Talk to the Hand

I think someone should invent a personal privacy bubble for those of us who have to work in open space offices. Whoever who came up with that concept should be hung upside down and water slowly dripped into their nose. An advantage of the open office plan is that it fosters communication. Too much communication, in my opinion. Not good for work at all! Imagine your boss rolling up to you in his chair and asking you to do something urgently and the ten seconds later asking whether you have done something else, followed by another request to do something else ten minutes later.

It all just gets too much.

Now, if there was such a thing as a personal bubble contraption, right after the first request I will be inflating this bubble till it completely encapsulates me within the bubble, putting a sound proof barrier and also maybe an electric fence which will zap anyone who dares knock on the bubble until the first task is finished. Then, the bubble is deflated around me and I will then be ready for the subsequent tasks.

If someone is wasting your time by asking the most mundane questions to which the answers are readily available if they would only take the time to check, there goes the bubble again.

If the team is telling a dirty joke you would rather not hear, the bubble goes up again.

I like the idea. Especially the electric fence.