Turn out the lights. Lighting eats up 44% of electricity used in office buildings. We'd collectively save enormous amounts by turning out all those little desk lamps and overheads. If you sit near a window, rely on natural light.

Don't flush. No, for the love of Pete, flush--just don't use more water than you need to. Like, don't leave the water running in the sink as you chat with your colleagues about America's Got Talent. Urge your boss to install low-flow toilets.

Stop wasting office supplies. Seriously. What's the point of having a job if you can't plaster your wall with Post-Its, you ask? Think of it this way: it's not about denying your access to free stationery; it's about not being responsible for the felling of 1,000 trees. Turn your greed into guilt.

Turn off the computer. I know, I used to do it too: leave the computer running during mid-day Pilates class so the boss thinks you're still toiling away through lunch. Computers are energy monsters. Just by setting your computer to power down automatically after 15 minutes of non-use, you cut the machine's energy use by 70%. Seventy percent! That's worth a hairy eyeball from the boss, no?

Bike to work. Or take the bus. Or train. Just get out of the car.

"It was just one of those kinds of things you do and forget about," Hughes says. "The general public is not really supposed to know about this stuff since it's really just for the radio stations. The next thing you know, someone gets a hold of it and it's all over the Internet.

"I don't need to be personally famous for this, but I don't want someone else taking credit for it either."

Fans familiar with Blunt's song can instantly catch the lyrical similarities and sing along with "My Cubicle," a ditty about the life of an office drone:

"My job is stupid, my day's a bore, inside this office from eight to four. Nothin' ever happens, my life is pretty bland. Pretending that I'm working, pray I don't get canned."

"My Cubicle" was just another parody Hughes' company recorded in December and made available to their affiliates on their website and in their daily prep e-mails sent out in January.

Beginning Labor Day (September 4, 2006), workers can submit an application to be cast in an upcoming Cube Fabulous episode by visiting the online "Cube Casting Couch" - powered by Monster - located at the co-branded microsite www.cubefabulous.monster.com. In addition to submitting a workspace photo and optional video, interested participants must complete a personal "Cube Profile," which asks a range of questions including the three things they can't live without, how co-workers would describe them and what their fantasy job entails. Those entering also have an opportunity to "sell" their submission in a 100-word essay explaining why they should be chosen. The Cube Fabulous season two premiere episode will air online in mid-October; subsequent shows will air every two weeks following.

"Cube Fabulous appeals to young professionals in an entertaining, light-hearted way by bringing edgy home makeovers to the workplace. One by one, the team will revitalize drab cubes or office space where many people spend more waking hours than anywhere else each day," said Diana Nicholson, Senior Vice President, Consumer Products, Monster. "Our relationship with Cube Fabulous also represents Monster's entry into broadband video, allowing us to reach a large audience and key demographics with creative work-related programming."

"Shorn Entertainment took an irreverent and fast-paced approach to the makeover genre which really struck a nerve with our audience of 21-34 year old cube dwellers seeking an entertainment escape." said J. Scott Berman, Creator of Cube Fabulous and Founder/CEO of Shorn Entertainment. "Cube Fabulous taps the emerging office lifestyle of a new generation of professionals looking to express themselves at work. We'll continue to capture a fresh perspective on work life in Season two by making over both traditional and non-traditional work environments."

The new system included plenty of work surfaces and display shelves; partitions were a part of it, intended to provide privacy and places to pin up works in process. The Action Office even included varying desk levels to enable employees to work part of the time standing up, thereby encouraging blood flow and staving off exhaustion.

But inventions seldom obey the creator's intent. "The Action Office wasn't conceived to cram a lot of people into little space," says Joe Schwartz, Herman Miller's former marketing chief, who helped launch the system in 1968. "It was driven that way by economics."

Economics was the one thing Propst had failed to take into account. But it was also what triggered the cubicle's runaway success. Around the time the Action Office was born, a growing breed of white-collar workers, whose job titles fell between secretary and boss, was swelling the workforce. Also, real estate prices were rising, as was the cost of reconfiguring office buildings, making the physical office a drag on the corporate budget. Cubicles, or "systems furniture," as they are euphemistically called, offered a cheaper alternative for redoing the floorplan.

Another critical factor in the cubicle's rapid ascent was Uncle Sam. During the 1960s, to stimulate business spending, the Treasury created new rules for depreciating assets. The changes specified clearer ranges for depreciation and established a shorter life for furniture and equipment, vs. longer ranges assigned to buildings or leasehold improvements. (Today companies can depreciate office furniture in seven years, whereas permanent structures--that is, offices with walls--are assigned a 39.5-year rate.)

The upshot: A company could recover its costs quicker if it purchased cubes. When clients told Herman Miller of that unexpected benefit, it became a new selling point for the Action Office. After only two years on the market, sales soared. Competitors took notice.

I had buttercup666 stand in my neighbor's cubicle and take a picture of me hard at work. Then I straightened the photo, undistorted it, and cropped it to the area in the doorway. I took it to Kinko's where they printed it onto vinyl, and grommeted the top with a kit that [info]matrushkaka bought me. The result: The Work Blind.

Alpha Geek - The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "I dunno, ask Rick. He's our alpha geek."

Blamestorming - A group discussion of why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.

Cube Farm - An office filled with cubicles.

Plug-and-Play - A new hire who doesn’t require training. "That new guy is totally plug-and-play."

Prairie Dogging - When something loud happens in a cube farm, causing heads to pop up over the walls trying to see what's going on.

Tourists - Those who take training classes just to take a vacation from their jobs. "There were only three serious students in the class; the rest were just tourists."

1. Don't hold meetings in your cube

2. Don't talk loudly on the phone in your cube.
Do talk loudly on your phone in your private office, if and when you get one.

4. Don't IM gossip. The cube mate behind you is reading your comments, even though you don't think they are.
Do IM important work questions, like "are you at your desk? Can I stop by?"

10. Don't have a boring cube.
Do make your cube suitable for all to enjoy.