Open Plan Office Paranoia

I saw this fantastic mirror by Sebastian Wrong (great name) whose work is sold via Established & Sons (another great name) when I was in Liberty the other day.

Taking his inspiration from car interior rear view mirrors, Sebastian Wrong has created a wall mounted convex mirror for the home. It provides a panoramic view of the room behind you and has a steel ball joint at the back allowing movement along three axes. At just under a metre wide and available in the classic 80's colours of red, black and white this is a pretty striking object.

It reminded me of an outsized version of the desk mirrors that office workers use to see who is coming up behind them out in the wilds of the open plan. 

Most of the office staff I worked with in South Korea had one of these little mirrors (pictured above right) perched on their computers so they could see when their supervisor was approaching.

Sebastian's mirror is nearly 5 times the size of one of these so I think it would make quite a statement.

Along with good old privacy screen filters (not cheap you'll notice) rear view mirrors are considered to be the norm in open plan offices in South Korea I gather. Presumably paranoia is more socially acceptable than it is here?

With or without a mirror, nothing beats not actually being at your desk as a strategy for getting work done and avoiding interruptions as the New York Times noted recently.