In spring 2022, many employees returning to the office faced not only new health protocols but also the challenge of hot desking, where desks are unassigned. Trish, a New York City employee, shares her humorous yet frustrating experience of navigating these changes, especially when a coworker often disregards booking policies. Recent data shows that 20% of U.S. office desks are now unassigned, a significant increase from the previous years, driven mainly by tech companies exploring innovative workspace designs, although traditional sectors remain less inclined to adopt this model.
As more people return to the office, many, like Trish, are finding they don't have an assigned place to sit. The concept, known as hot desking or desk hoteling, has ticked up in recent years: Roughly 20% of desk spaces in U.S. offices are unassigned today, compared with 10% of unassigned desks in 2020, according to data from Gensler, the office architecture firm.
Once, Trish says, "my desk was taken by someone else, and so I went to go sit somewhere I hadn't booked, and then the office manager comes up to me and says, 'Someone else booked that seat, so you're going to have to move. If you need help looking a desk, I'll help you.'"
Now three years later, "it's a joke in the office that people know she just doesn't do it," says Trish, who asked to withhold her real name to keep the peace at work.
From where I stand, I see it as the future of where [office design] is going, especially in tech companies that are experimenting with office space design.
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