Office cubicles are making a comeback at Facebook-owner Meta in response to more and more noisy video calls made to remote workers.
Bosses at Meta are introducing new curvy-walled movable cubicles, nicknamed “The Cube” internally, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The new set-up features three soft screens made of “felt-like recycled PET plastic” that envelop a worker’s desk and block out noise. They are being rolled out in response to the rise of disruptive video calls being made in the office.
“What we realised is that, as a result of the pandemic and people working from home, that folks needed an environment to Zoom, to videoconference, and it’s very hard to do in an open office without interrupting other folks,” said John Tenanes, vice president of global real estate and facilities at Meta.
It marks a split with the kind of open plan offices that have come to dominate modern businesses. Walls and dividers were torn down in recent decades to promote a more collaborative workplace. Facebook in fact inspired a generation of open plan start-ups with its own offices, which were portrayed in the film The Social Network.
Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, says it is trying to avoid a return to cubicle culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Grey, rabbit hutch-style cubicles were widely reviled and skewered in the comic strip Dilbert and 1999 film Office Space.
Meta trialled more traditional cubicles in its offices but abandoned them after discovering these walls didn’t block out much noise.
Instead, the company commissioned its own design. The soft material of “The Cube” helps absorb sound instead of reflecting and echoing it around the workplace. Meta claims its design reduces sound levels by around 20 decibels.
Average office conversations generate noise ranging around 55 to 60 decibels, according to the Health and Safety Executive.
The return of dividers comes as businesses continue to grapple with how to make hybrid and remote work post-Covid productive. Amazon last week became the latest big business to order staff back in at least three days a week.
The British Council for Offices, the trade association for corporate office developers, says workers should have around 10 square metres of space each.
Danielle Oakley, associate director of HR Advice at consultancy Peninsula UK, told The Telegraph last year that lack of office space can hit office productivity by increasing the potential for distractions.
“Productivity takes a hit when there are other issues going on,” she said. “When they’ve got a settled environment and are not being irritated, employees can focus on the job at hand so their effectiveness naturally increases.”
