Exact parallel

Business Insider says that tired and disgusted workers are demanding cubicles, after two decades of QE and ZIRP and the idiotic WeWork “open offices”.

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Little did anyone realize that within a few years, the cubicle walls would come crashing down. The tech boom arrived, bringing with it open office plans and a Silicon Valley-led gloss of egalitarianism, epitomized by Google’s high-profile headquarters redesign in 2005. Workers became “teams,” bosses became “leaders,” and labor became “collaboration.” The business-casual office uniform gave way to hoodies and jeans, and yuppies were rebranded as members of an exciting “creative class.” By the late 2000s, many offices had ditched cubicles altogether in favor of a sea of unobstructed desks.

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This perfectly parallels the identical situation in 1950, when workers tired from years of war and depression demanded more privacy.

Before 1950 big offices were a sea of unobstructed desks, like this Sears order department in 1913.

Needless to say, Industry on Parade gives us the parallel. In 1951, Arnot in Jamestown invented the modular “cubicle that can be rearranged to fit any office layout”.

Building the Partitionette:

The Partitionette “brings privacy and quiet into the life of an office worker.”

Quiet Quitting leads to Quiet Offices, in 1951 and in 2024.