I read today that this year marks the 40th birthday of the cubicle. A guy named Bob Propst created the first one in 1968. What I want to know is, who came up with the idea of the cubicle guest chair?? If you have a cubicle at work, you know what I'm talking about. This is the chair that sits empty in the corner of your cubicle most of the time except when somebody needs to come by for an impromptu meeting. I guess it's a pretty good idea, but my problem with this concept is that it is sometimes abused. I currently have a coworker who is a severe cubicle guest chair abuser (CGCA). If you have ever been the victim of a CGCA, you probably know what I'm talking about. This is the person who comes into your cubicle and, without so much as asking the obvious question ("Do you have a second?") plop down in your guest chair and start talking away. Suddenly, without warning and totally against your will, you're knee deep in an ad hoc meeting that you are actually unwittingly hosting!The part of this that makes it so unfair is that cubicles have no doors. If I had an office, I would probably at least occasionally close the door. This would be my way of saying "Not to be rude but I'm a little too busy to do anything but focus on my own work right now". But as a cubicle inhabitant, I do not have a polite way of indicating my unwillingness to meet. If I taped a "Do Not Disturb" across the opening on my cubicle (I've seen this done) I would look like a big jerk. If I was to tell somebody, who has already plopped down in my guest chair, that I want them to leave immediately, I would look like a big jerk. I do that once in awhile but if I were to do it habitually, I would look like an even bigger jerk.
What are your suggestions? What have you done to combat the CGCA?
5 comments:
I had a CGCA who stood in the doorway of my office and talked too long too often. So as not to be obvious (or too rude) I hung a clock on the wall right inside my office door about face high so I could glance at it and see exactly how much of my time was being taken. Alas, it didn't move him along any faster.
Happy Belated Birthday, Barry. May your week be free of CGCA's.
Brian - not to be combative but, by definition, your offender was not a CGCA. If you have an office which is a true office with room for things such as a clock, you can't truly feel my pain here, as much as I know you are trying to. You had an out in that situation. You could just close your door.
At my previous job I actually had a CGCA situation that was so severe that I actually made the "A" contact on my cell phone my desk phone number and I would, when the situation was unbearable (it often was), reach for my cell phone and was able to call my desk phone without ever looking at my cell phone. Then I would be like "Ooops...gotta take this call".
A couple of coworkers had my back too - sometimes they would see that I was cornered and would call me just to get me off the hook.
Thanks for the birthday wishes! I am off the rest of the week so it will indeed be free of CGCAs!
I had an offender who would "pop" in silently. They'd be sitting there looking over my shoulder as I'd be deep in concentration. When I heard a rustle of papers behind me I'd jump a mile. So one of my coworkers left for another company and left me his mirror. He had one of those little mirrors for looking at a baby in the backseat of a car that he stuck on his monitor. Whenever he'd see the offender coming he'd make a fake phone call too. It wouldn't necessarily keep them from coming, but at least you'd know ahead of time so you could be "busy."
For the decade I spent in a cubicle, our convention was that if you pushed your guest chair into the doorway, it indicated you didn't want to be disturbed. I taped a "Do Not Disturb" sign to mine. If people didn't get the hint, we sometimes piled lots of things up (tables, chairs, binders) as sort of a "ha ha only serious" reprimand.
Yeah, but what about the other cube dwellers? SFG (Stinky Food Guy), LT (Loud Talker) and his cousin SPG (Speaker Phone Guy)? And while we're at it, how about AWSOSOOCG (Argues with spouse or significant other or children guy)? And what if someone is a multiple personality bad cube mate? Usually where you find one of these, you find several traits. There's SWMIG (Singing with my Ipod Guy); NTG (Nervous Tapping Guy) . . . oh yes, they are there . . . waiting . . .
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