Only managers are allowed to have speaker phones and most managers have an actual office with a door to maintain privacy and so that speaker phone conversations don’t interrupt other employees. A manager (not my manager) sits over the cubicle wall from me and he LOVES to use his speaker phone. He may actually use the speaker phone more than the handset…I’ll have to keep a log and report back later. Needless to say, his conversations can be very disruptive at times.
Another coworker (over the opposite cubicle wall from the manager) buys products for the whole division. Here’s a diagram:
manager | me | coworker
The distance from the manager to the coworker is ~20 feet. He just called the coworker using his speaker phone while talking loudly instead of walking the ~20 feet to have a face to face conversation. It is debatable which would be less disruptive: using the speaker phone or shouting over the top of the cubicle wall. You decide. This would make a good dilbert!