So we have 8 cubes of your standard office variety - too small, hi walls, drab grey color, etc.
How does everyone decorate them? I would like to bring in colors and other ideas so when the techs walk in every day they dont walk into their same grey cubes.
I know they could bring a picture and hang and stuff like that, but I thought I could show my support by doing some othe rdecorating to at least make some attempt at making it a more eye-pleasing place to be.

Thnx in advance.

Plants, not the type that flower, but rather Ferns, Ivy or Bonsai Trees.  A little green can add a lot of life to the grey drab cube.

Paul
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Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
                           - Daffy Duck

Also don't go for the cute motivational pictures.  I much prefer Despair.Com

Paul
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Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
                           - Daffy Duck

Check out www.thinkgeek.com for ideas.

Plants have done wonders for the appearance of my team's cubes...  When I started here in 2004 none of the 8 in my team had plants.  I brought in an ivy.  It died.  I brought in another and then the guy next to me brought in something.  Mine died again.  Then the guy across from me brought in 2 or 3 and they started to really take off... I moved out of the area, but the plants have continued to grow and now cover the cube walls on paperclip hooks.

Now I have none and my employees have personalized there areas very nicely.

Another thing I've used for decoration are magnet boards... Letters, Words, Shapes... Makes for some fun.

~Thadeus

You guys are so lucky!

This company has a "Clear Desk" policy, backed up with "5S"
which all means:

1. No living plants, because that creates dirt and requires time spent caring for them.
2. No fake plants, because they attract dust
3. No pictures of home, family, Hunks 'n' Babes or non job-specific material
4. No pencil pots, "Best Employee" trophies or other paraphernalia.

And many more restrictions.  The photo on the company website shows a desk and chair, a PC monitor, keyboard and mouse, and a phone. An employee name card adorns the otherwise bare walls of the cube.

Nothing else. Nada. Nichts. Nowt. Zip.  What about a calendar? Nope; there's one in Outlook - use that.

What about my handy reference books on Excel/Word/Maths etc? Keep 'em in that communal bookcase over there - you can have 12 shelf inches.

At least my cube backs onto a window

Chris

I visited the offices of the RSPCA today. It's so tiny you couldn't swing a cat in there.
- Tommy Cooper

Some of us have plants (but not I). I have a picture of my wife and I, a couple of FCC licenses (General Radiotelephone and amateur), a Chinese cat drawing, ad a smattering of Far Side, Dilbert, and Bizarro cartoons. My cube has steel flippers and I use magnets to hold notes and other quick reference material thereupon.

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

Our small department typically does some decorating during the winter holidays.  There's a box we store that has all the decorations (including lights!).  

Perhaps choose a couple holidays, and create a box for each with decorations appropriate for the specific holiday (or time of year, ie: Spring).

MeGustaXL - I can't claim to be an expert, but justifying that policy with 5S sounds like somebody needs to lighten up, they're probably lowering productivity by doing so, which is the exact opposite effect 5S strives for!

Hope that helps!

MeGustaXL - Blimey O'Reilly! I couldn't deal with that at all.
(Thoughts are with you bro)

Fee

The question should be Is it worth trying to do? not Can it be done?

Fee, thanks for your thoughts!

It's a drag, I must admit.  As I've mentioned elsewhere in TT, I used to be in the RAF, so I've accumulated all sorts of memorabilia, such as model aircraft presented to me for outstanding something-or-other, and a photo of me shaking hands with Her Majesty. Outlawed, all.

On a professional front, I have several Quick Ref and LookUp tables and charts -  all have to go in the drawer, not pinned to the Cube wall.

On the plus side, the pay's at the bottom of the trade average, there are no promotion prospects, and I have a 1-hour drive each way, with no fuel or travel allowance!

Life Sure Is Goooood!

Chris

I visited the offices of the RSPCA today. It's so tiny you couldn't swing a cat in there.
- Tommy Cooper

Um...and why are you still there?       

Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies
www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

That's a good question, ECAR, and one which I hope to resolve in the next week or so.  

Chris

I went to buy a goldfish. The girl in the pet shop said "Do you want an aquarium?" I said "I don't care what sign it is"

Woo-Hoo!  Good for you!  

Maybe your next venture will be a little less constricting.

Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies
www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

We've decorated a lot of our cubes with fractal art. Of course that might be because the artist (me) works here!

Silk flowers are also bright and cheery.

Or they gave us magnetic frames whihc attach to the bookshelves and people can put their own photos etc in them.

Questions about posting. See FAQ183-874

I've just been carpeted for decorating my cube without authorisation!

Just kidding it was me going green with envy at SQLSister's silk flowers and photos - see me previous post about those items!

I wanna work with you, Sis - can I have a fractal thingy too?

Chris

There's an interesting article on the Mclaren factory in last month's Car magazine. Sounds like the type of place you work at MeGustaXL (only they're not even allowed waste bins...). It's one thing having a professional looking office but I guess some people go too far ;)

I once had a job where there were three of us at the same level who managed manpower studies all over the world. I was responsible for 33 of them - they were all on budget and on schedule and all but 1 of them ultimately was able to pass our QA process with only minor problems (And the other would have passed if they had let me go to Hawaii to train the team out there, but that was considered a "boondoggle"). The second guy had around 28 studies ongoing, all on budget and on schedule and most of those were finished with no major problems in the QA process. The third guy had three studies, all missed the schedule and all went over budget and none of them were able to pass the QA process until six months later when the new QA staff(that would then have been me in my new job!) was able to figure out a way to fix the bad data. But the guy managing them had a clean desk and the other guy and I did not. Guess who got the Outstanding performance award (it was given out publically)?

