Since the original article was posted, it occurred to me that an issue that is rarely raised is that most office spaces are far too small to make any imaginativ

Since the original article was posted, it occurred to me that an issue that is rarely raised is that most office spaces are far too small to make any imaginative decisions when it comes to workspaces. The best office environments I worked in was in a different industry, where I worked part of the time in a laboratory because we were dealing with hazardous chemicals and specialist machinery. However, even as a junior employee I also had an office, only because the building itself was relatively under-occupied. Stints in the lab varied, sometimes I was in their part of the day and at other times we were in their for several weeks pretty much full-time. In my experience in the tech industry I've worked occasionally in full time lab conditions too for a stretch of a few weeks. Generally I've found these periods enjoyable as well, but after a long stint in "the lab" I've been glad to go back to a more isolated environment. Given this experience I find weaknesses in all the arguments about whether dedicated offices or cubes or open-planned work environment are the best. Personal offices are obviously the least worse, cubes are a ghastly compromise in my opinion, and open plan has obvious problems. If we're talking about ideal working environments, it would be one that allows focussed rather than forced collaboration. Labs allow for this but are rarely thought about because of the phyical constraints of most office spaces. *Oh, and it requires imagination and effort from management too.