Time was working in a cubicle meant you had no privacy. There were people to the right of you, people to the left of you,people behind and people in front of you, who could hear every sound emoted from your workspace.Worse than that, you could hear ever sound they made. People complained how hard it was to work in all that noise.

I've often thought that one of the reasons people started sending emails instead of voice mails is that with an email there is much more privacy. You don't have to worry what your cube neighbors might overhear.

That's not so much of a problem anymore. Recently after attending a video meeting, I walked back to my client's cube. While the maze of cubes were still standing, there was not a sound to be heard because there was no one in the cubes. On this particular day my client was the only person on her side of the floor.

It was too quiet. Too remote. Too downsized. It made me feel nervous and I didn't even work there.

Turns out that "Empty Desk Syndrome" is not just a fancy catch phrase. A year ago the Asian American Journalists Association sent a group of students to an intensive four day journalism boot camp in Chicago. Brenna Kajikawa decided to spend some time at the Chicago Sun-Times.

I could almost feel the tension, not from people bustling about, but from seeing so many empty desks due to layoffs. It was inspiring to envision myself working at the Sun-Times someday down the road, and yet it was also a reality check for me to actually see that the print industry is facing troubling times.

Writing to the Planet Money Blog on NPR, Theresa Daily, took this picture of the newsroom of the Kansas City Star. Along with the picture she wrote,

"As twenty somethings, we know we are supporting a dying industry. A stark reminder of that occurred Friday night as we walked by the headquarters of the paper (see attached picture). My husband, a teacher, commented he might ask them if he could have some of those chairs for his elementary school.

I'm wondering, is the Star waiting for the economy to rebound, at which time they might need that office equipment? Until then, why keep it in such plain view?"

Another reader, Daniel C offered his thoughts on the visual display of jobs lost,

"why keep it in such plain view?"

Maybe they are counting on the intimidation factor to get the few remaining employees to work even harder.

If that was their strategy, experts say they have it all wrong.

"Emotionally, workers look around the empty office, and it brings the depth of the economic crisis home for them in a personal way," says Leslie Seppinni, a clinical psychologist. "They wonder: 'Am I next?' and a tremendous amount of anxiety and depression builds as they try to figure out what steps to take next."
                                                                    MSNBC.com, Eve Tahmincioglu
                                                                      
Maureen Rogers of Pink Slip experienced empty desk syndrome 20 years ago when she worked at  Wang Labs Tower.

Once the layoffs began, there were some floors that were entirely wiped out, and it was ultra-depressing to cut-through one of these on your way to a meeting. Make that ultra-dark and ultra-depressing: if they turned off half the lights in the active areas, they turned off all the lights in the ghost-town floors.

But it was even more depressing to work in an area that was full one day, and more than decimated the next.

During the last major lay-off I was there for, everyone in the cubicles surrounding mine was let go.

Why do the companies leave those empty cubicles standing? According to some experts, the companies really don't know what else to do. Depending on their leases, they don't have the option to downsize and there really isnt' a big market for used cubicles these days.

Other businesses might take a cue from BzzAgent's solution. First they moved everyone so there were no empty desk between employees. Even with that, there were still plenty of empty cubes in the office.

CEO Dave Balter felt the empty space distracted from the culture of his company. So he offered the workspaces to budding entrepreneurs in town for free — phones, Internet and receptionist included.

"I had no jobs to offer, but I had space," he says.

What about you? Are you missing the old noise that you had to deal with when cubes were filled with people?

Image Credit: NPR, Planet Money

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness.