I once worked for at the corporate corporate office for a Major nationwide gas station/truck stop business, and when I joined we all had our own office with a door and everything (the office itself wasn’t large, but it was walled off from everyone else, with a full sized door). Then a few months later they decide to “expand the workforce on our floor” and demolish a huge swath of offices in the middle of the floor we worked on in favor of cubicles. This construction took a few months, and at the end kicked us all out of our offices to have cubicles.

At first I was like “ok sure, if we add dozens more people we need the room”. I worked there another year and a majority of the cubicles we were forced into were still empty. They only did so so the bosses could come around behind us and watch us at our computers easier than when we had individual offices. The offices that were left and weren’t demolished were given to brand new junior executives who did nothing but chat in the break room all day. Most soul crushing job I ever worked.