Although some sources attribute the introduction of the cubicle to computer-chip manufacturer Intel Inc. in the 1960s, its creation is more generally attributed to a designer who worked for Herman Miller Inc., Robert Propst. Thus, Robert Propst is considered the "father of the cubicle."

Before he died in 2000, Propst lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity," this month said a Fortune article that followed the creation of perhaps the most reviled office-related creation ever conceived (Shag carpet now probably sits comfortably in the No. 2 position.). Indeed, before he died, Propst disowned his now-demonized creation.

In the '60s, home-furnishings company Herman Miller launched Action Office, the brainchild of Propst, who joined the company as director of research. The young designer's new system included a lot of work surfaces and display shelves and varying desk levels to encourage part-time standing and thus more blood flow and less exhaustion; partitions were a part of it, intended to provide privacy and places to pin up works in progress (later used for such things as plastering silly stuffed animals, sappy inspirations and framed photos of employees' children). They wanted to create close-spaced workstations to replace the unprotected-desk, open-bullpen office system then in use.

Image credit: Washed Ashore

The original conception of the Action Office was not to cram maximum people into minimum space. However, the Action Office eventually was driven to fishbowling employees by economics.

Propst's vision was to give white-collar workers, then toiling amid rows of desks in huge open spaces, both more privacy and a way to individualize their space. By that measure, cubicles were an improvement. However, as a Fast Company article last year noted, "in the hands of space-mad facilities planners, the idea was perverted to justify an officescape that resembled the Chicago prison stockyards."

Said Fortune:

Around the time the Action Office was born, a growing breed of white-collar workers, whose job titles fell between secretary and boss, was swelling the workforce. Also, real estate prices were rising, as was the cost of reconfiguring office buildings, making the physical office a drag on the corporate budget. Cubicles, or "systems furniture," as they are euphemistically called, offered a cheaper alternative for redoing the floorplan.

The cubicle also allowed companies to recover their costs quicker, as the Treasury during the '60s created new rules for depreciating assets to stimulate business spending. "The changes specified clearer ranges for depreciation and established a shorter life for furniture and equipment versus longer ranges assigned to buildings or leasehold improvements," the aforementioned articled noted.

Businesses then took notice of the sales this upshot rendered. Propst's original vision then began to evaporate, as the Action Office continued shrinking.

Now the cubicle is the (considered) persistent, economical, tyrannical, fluorescent-lit personal purgatory in which forty million American employees have come to toil. Partitions separate the partially enclosed workspace from neighboring workspaces, the partitions generally five to six feet high. (Height is a problem for some: if you're short and want to converse with a fellow cubicleer without actually leaving your personal space, you have to sort of Cliffhanger yourself in such a way as elevating to where your line of sight reaches at least slightly above the partition's mantle -- so you look kind of like a Kilroy.)

Although definitely better than companies' open-bullpen office system in use prior to the advent of the cubicle, and while effectively reducing the amount of noise and distractions in the office environment, cubicle farms also have produced a negative effect in the reduced amount of person-to-person communication among office workers. Notably, productivity declines due to cubicle desks have become a recent concern in new office designs.

So now you know. No matter the history of this particular office furniture, we are pretty sure the cubicle is the primary explanation for telecommuting.