From open plan offices, to enforced corporate “fun” our anonymous blogger bemoans the creativity dulling blandness of the modern engineering workplace
There seems to be a continuing trend within companies I work for to quash all aspects of individuality in the pursuit of some kind of insidious anaemic uniformity. This has taken various guises over the years but continues to spread in both scope and ubiquity.

I remember that when I started in engineering our D.O. effectively consisted of “cells” of 4 boards each: 2 boards facing each other, a walkway then another two boards similarly arranged, desks with layout tables and bookcases forming the perimeter. Each of these “cells” was adjoined by another all the way down the office. There were partitions to which reference information or personal pictures could be pinned and if not a clean desk policy at least encouragement was given to keep surfaces fairly clear although, again, personal items often found a home here. Everyone dressed smartly if informally when compared to those you may find inhabiting similar surroundings in black and white documentaries. Ties were rare but sober shirts, blouses, skirts or trousers were the norm. There was an air of undoubted professionalism but also fun and creativity – the latter I think with hindsight in no small way because we had certain latitudes. We enjoyed the minor freedoms that being respected professionals earned.
I remember too the nascent cries of “PC culture” when the edict came around that all girly calendars were to be removed. I didn’t mind that as a policy, apart from personal mores the ever present call for greater numbers of women in engineering never seemed to sit happily with intrinsically intimidating and exclusionary lad culture.
Time passed and as I moved from job to job I saw a trend in the evolution of companies and, within those, departmental culture. As the wall came down in Berlin, walls came down in office blocks across Britain to allow the grouping of departments into the industrial battery hen shed that is “the open plan office.” I didn’t particularly notice any increased fraternisation between departments, the entirely laudable aim usually trotted out for such moves, when compared to a well planned set of discrete offices however I did notice a lot more annoying background noise as I was trying to work. Others are more reliant on shouting into phones than us and have a correspondingly lesser need for occasional aural-centric isolationism.
Where I once felt personally invested in the company by having my own little part of it I now feel like an interchangeable drone
Each step away from defined departments was accompanied by a step towards personal homogeneity. The clean carpets, freshly painted walls and matching desks were welcome; the strictly enforced clean desk policies and prohibition on personal pictures less so. There now seems to be a general move onto the next stage of assimilation as I’m hearing of companies where the corporate uniform is mandatory throughout and all screen “wallpapers” are locked into displaying the approved company logo. Finally every department blends indistinguishably into the next and, as the drawing board has only resided in museums for some years, nothing remains to separate us from accountant, storeman, sales rep or the person organising the cleaning rota. Nothing wrong with those activities but the pride in our department and in our position within the company, whether delusional or not, seems to have bled away.
Other changes in the workplace over the past 40 years or so may have made a more immediate and quantifiable impact but I wonder what this is all for, and whether it really is the right way to go? Whatever the reality may have been, where I once felt personally invested in the company by having my own little part of it I now feel like an interchangeable drone. Without the friendly rivalry with other, clearly separate, departments the team ethos has become noticeably diluted. I see it as no coincidence that a rise in team building courses and faux fun in the workplace has gone hand in hand with this promulgation of all encompassing blandness. I used to find pride and excitement intrinsically woven into my work environment and culture, now these feelings are only evoked in a minor way through artifice.
Hear, hear – I have a sneaking suspicion that you may work for BAE Systems . . .
Pride comes from production of useful working devices. not from mindless Labour.
I think most of us of a certain age will agree with most of the sentiments. However, the younger generation will know no different and we will never know if they would have been more creative in compartments vs. open plan offices. I have so far avoided the corporate screen saver but fear it’s not far away…
Spot on. Uniformity creates dullness creates accountants creates a lowering of standards creates a removal of elitism creates levelling down creates safe-spaces creates snowflakes creates nothing at all.
We did not need team-building courses when I started out, because in small cells and offices people talked to each other when they needed help or just out of courtesy. The diversity of thought and opinion made the work more productive.
Spot on! The Beige generation create a Beiger Version of itself.
It’s going that way in education too. Students find it very risky to approach problems in a new, unconventional or innovative manner. They must ‘hit the criteria’ and are still expected to work as individuals. They usually are not allowed to suggest new ways of doing things, they are often banned from using on-line tools and software and there is not enough time to give them a broader appreciation of the wider aspects of their learning for engineering. It all leads to a ‘tick box’ mentality which students (and lecturers) usually find totally uninspiring and counter-productive.
Yup, it’s not rocket science… Excise individuality from the design process and you get what anyone else can do. The faintest whiff of a straight-jacket, will foster an ambiance of conformity, not creativity.
Thankfully the “powers that be” haven’t caught up with me yet…. currently my “wallpaper” is the azure sky, clear water and golden sand of tropical beach, complete with coconut tree…. woo hoo.