If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the office cubicle was originally designed to liberate workers, not trap them in a 'beige box'?
- Have you ever wondered how the layout of your workspace was shaped by a century of radical management theories and architectural experiments?
- Are you curious about the secret history of the office and why this relatively recent invention has such a profound impact on our modern culture?
Listen to Cubed — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Cubed
- Discover how mid-nineteenth-century industrialization birthed the role of the clerk and created a permanent physical divide between non-manual office staff and manual workers.
- Explore how rapid technological advancements like the telegraph and railroads expanded businesses, forcing early administrative workers into massive, factory-like rows of desks.
- Learn how engineer Frederick Taylor tamed chaotic early office spaces by introducing 'Taylorism,' a scientific management system that revolutionized administrative efficiency.
- Understand why early skyscrapers were packed with amenities like barbershops and libraries to socially elevate office workers and distance them from working-class labor movements.
- Find out how the architectural destruction of World War II gave rise to the 'Bürolandschaft,' a radically new and human-centric organic office landscape originating in post-war Germany.
Cubed — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Industrialization spurred the rise of clerks and a distinct workplace, apart from manual laborers entirely.
Chapter 3: As business progressed, office spaces expanded, ushering in the science of work efficiency and management.
Chapter 4: Skyscrapers emerged to stack offices vertically atop one another and provided workers with amenities to feel valued.
Chapter 5: In postwar years, a new office design emerged: the organic, human-centered office landscape.
Chapter 6: The office landscape’s noise led to open offices packed with cubicles.
Cubed Summary & Overview
In Cubed (2014), you’ll discover that what you know as your office cubicle – that beige box so many workers worldwide toil in each day – is a fairly recent invention, despite its long history of development. These blinks will explain how the modern office came to be through a detailed account of the evolution of the workplace.
Who Should Listen to Cubed?
- Historians or sociologists interested in the evolution of the office-worker
- Employees and employers interested in management and workplace science
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