Robert Propst
Robert Propst invented the modern cubicle in 1968.
More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, people are still trying to get out of his pain-in-the-ass box. I personally find it hard to envisage a work space more soul-destroying than the cubicle.
You look out over the top of your divider and see row upon row of identical spaces, populated by workers as unfortunate as you, with no hope of individuality on the horizon.
I would like to believe that it was his intention to provide something positive rather than what he actually achieved. After the event, when the corporate world embraced the box in which so many of us live out our work lives, Propst lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called “monolithic insanity.”
Although this sounds a little like Oppenheimer’s lament after the nuclear bomb was dropped. I do wonder what his thinking was, because I do find it hard to believe that he lacked the vision to see where this was likely to go.
Here is a quote:
“Lots of businesses are run by crass people who create hellholes. They make little bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren, rat-hole places.” – Robert Propst
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Comments on Robert Propst
I think you need to do a little research into the design, purpose and vision of my grandfather’s invention before attacking him as an individual. His original design was meant to free the working class from the dense, zero privacy workspaces of the 50′s and 60′s (ever seen the newsrooms in movies such as superman where 100 desks are 2 feet away from each other in a giant room?). His original designs offered free flowing spaces, ergonomic designs and comfortable seating long before the ergo revolution of the 90′s began. Have a look at some of the original designs and you’ll see bright open workspaces. In fact the companies that really bastardized the Action Office system were all of the copy-cat producers who made cheap knock offs with only gray or tan fabrics and did not offer all of the worker friendly additions that Herman Miller had designed. These companies and not Herman Miller or my grandfather began the process of shipping out three walls and desk. They didn’t care about the original design, all they cared about was money. Large corporations fed off of this and created the “cubicle”, not Robert Propst. Robert Propst created the Action Office system with easily interlocking and movable walls, comfort with form and function for workers who had none. And take it from me (someone who has worked in offices with and without cubicles) I much prefer the privacy of a cubicle when I remember back to the lovely days of working in a office without them and had to watch a co-worker slobber away while downing their fast food everyday.
Well, I am not sure how you see this as an attack on him personally. As far as I can tell, his intention was to create something better than the office layout of the time, the bullpen. Obviously, I never met the man, and I am well aware of the fact that the accountants make the decisions at the end of the day.
The simple fact is that cubicles are a way of jamming as many people as possible into as small a space as possible. Whichever way you look at it, this can never be a comfortable environment for anyone other than the people who make the real money.
I have written else where that I think Mr. Probst was upset about the way his idea for the action office was developed:
http://www.jobschmob.com/showBlogEntry.cgi?id=10030&type=EB
I certainlty mean no offense to either him or his family, and you would care to drop me a line with some first hand knowledge of his true feelings on the matter and his original intentions, I will be more than happy to publish them.
I also have a little fun with this stuff too
So happy I found this….I am searching for pictures of a ‘cubicle scape’ 1970′s-early 1980′s for possible inclusion in the redo of our exhibit. It would be in the section of how the world of work was changing – women entering the workforce in larger numbers and the introduction of the cubicle.
I need an image that we can blow up to life size- or 3/4 size to put behind a recreation of a 70′s cubicle.
Does anyone have access to such an image that we could use???
Thank you
Kate