Thanks to a box office flop turned cult favorite, if someone says to you, “I want to go all Office Space on this printer right now,” you know what it means: beating a printer to death with a baseball bat as an outlet for the frustrations of corporate culture. So it’s not surprising that there are now sanctioned events popping up in the mainstream that let people bash office equipment into oblivion. [More]
offices
Everyone Likes Free Office Food Because We’re All Basically Cave People
By 7.20.15
All it takes is a single email with the words “free food” in it and an entire office can be brought to its feet, sending workers scurrying toward the communal area and a chance at a handout. From cupcakes to pizza, the thought of getting something for nothing is a tempting one — even if you don’t know whose birthday it is or why there are free subs in the conference room. This, because we’re all just trying to survive, just like we did when we lived in caves. [More]
From Steno Pools To Cubicles And Back Again: How Offices Put Up Walls, Only To Pull’em Down
By 6.30.14
While it might be hard to believe now, especially if you’re currently staring at the fabric-covered walls of a corporate enclosure — cubicles were first intended as a form of salvation in the workplace. Having three walls to call your own seemed like paradise compared to steno pools filled with clacking typewriters and workers crowded together. [More]
The Reason You Hate Your Open-Plan Office Is Because It Sucks
By 1.9.14
Do you work in an office with an open floor plan? Do you hate your office-without-walls? If you do: you’re not alone. Research finds that roughly 70% of offices have an open plan, and that those workspaces are bad for you in pretty much every way. [More]
Citibank To Spend $10 Million On New Offices For Executives?
By 3.19.09
Bloomberg is reporting that Citibank is planning to spend at least $3.2 million for basic construction, and as much as three times that much after architects fees and other expenses are paid, to renovate the executive offices at the bank’s Park Avenue headquarters.
Office Printers Spew As Many Particles As Smoldering Cigarettes
By 8.3.07
Everyone hates the office printer, including scientists who blame the printers for emitting dangerous amounts of ultra-fine particles. Scientists from Queensland University examined printers from Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Ricoh and Toshiba. Their findings don’t condemn any one brand: the HP LaserJet 4050 emitted no particles, while the the HP LaserJet 1320 and 4250 raised the particle count of the surrounding air tenfold. From the LA Times:
Morawska did not originally set out to study printers. She was invited by the Queensland Department of Public Works to measure air quality inside a six-floor office building near a busy road.
