Office Vibez: A history 1966-2016

Offices. I feel like this is going to be more negative than I truly mean it to be but ~whateva~

My brief liberation from the public school system in late May led me to be enslaved by corporate America. To be fair, I did turn myself in. They issued me a identifying employee number, my cell is a small cube with no glimpses of natural sunlight. I'm doing my time in 8 hr incriminates until I reach 40 hrs to be released on Friday and then turn myself in the following Monday. All for the one meal a week: my paycheck. It. Is. Delicious.

Office vibes are pretty strange. Almost completly void of vibes. Blank space? more like office space (pls don't sue me TSwift). I think it's all the florescent lights (and lack of vitamin D) that flood the building with false feelings and faked politeness. Everyone is DOING GREAT and SO NICE TO MEET YOU. WOW can't believe it's only WEDNESDAY! HAhaHAhaHA

When feeling slightly awkward in a conversation, bring up the proximity of the current day of the week to Friday. I just had great success with this today with Debra from Payroll. They don't even notice the nervous laughter. Then again this is the demographic of people that casually uses ellipses in their everyday texting...

Offices hold some strange magic where there is a non-hostile work environment from 8 to 5.While I appreciate it for the sake of getting shit done, I'm very glad the rest of the world not washed out by florescent light does NOT act like this. I'm not a fan of  ungenuine emotion

While sitting, I began to wonder how office vibes may have changed through time. Was it always a vacuum or did it slowly get the life sucked out of it? Even worse, is this the best that the office life has ever been? Would that be DEPRESSING or what?

Let's go back fifty years, to 1966. Gas costs 36 cents. The Beach Boys, Beatles, and Rolling Stones are the big names in the biz. America is in the middle of a massive civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Women are fighting for equal pay and for less sexual harassment, in the workplace specifically (baby steps right?).

The workplace is expanding and it's all the hype for suburbia to have office jobs. Honey, it's what the Johnson's from down the street are doing! More people than ever are placed inside. All on an open floor plan. The ever dreaded cubical is no where in sight. Technology has yet to share the space with people.

I've added some pics to help you visualize. While the pictures are pretty cool, imagine the practicality of the actual situation for sake of a better argument.

 While cubicles are awful and very much dreaded, I appreciate them when thinking of this alternative. A bustling office can get loud even with the noise canceling walls. I can't imagine 50+ people on top of each other with no privacy, all trying to get work done. Where would people gossip? The break room?! please. How would you hide the birthday cake that you don't plan on sharing with the entire department?  (True story. It is rude. Looking at you Christy with a C)

No privacy. No rights. How vibin can a place be in black and white anyway? 

1996 shows slightly more promise with a faded pop of color 

The welcome of monochrome computers brings on the panic of the Y2K threat. (oh just google it already)

Things still look pretty damn bland though. I do like the plants in the corner, they bring a little diversity to the workplace 

Some where between 1990 and the early 2000's we see the introduction of segregation in the workplace: CUBICLES. more privacy, sign me up. Not much has changed in the office scene other than cubes, as we say in the office, and no more monochrome displays. A few new color options with the carpet and the employees. And that's about that.

Look at the color of my cube wall, I didn't think you could produce a color that so precisely matches my mood from the hours of 8am to 5pm. Dingy yellow/beige with a shadow of sadness. - side: look at this computer monitor, what is this 2007?
--also that's a draft of this current entry. how ~meta~

Of course there are exceptions with all of this. There are always exceptions. This isn't the office of say Google, which is basically the equivalent of corporate Disney World.

See for yourselves-

But as average American offices go, not much has changed. I think it will always be a vacuum of good vibes, unless you're Google, duh. Lets put a pin in this and revisit in another 50 to see where innovation leads us. Hopefully it'll be a holographic cube that I just float in for 8 hours, or maybe they'll really change it up and go to spheres. Who knows. Surprise me corporate America



Catch yah later haterz