Daily Dose of Dumb.

I read a breathtakingly-asinine quotation the other day, this one from a guy called Andrew Bruce who's CEO of Publicis, North America.

I have nothing against either the agency or the man, but I do rail, often, against mindless babble--an agenda posing as reality.

Publicis, I've just read in "Interior Design" magazine, not only has no offices anymore, they have no assigned desks. 

Apparently they also want to do away with "authority."

This, to my mind, is the height of dumb.

Because I'm old-fashioned. And I believe people--and this is written in our evolutionary code--need quiet, a space they can call our own and leadership.

(It wasn't long-ago, that many hailed Howard Schultz of Starbucks for recognizing that people needed a 'third place.') 

The magazine said of Publicis' new desk-less/wall-less space: 


"The desire for an “open concept” environment originated with CEO Andrew Bruce. 'We’re a communications agency, and we need to break down the walls that prevent com­municating,' Bruce explains. 'When people have an office, they’re at their desk all day, blasting out e-mails.' Spatial equality, he believes, sends a message: 'Don’t respect authority—respect intelligence. Ideas matter.'"

It strikes me as perhaps the apotheosis of dumb for a person who decides to append the initials CEO before his name to say, "don't respect authority."

Then, drop the title.

As for the idea that offices are to blame for the blasting out of emails, I will gladly send Title-less Bruce a screen-grab of my email box. We have no walls where I work. Believe me, people have no problem blasting away. 

Then there's the idea that walls prevent communicating. I wonder how much better DDB would have been in the 60s if they had Helmut Krone sitting at a communal office space.

If wall-less-ness is responsible for Publicis' "Dare Greatly" Cadillac work, I know where you can get some drywall, cheap.

You've heard of Virginia Woolf?

She wrote "A Room of Her Own."

Not "A Chair at a Communal Space."