Cubicles

What is it that gives humans value? When someone becomes more valuable to a particular company or firm how are they treated differently? You might think it's probably through a raise, more money maybe even a title like a partner or a vice president. Yet what is it that separates them from those around them? All of these things are not visible, they cannot be seen right Infront of you.

In a modern-day office, we would see a lot of square dividers and small working places. Everyone gets their little cubicle. A place where they are meant to work surrounded entirely by walls locked into a small space with nothing but their own computer and papers. Lots and lots of papers. Almost 10-11 hours of the day are spent looking at a screen, barely moving off of the chair. In turn, to reach some goal that wouldn’t really make much of a difference to the way we live our lives if achieved. Yet we do it.

Why? Because we want a bigger cubicle, we want one at the corner. One with a window near it. One that isn’t surrounded by others. One that secludes us from our already secluded lives at the workplace. Then like robots, we eat ad take a break at the same time fearing that eating alone would be cause for attention. Life in the cubicle isn’t what it was dreamt of at all. Life in the cubicle is common yet so unique. Like a monkey put in a cage, a monkey still has the freedom to do what it pleases. Maybe that is what it’s like for people that like their jobs. They are still trapped in it but that isn’t so bad when you want to be there, right?

Would you walk the extra mile longer and work a little bit harder if it gave you better chances at a larger cubicle? Or is it the money we desire? That’s an easy answer, the money is easily more valuable. Yet would any billionaire be working in a common cubicle with the rest of their employees? Maybe it would make them look humble and down to earth but the workers would have absolutely no respect for them. There is no separation, there is no reason for the worker to then believe that their work and time are less valuable than the others. If it isn’t then why must the worker command them? If there is no one in command, there is no one to point out where one goes wrong. Hence, the demise of the entire corporation.

Maybe there is something more to the cubicle than just a station of work. Maybe it’s meant to keep us trapped in our cycle of work. Get comfortable in our routine of monotony. Waking up in the morning, eating a similar meal, showering in the same small bathroom, and heading to work in the same car as everyone else. To go work in the same cubicle like everyone else. Despite these similarities, none of us is even slightly similar to each other. Yet we all end up working in the same cage as each other.

It's fascinating to see because sometimes the walls between the cubicles don’t seem so tall. The boundaries between our offices don’t seem so big. And a little time in the office doesn’t seem so painful. Because the value isn’t in ourselves but in the work we produce together.