Questions about posting. See FAQ183-874

Chris, do you work for Stalin?

Even in the USAF, we were allowed to have any decorations as long as they weren't discriminatory.  People had plants, happy-meal toy collections, fish, I-Love-Me walls, trade show spoils, etc. I had a Lego-like Jeep, awards, pictures, etc in my cube, even when I worked in a secure area.

The reality is, if you never have times where there's nothing to do, then you're not working hard enough the rest of the time.

v/r

Gooser

Quote:

Why do today
   that which may not need to be done tomorrow --me

The Universal Model

Re. Resolution of my continuing tolerance of the Blank Cube [delib.misspell] pilocy [/delib.misspell] here at "MyCo".

I acquired a whiteboard, put in the appropriate work requisition and got it fitted to my cube wall.  Now I can doodle on it, attach pictures with funky magnets and so on.

Result!

Chris

Servo vestri abbas etiam quod ego mos arcesso unguentum

Go for it MeGustaXL!!!  

Personalising your workspace is what differentiates you from the other "equipment" in situ, otherwise you might as well be a printer or a fax machine!

On a more boring note, one of the things I learned on serious management training courses (including an MBA)was that different people work in different ways - setting stupid rules just damages productivity.

Rosie
"Don't try to improve one thing by 100%, try to improve 100 things by 1%"

Rosie - can you have that conversation with my boss do you think?

Fee

The question should be Is it worth trying to do? not Can it be done?

Well, I've tacked up 5 film posters.  Everything from "Gone with the Wind" to "Platoon"  - I'm told that's a nono! - so, who's gonna make take them down?   No-one yet!!!

Fight the idiot rules!

Rosie
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." Richard Feynman

Rosie, I wish you were my Boss!

My Company seems to think that

Individuality = Variability = Poor Quality = Bad Fow Business

[RobotMonotone] Therefore-We-Are-All-Grey-Clones! [/RobotMonotone]

Resistance is futile!

Chris

Servo vestri abbas etiam quod ego mos arcesso unguentum

Nearly the same as our helpdesk motto 'Assistance Is Futile'.

I want to be good, is that not enough?

Carp, it's my work environment, I'll do what I like (so long as it doesn't offend my colleagues - and I am very careful about that).

Now, find a way to fight me on that...  (oh, I love an argument with the "higher ups" about this kind of stuff).

On a serious note - this is real motivation stuff - people work much better in a personalised environment - I can't quote chapter and verse, but life experience tells me so.  

Rosie
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." Richard Feynman

Heh Ken I'll have to remember that one.

As for decorating desks I think we should start a revolution and all make these: http://www.pontomidia.com.br/ricardo/greatweb/blue_dragon.jpg I still don't get tired of mine freaking people out :p

If you want some out there ideas try this web site

http://promotions.monster.com/cubefabulous/

It is a parody of Trading Spaces for the office.  

Thank you,

Brandon
www.Techies-r-us.com

Offices that don't even have policies mandating cubicle decorations and accessories are usually more productive.  We don't have a policy, and it's not something we've ever even needed to consider.  Everyone decorates, your cube is your home away from home (and some spend more time there than at home!).  The people I work with are smiling, laughing, and enjoying coming in to work, and I think part of it is the fact that we have policies to protect the company and its professionals, but none that will stifle them. I can't imagine working somewhere that I'm not even allowed to have a garbage can. Heck, some days I might not be able to find mine, but I know it's there.... somewhere.



Today we're celebrating Talk Like A Pirate Day, and cubicles all over the office are beginning to get into the spirit of it and I have seen the Jolly Roger flying in several places.  Yes, it's goofy, and yes, this scabbard gets stuck in the chair and my eye patch throws off my balance, but shiver me timbers, you should hear the laughter!

hmmmm  I wonder if I walk around and start talking like a pirate will the manager send me home early?  lol

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!"

Why are you waisting company time thinking of ways to decorate cube?  I'd be irritated if I was in a cude and someone decorated it.

I'd want to have room for quick reference sheets and have no gree thumb so plants would die (fake ones would collect dust and irritate those with allergies)

;)

It's not wasting time thinking of ways to decorate the cube, it's decorating your home away from home.  We're spending more and more hours at work (I believe the nat'l avg is 50 hrs/wk and rising), so we want to be comfortable in our space that is allotted to us.  Working in an environment that is so restrictive that you can't have personal items on your desk is almost demeaning to some, and here we've discussed ways to work around that and have compared what we've done to our own cubes.

Plants would die on my desk too, and fake ones would probably die as well.

And the picture of my 11 mo. old nephew is something I just won't compromise.

Quote (eyetry):

Why are you waisting company time thinking of ways to decorate cube?  I'd be irritated if I was in a cude and someone decorated it.

I am the only one who decorates my cube. Who decorates yours?

Solum potestis prohibere ignes silvarum.

I suppose if I were back in a cube it would be decorated as it was then.  By me, with papers strewn everywhere, a phone, a monitor, a cpu, a keyboard, some writing utensils, an in/out basket, a waiste basket, a chair, some manuals occasionally a beverage and a big head.  By then it would be full with no room for anything else.  



PS:  please note the ;) at the enf of my message above

I don't have a cube, we have an open plan office (with very small desks). on my first day i brought in my plant and put it on my desk. the lady who sits behind me (before even saying hello) told me i wasn't allowed a plant.

Upshot being tis still on my desk HOORAH!

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"Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. ~ Nietzsche"
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We're not allowed cuddly toys.

So my cuddly Bagpuss and Kitten and Puppy just hide when anyone important comes along...

Fee

The question should be Is it worth trying to do? not Can it be done?