The cubicle to turn 40

ZEELAND, Mich., Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The staple of the U.S. office work space, the cubicle, turns 40 next year.

The partial-walled work stations were developed in the Michigan labs of office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc.

Sales of cubicle furniture account for more than half of the $10 billion office furniture market in North America, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday.

Cubicles were designed to replace rows of desks that once marked most large businesses. Instead, the cubicle has become a hated office institution. Fortune magazine once dubbed it the Fidel Castro of office furniture, the newspaper reported.

"I spent 16 years in a cubicle," said Scott Adams, creator of the "Dilbert" cartoon strip, which regularly features life working in a cubicle. "And I still remember walking into the office and having the life drained out of me as I approached my fabric-covered box."