That sounds like the beginning of a riddle. But the answer is, “When it’s a Me Space”. That’s a fancy way of saying you get a cubicle that doesn’t share walls with any other cubes. Instead, each one is a free-standing mini-office. This British design from PearsonLloyd gives you the best of the cubicle world (privacy, sound dampening, and a feeling of being cocooned) without making you feel like you’re trapped in a maze. The gently curving walls may fool the eye into believing that this isn’t really just another box to put employees in.

Of course, the design does have some drawbacks. It would make running modern cabling/power lines impossible. You’d end up with a spaghetti mess of cords on the floor or dangling from the ceiling. The pods also aren’t very storage friendly – there’s no place to put anything. This is definitely a cubicle designed for an office where workers are expected to use a laptop. It would probably do well in a hot-desking environment where employers want to move away from the open office plan that provides zero privacy. But it’s not ready for the big-time when it comes to replacing real cubicles.

What do you think? Are these “Me Space” pods something that would appeal to you or your employees? Would you plant a few of these in an open office to see how they work? Share your thoughts in the comments.