Pimp My Cubicle

You knew it had to happen, right? "Pimp My Cubicle" is a product lets you turn your hum-drum cubicle into a hip and happening workplace crib. It includes a dollar-sign paperweight, a "bling" mousepad, and even a disco ball!
You knew it had to happen, right? "Pimp My Cubicle" is a product lets you turn your hum-drum cubicle into a hip and happening workplace crib. It includes a dollar-sign paperweight, a "bling" mousepad, and even a disco ball.

If the hip-hop style isn't your taste, the book Cube Chic describes how you can deck out your cube in countless themes. Go for the rustic look with bamboo lookalike wall coverings. Set up a soothing Zen garden. Head for the jungle with mosquito netting and animal prints. There's even one called "The Nap Cube," with a cereal-dispensing mahcine and a nook for napping. Some of these ideas might be best for those of us with, well, a fair amount of job security.

If you're more interested in securing your cubicle than pimping it, there's "Trip Wire," a kit that features a set of infrared beams that you can set up in your workplace. The product sets off an alarm when the signal is tripped.

At close to $400, the Babble Voice Privacy Machine isn't cheap, but it solves a problem all of us cube monkeys have: toning down the voices that drift all over open-office environments. It supposedly helps tone down the voice of the blabbering idiot in the next cube, turning the voices into wordless sounds. And it makes what you say difficult to for eavesdroppers to hear.

I'm not sure whether I should be laughing at the absurdity of products like these, or bemoaning the fact that I didn't come up with them first. But if they really work as advertised, and make your work life more pleasant, the manufacturers will have the last laugh.