An office products company has invented a cubicle screen it believes will "open a huge portal (to) productivity". The screen will enable office workers to close their cubicles, thus eliminating interruptions. America's 40 million cubicle workers are interrupted 70 times a day - and "only 20 percent of the interruptions is worth the distraction". The problem is that your boss may demand the ability to look into your cubicle at all times. Here the classic dilemma of the modern corporate world rears its paradoxical head. Authority requires productivity at all cost, but its insistence on monitoring that productivity inhibits the very thing it is attempting to enhance. According to John Samo, head of the New Jersey Employers Association, workers would need to check with their bosses before "slapping a door on their cubicles." My guess is that the boss will say "No" in most cases. C'est la vie in the funhouse world of office tyranny.

"Workstation screens aim to shut down interruptions" from The Star-Ledger (New Jersey)