Panasonic's $835 cubicle offers authentic office hell in your home
Because the future isn’t bleak enough.
In case you’re not already depressed by the current state of the world, Panasonic is launching a work-from-home cubicle. For 88,000 yen ($835 dollars), you can sit behind two wooden peg boards that make your home feel like the office, just what you wanted.
According to Panasonic, the partition, named Komoru, will create a semi-private space of about one square meter. Don’t worry, it’s easy to assemble. The Verge spotted the desk earlier this week and says, for now, it’s only available in Japan. With so many people working from home, it wouldn't be surprising if it made its way to the US.
To the uninitiated, working from home sounds great, but it does present a few real drawbacks. Panasonic says about half of the respondents it surveyed work in their living room. Theoretically, Komoru could help prevent your messy desk from spilling into the rest of your life. It could also be a nice place to cry over your laptop while you read the news in semi-privacy.
Photos of the cubicle look extra bleak when it’s shoved in a corner. It makes you wonder how badly people want to get away from their families or roommates after nearly six months of staying home to slow the spread of COVID-19. While some people may miss aspects of working in an office, like talking to other humans in real life, we’re pretty sure what they don’t miss is sitting behind a cubicle.
