「釋義」

動感辦公室是由Robert Propst設計，由Herman Miller制造和銷售的一系列家具。1964年作為Action Office I產(chǎn)品系列首次推出，然后由Action Office II系列取代，它是“合同家具”（辦公家具）歷史上有影響力的設計。?Action Office II系列引入了靈活的半封閉式工作區(qū)的概念，現(xiàn)在稱為格子間。所有隔間辦公室的設計都可以追溯到動感辦公室產(chǎn)品線。

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「應用場景」

1964年，赫曼米勒家具公司引入“動感辦公室”，即辦公桌、臺面和隔板的靈活組合。這種辦公室顏色鮮艷又簡潔大方，旨在提升員工的行動自由，加強私密性，令員工獲得解放。然而，20世紀60年代后期至70年代，對辦公空間的需求迅速增長，公司需要更便宜、更靈活、占空間更小的辦公用具。于是赫曼米勒重新設計動感辦公室，使之變得更小、更輕，其他家具公司紛紛效仿。尼基爾·薩瓦爾在《切割：辦公空間秘史》一書中寫道，格子間由此誕生。

In 1964 the Herman Miller furniture company introduced the?Action Office, a flexible combination of desks, tables, and walls. It was colorful and elegant, intended to liberate workers by enhancing their freedom of movement and privacy. But the need for office space was growing quickly in the late 1960s and 1970s. Companies demanded furniture that was cheaper, more adaptable, and required less space. Herman Miller redesigned the Action Office to be smaller and lighter, and other furniture companies introduced copycat versions. The cubicle, writes Nikil Saval, the author of?Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, was born.

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從事過去與當代組織研究的耶茨表示，第二代動感辦公室旨在進一步加強私密性。格子間成為了價值數(shù)十億美元的行業(yè)，許多企業(yè)采用這種模式，讓小辦公室可以容納更多員工。最先提出動感辦公室構想的羅伯特·普羅普斯特晚年時一直為自己的發(fā)明道歉。去世前兩年的1998年，他說：“不是所有組織都開明進步。很多組織運營者愚蠢而粗魯，把員工塞進狹窄的格子，這種環(huán)境不會有什么好處。”

The?Action Office II?aimed to give employees more privacy, according to Yates, who conducts historical and contemporary organizational research. Cubicles eventually became a billion-dollar industry; many companies used them as a way to fit more people into small offices. Robert Propst, the inventor of the Action Office, spent his final years apologizing for his creation. “Not all organizations are intelligent and progressive,”?he said in 1998, two years before he died.?“Lots are run by crass people. They make little, bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren, rathole places.”

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以上文字選自《哈佛商業(yè)評論》中文版2020年2月刊《現(xiàn)代辦公室簡史》

凱爾西·格里彭斯特拉（Kelsey Gripenstraw） 安妮·諾伊斯·薩伊尼（Anne Noyes Saini）丨文

馬冰侖?丨編輯?