The Mouse Maze for the Rat Race

There are many things in our lives that we just seem to take for granted. It has been brought to my attention this morning that I have always just accepted the existance of cubicles and believed that they must have just always been since the beginning of the business office universe. The fact that the cubicle had to be invented by someone at some point in history had never crossed my mind. But that has all changed now that I have learned of the existence of a creator. Yes, there was intelligent design behind the cubicle, it did not just evolve by itself along with the myriad of desks and file drawers contained within. That creator was a mere human being who went by the unassuming name of Robert Propst.

NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity."

Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence.

Next time you enter an office building and you feel like a mouse entering a maze with no cheese at the end (unless your coworker is nice enough to offer you some), you will now know who to blame for it.