If you're a boss trying to get people back into the office, you may have tried all kinds of incentives — free snacks, games, yoga breaks, happy hours. But have you considered also implementing a different seating policy that's notoriously unpopular and logistically cumbersome?
Because that's what a lot of managers are doing, and it's going to be wild to see how it affects office culture on a mass scale.
Welcome to the era of "hot desking," the annoying office trend that is having a renaissance as companies try to scale back their real estate footprint while accommodating hybrid work schedules, my colleague Jeanne Sahadi writes.
For the uninitiated, hot desking is when you take away permanent seating plans and make each day a free-for-all for workstations. Often, staff are able to reserve a desk or team room before coming in.
"All across the board it's happening. Everyone is doing a version of [hot desking]," said Carlos Martinez, co-managing director and principal at Gensler, a global office design and planning firm.
Why? Why why why?
There are a few reasons, Jeanne explains.
- You can cut costs on office space.
- It gives you flexibility to allow some staff to work remotely. Like, if half your team is only in two or three days a week, you can free up workspace by sharing.
It might seem like a no-brainer from a cost perspective. The problem is hot desking has earned a terrible reputation, and a lot of people hate it. (I mean, where am I supposed to keep my space heater, my blanket, spare heels, spare flats, spare running shoes and change of clothes? Where do I display my beloved trinkets? Must I really haul my laptop to and from the office every single day?)
In fairness, as Jeanne reports, it's usually a problem of companies implementing it with little actual planning.
There are ways to make hot desking work without inspiring a mutiny, experts say. (Though, anecdotally, as a non-expert, I've yet to hear of anyone pulling it off.)
Ideally, individual teams should be assigned to their own area within an open plan office, said Sanjay Rishi, the Americas CEO of Work Dynamics at JLL, a global commercial real estate services firm. And within that area, there should be a mix of what he calls "me spaces" and "we spaces" to allow for both individual and collaborative work.
Office managers should also consider "acoustic privacy" and create collaboration spaces out of earshot from individual desks. And, crucially, managers need to get feedback. "Don't stop experimenting," Rishi says. "Check in with teams to see what's working or not."
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