Forty years ago this month Herman Miller began marketing the Action Office. You know it better as the cubicle. Yes, those wonderful veal-fattening pens have been around for 40 years.

Designed by the late Robert Propst, the Action Office wasn't supposed to end up like this. Workers were supposed to have more space and more privacy. Propst designed it to have two different desks, “one for sitting and one for standing,” according to Joe Schwartz, who was a marketing director for Herman Miller at the time.

Schwartz recently spoke with the Kansas City Star, and explained that the original Action Office is nothing like the cubicles of today.

“The basic idea of movable walls was a beautiful thing for employers and employees,” reports the paper. “For management, reconfiguring space could be accomplished without costly and messy drywall work. Employees gained storage, some privacy, even shelves.”

“This was a wonderful concept,” according to Schwartz. He also said that, “Propst had the idea that sitting wasn't good for you and that people could both sit and stand at work and that would improve their health.”

Unfortunately, the cubicle evolved in a very small, drab and surprisingly inflexible piece of furniture. From the article:

The Action Office met with some resistance. Managers wondered if privacy was such a good idea. Cost, as always, was an issue. Desks on two levels?

But the biggest alteration was that the cubicles shrunk in response to demands on office space, Schwartz said.

Still, said Leonard Kruk, co-author of Complete Office Handbook, the cubicle was a great improvement over what came before: row after row of free-standing desks or vast bullpens.

Privacy and individual expression hadn't been on the agenda. A simple desk meant, maybe, one plant and a photograph.

If the set-up today's workers prefer is for everyone to have an office, he said, that's not going to happen.

“You have to house people efficiently and at the same time give them the ability to collaborate with one another,” Kruk said.

When you're part of a team, being able to hear one another — even on the phone — can be helpful.

But that's also the chief problem with the “collaborative environment” of cubicles. Sometimes employees need to be free of distractions, to have time to concentrate.

Chances are good that the cubicle will survive for many more decades, according to Schwartz.

“The death of the cubicle has been forecasted for the past 40 years, but apparently it provides benefits rather than causes problems,” Schwartz said.

If you're interested in reading more about Propst's views on the cubicle, I suggest you read this interview with him. You can also watch some cubicle-filled film clips here.