When I was at Shell we were in the Houston medical center (near it, really) so Shell built a hospital and jammed their people into it in case they ever needed t

When I was at Shell we were in the Houston medical center (near it, really) so Shell built a hospital and jammed their people into it in case they ever needed to sell the building. The company didn't bother buying real desks: we used full sized party tables and two people sat in a space designed to be a private hospital room. It was so tight I had to get up and leave to let my office mate in or out. I'd still rather sit there over a dog bone or trader desk setup you find today. As one of the old farts who started when even the lowliest peon had an office the fact CEOs are discovering forcing people to do their work in a large, loud, noisy space doesn't work isn't terribly surprising. Nor does the fact that 30+ years later almost everyone above a certain level still gets an office even in the cube farm environments. At Shell you could instantly tell the rank of a person by the size of their office. Fast forward to today and you must be an ED to rank an office where I work now. It's a status symbol.