindsey Kaufman got me a-thinkin'. She published a somewhat muted rant in THE WASHINGTON POST today, deploring the proliferation of the "open office space" work environment ("Hey boss: I can't get any work done in this office," Sunday, January 4, 2015.)  I happen to work in an ossified industry in which I enjoy the miracle of the now traditional cubicle, and so do not have an opinion, irrefutable or otherwise, on the upsides and downsides of the free ranging of the workforce.  But clearly, Ms. Kaufman ain't fer it. She complains of the noise, the inane conversation, the useless added "interaction", and an overall dissatisfaction with the affects on worker productivity. She does offer some suggestions for making the new concept function better; but that will most likely be greeted with something like "Frankly, my dear...," and we're all familiar with the rest.

The real problem is that nobody works the same way anyhow.  I happen to like working standing up.  Now, it's not that way at my day job; but when at home writing my blog, or doing my other world-improvement projects, I stand upright at the glass block and granite bar that completes my basement, with my 'puter and my other working materials at a comfortable altitude.

I've always preferred working that way, and I know I'm not alone, even though we as the worker-erectus branch of the evolutionary tree may be in the minority. The "standing desk" is catching on though. A 2012 article in WIRED cited a litany of reasons to get off your butt. Among them, increased risked of obesity, diabetes, and heart attack. And I suspect bed sores too.

To boot, I fractured my back last summer, and sitting is the least comfortable position I can bend myself into these days. But that's not the only reason. 

I've always had a penchant for working erect (oh you!) My peripatetic genius will not be denied.  Pacing is an indispensable component of blessing the world with my intellectual product. The life-giving flow of blood is ideally distributed throughout mind and machine when upright.  Plus, at my age, any delay in getting to the urinal quickly enough could be mortifying. Then there's reason Number 2.

Ms. Kaufman is right. After all this time, we don't know how to work?  Some Silicon Valley efficiency manager must now enter the picture to set things right?  Hippo weenie! Show your support and send her article viral folks!  You can visit her on FB here.

h/t: WASHINGTON POST

nom de Twitter: @unrefuted
Email: myirrefutableopinion@gmail.com

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