Office Warfare

This is a joke, right? That was my reaction to the instant-classic viral video of an office drone going utterly beserk—heaving his PC across the room, toppling panels, menacing coworkers with what looks like an axe—all caught on a security camera. But that’s not the part that shocked me. (Perhaps a steady diet of Falling Down, The Office, and Dilbert has inured me to the troubled depths of the white-collar workplace.)

Just look at that office! No natural light. Four people in a cubicle meant for one. Boxy, ancient-looking computers. And those chairs certainly don’t look like they have any lumbar support. What this guy needs is not a psychiatrist, it’s Niels Diffrient. As NeoCon rapidly approaches, it would be instructive for office-furniture manufacturers and office managers alike to review this video carefully, and to heed its warning: Look at what you’re doing to us, with your hard-backed chairs and moldering panel systems! Give me operable windows, or give me death.