What's more, the desk could be set at varying heights so people could stand ... cubicle we know and love (loathe?) today. After the first release tanked, Herman Miller designed a cheaper follow up ...

In a memorable montage from the 1999 workplace satire "Office Space," Peter Gibbons, a fed-up office drone, decides to take a stand ... cubicles altogether in favor of a sea of unobstructed desks.