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Except you're sitting next to your coworkers - not your boss. Your coworkers don't want to out you - that only hurts their reputation and gives them more work.

If anything, this prevents one person from being singled out because it's difficult to get mad at one person for slacking when everyone is slacking to a similar degree.

At least, that's my experience being in a 4 person cubicle. It built trust between coworkers and against the company.

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Four person cubes are not quite the open office concept, or don't represent all instances of it. In Japan, open offices include everyone. You look away from your monitor and there is your boss ("buchou" -- department head) looking back at you! If you have to leave before the buchou, you apologize, e.g. "O saki ni, shitsurei shimasu".

If the boss is not there, then it's not quite the open office; it's a slightly strawman version of the open office which doesn't quite include everyone. Even so, the boss can come out peek at the workspace at any time and tell at a glance who is there and who isn't, and who is doing what.

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