A daily look at life on the job by TIME's Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Happy 40th birthday, cubicle! Now die

Fo' real: it was 40 years ago that the geniuses in office design came up with the soul-destroying workspace we call the modern cubicle.

In celebration, office designers IDEO have teamed up with Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, to create the ideal cubicle. I swear. No punchline. Check it out here. My favorite feature: the hideaway hammock. Adams is also contracting with Namco Networks on a Dilbert Cubicle computer game, which tells me his kids' college tuition payments must be coming up.

cube.jpg
Dilbert designed this cubicle. No joke. / IDEO

From the IDEO press release:

Practical considerations include modules for a seat, a computer, and a display (complete with “boss monitor”). The floor modules lift for storage or flip between artifical grass and tatami mats; the light modules at the top mimic the sun's movement throughout the day. Other, more whimsical modules provide a hammock, an aquarium, and a punching bag.

I once wrote a feature in TIME about the "newbicle," or the future of the much-hated office space. Soon afterwards, my company moved to a brand new space filled with—surprise!—gray, fuzzy-walled, ugly-as-sin oldbicles. Now that we're preparing for our second move in two years, I'm holding out hope. I'm thinking Joe Klein could use a punching bag.

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    [...] The cubicle is 42 years old last month, amazingly the same age I turn this year. Developed in the sixties as a means of improving office floor space and giving the lowly floor worker the sense of an “office”, it has no permeated through every level of business as a standard. Now HERE’s a cubicle I wouldn’t mind having… [...]

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