Work
What Happened to Office Cubicles?
Office cubicles were once seen as the future of work, giving employees privacy without separating them completely from their colleagues. Today, they've almost disappeared from many workplaces. So what changed, and are open offices actually making work better?
Walk into an office in Yaba, Victoria Island, Lekki, Ikeja or Wuse 2, and chances are you'll be sharing a long desk with everyone else.
Someone is on a Zoom call. Another person is pitching to a client. Someone else is asking, "Who carried my charger?" For many young professionals, that's simply what an office looks like.
But years ago, offices were filled with cubicles. They gave employees their own workspace, a little privacy, and fewer distractions while keeping everyone on the same floor. The goal wasn't to isolate people. It was to help them focus.
As startups and modern workplaces grew, open offices became the trend. They're cheaper to maintain, easier to redesign, and make collaboration feel more natural. Today, they're everywhere, from fintechs and banks to coworking spaces across Nigeria.
The downside? Privacy almost disappeared too. Conversations travel across the room, meetings interrupt everyone's focus, and many employees now rely on headphones just to get through the day.
Maybe the question isn't whether cubicles should come back.
Maybe it's whether today's offices have gone too far in removing the quiet spaces people actually need to do their best work.
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