There are certain things in life guaranteed to provoke strong opinions. Politics, religion, sports team loyalties and, here comes a curveball but one I’m pretty confident will provoke more than a few ‘that’s fair enough’ head nods among those of you inclined to read on, unassigned desks and seating at work.

As a topic of conversation, it appears to have reached fever pitch. Hardly surprising given how many more people it affects now compared to five years ago. The share of employees using unassigned settings with no fixed seat or desk has rocketed to over 60% from just 38% in 2020, according to Leesman, which specializes in measuring and analyzing employee experiences in the workplace.

While this shift has undoubtedly been fueled and expedited by the pandemic and the rise of hybrid working, the trend has been in the works for over a decade. Back in 2014, 87% of employees surveyed across the globe by Leesman had their own desk. By 2019, so pre-pandemic, the proportion of workers with desks had fallen to 67%. 

The reasons behind this steady move towards unassigned seating in workplaces make sense, particularly from a business perspective, whether it’s about saving costs by reducing real estate footprints or enhancing productivity, innovation and collaboration. 

But no matter how much the arguments stack up on a practical, logistical and financial level, the question that comes up time and again is whether it’s what employees actually want? During a CREtech webinar last month with real-time crowd analytics and space management solution Occuspace on how companies can optimise office space without sacrificing employee experience, that very query was put to our panellists by the live audience more than any other. 

Brian Aman, senior CRE business partner at Rogers Communications charged with identifying the firm’s workplace strategy pointed out that there is an important distinction to be made around whether employees feel strongly about having their desk or having a desk. Unassigned seating, he added, does not mean people should find themselves without anywhere to sit if they come into work. “The unassigned desk strategy is about trying to make sure no one goes without a desk when they come into the office,” he said. “There is a science behind it and it’s all about measuring usage before the program, rolling it out and then continuing to measure, improve and iterate it afterwards. That’s the mode we are in right now.”

And there are arguments to suggest that reducing workplace footprints may well enhance rather than detract from the employee experience, added Occuspace CEO Nic Halverson. “The very worst experience people can have today in the corporate office, or any office, is to come into an empty space and sit on Zoom calls all day. They soon realise they love coming into the office when it feels vibrant with a bunch of people in the space. Having a smaller footprint or unassigned seating will allow people to not only get a desk but be able to see people and collaborate rather than being in a ghost town. This leads to a much better experience for the vast majority of people.”

There is a wider question here, of course. One I have asked before in this newsletter back when I wrote this piece on the five least popular modern office trends of which hot desking was by far the most demonised. That question is whether it is fair and acceptable that some (certainly not all) employees are simultaneously demanding hybrid working and assigned seating? Personally, I think not. The way we work has changed, in part, because the way we want to work has changed. It doesn’t seem right that companies are then chastised for cutting their cloth accordingly. Not least given they are largely doing so in response to a trend driven by employee demands. 

But that’s just one opinion. 

I would be fascinated to hear from anyone who either shares my view or vehemently disagrees with me. Not least given the fact that Leesman’s research on seating has discovered huge regional differences. As I write this from my desk just south of London, here is a particularly relevant statistic; while 68% of workplaces in Europe have embraced the trend of unassigned desks, the exact opposite is the case in North America where 65% of workplaces still have a predominantly assigned strategy. This, says Leesman, “may reflect more traditional corporate structures with hierarchical organisational cultures.”

Does that ring true? Answers on a postcard. Or an email. Any desk will do. 

- Emily

Emily Wright

Head of Content

CREtech

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