Greetings from The Office Microwave!

This is the office furniture issue.

Heat up some leftovers, sit back, and enjoy.

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As the Office Microwave, I keep an ear to the streets and hear the best conversation topics for your work friends, for your boss, for your latest client, and everyone in between

TLDR: The furniture company Herman Miller believed that designers know best and products should not be created based on market research.

Herman Miller is a furniture company known for producing some of the most iconic mid-century modern designer pieces, like the Eames Lounge Chair, the Marshmallow sofa, and office furniture—which you’ve likely seen in Mad Men.

The company came into its own when architect George Nelson came on as director of design in 1945. He hired other architects and gave them free rein to design as they saw fit. He ran the company with a set of principles that were outlined in the forward to the 1948 Herman Miller catalog. These ideas might have some application at your organization.

They are:

What you make is important.

Design is an integral part of the business.

The product must be honest.

You decide what you will make.

There is a market for good design.

Under Nelson, the company didn’t conduct “market research,” but instead trusted that the best product, made from the best materials, would sell until designers created something better. And only when a better product came along should the current product be replaced.

TLDR: The cubicle was invented by the president of Herman Miller in 1968.

In 1968, Herman Miller’s then-president Robert Propst set out to solve design problems of the office.

In his book The Office: A Facility Based on Change, Propst wrote, “We find ourselves now with office forms created for a way of life substantially dead and gone.” At the time, only executives had a private, quiet space to focus.

His solution was the Action Office system, now known as the cubicle.

The original intention was not to cram as many employees in an office as possible. Instead, the Action Office system was meant to be dynamic and easy to rebuild as a company evolves.

Propst was not happy with what the cubicle became. “Not all organizations are intelligent and progressive,” he said. “Lots are run by crass people. They make little, bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren, rathole places.”

Perhaps its time to stop the cubicle hate and instead hate specific (mis)uses of the cubicle format.

TLDR: Herman Miller had another huge impact on the office with the introduction of the Aeron chair.

Fast forward to 1994, when the Aeron chair, a marvel of industrial design, was born.

The chair (which you most certainly recognize) became an icon of the dot-com bubble era.

It’s likely the best-selling office chair in history with at least 8 million purchased.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

• There’s a potato Airbnb in Idaho.

• Here is a great account showcasing the storefronts of NYC.

• Dallas Texas TV should be the blueprint for all locally-focused media companies.

• Here’s an online database of lava lamp models.

FOR YOUR WAY OUT: 5 MEMES

That’s it for this week’s Work Talk. These topics are meant to be shared with your co-workers, so if you liked it, forward this email to you best friend or colleague and have them subscribe here.

And if you made it this far, reply back to this email with a meme I should put in the next send.

Until next week…

— the Office Microwave  

Written by me, the Office Microwave.

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