Last Thursday I wrote about the changing experience that my beautiful wife K is going through transitioning from her life as a cube farm employee to a full time rehab entrepreneur (and not the rehab as in homes, but in body).  Before I talk about my central thought, I just want to offer my condolences to anyone who is works in a cube farm, especially if that cube farm is a government facility.  Friday was the first time that I got to see first hand K’s old work location (it is btw an award winning architecturally awesome looking building).  No matter how impressive and how “green” this building is, the inside was devoid of life.  Concrete walls, pillars, and drab grey cubes were overwhelmingly depressing.  No, not depressing, soul-sucking.

I used to joke that working in my cube at Games Workshop felt like prison (I even had a friend send me a set of real prison clothes for Xmas one year), but Games Workshop has/had nothing on STC and this NOAA building.  You see, above the cube farm on the “ground level” was a nice walk way, just like in a Prison.  Matter of fact they could have potentially filmed Prison Break in the NOAA building and no-one would be the wiser.

So beyond the environment itself, the building has a major lack of…noise.  I don’t know if it was the acoustics of the building or the sheer lack of humanity but you couldn’t hear anyone chatting, typing, or even snoring.  There were huge signs everywhere stating “SILENCE!”  or “SILENCE!” or “SILENCE” or my favorite, “SILENCE!”.  Don’t they know that as humans, we need to interact with one another?  That we are social animals who not only thrive with human interaction but also are more productive?  Then I remembered something, I was in a government facility.  The government doesn’t care Read the rest of this entry