The One Where...We Are Alone Together

After leaving work one afternoon, I passed another office building in the same complex and could not help but immediately stop the car to take a picture of what I saw through the tall storefront windows. It looked so lonely, almost eerie through that glass. There they were, two people, just feet apart from each other, separated by a floor and some walls, staring into the abyss of their computer screens. They were working together in the same building, yet they looked so very alone. The reality is that this view has become a standard of the typical office environment - a productivity space made up of walls, doors and borders. The glimpse through that window provided a different perspective of this common work space that so many of us are in together every day, yet over time can make us feel all alone both physically and mentally.

The more I thought about it, a particular episode of Friends came to mind. It was the episode in which Phoebe gets a job as a telemarketer to sell toner and the first number she dials turns out to be someone who hates his lonely life at work and wants to die. After having no luck talking the man out of it over the phone, she rushes over to the company where this lonely man, Earl, works hoping to convince him in person to not kill himself. When she gets to him, after much persuasion, she is able to talk to him and bring some perspective to his life outside of those cubicle walls in which no one even knows his name. Now while in true Hollywood style, this is perhaps a more exaggerated display of a bad office environment, but to a person in Earl's shoes, that experience may not feel too far off.

A work environment can be a complicated space to design. There is so much to consider and each design can be a choice based on the priorities of the company. Of the many office design possibilities, there are many benefits to a cubicle style office arrangement, such as improving productivity, helping to keep the mind focused and providing less distractions. With the priority of work efficiency, the cubicle has been considered a viable solution. Without taking into consideration the mental state of a person using that space, however, this environment could over time provide very different results. The idea of using a designed space to promote productivity shouldn't outweigh the need for a sense of connection and belonging in a work environment. While designing a space in this way can provide much needed focus, lonely design can lead to lonely people. The spaces we work in have potential to connect us or distance us. After all, these spaces are first and foremost for the people who use them. For people who work in an office environment, that space may be where they spend the majority of their day. The people we work with and the places we work at can have such a huge impact on our mental stability without us even knowing it. Someone could actually be contemplating taking their own life just three feet away from us and we may never know because of the impenetrable two-inch plastic wall between us keeping us focused and productive in our own little worlds.

Passing by those office windows after a long day at work caused me to evaluate my own work environment and how I was connecting to not only my work, but the people around me. Life matters and how we design the spaces we are in every day should reassure that.