Hot-desking in the office from hell...

[Somerville]

I am very lucky to work mostly from home (freelancer), but a decent client wanted me in their office all week.
Good God, I have new respect for office workers.
Especially in open plan offices with hot desking. Which seems to mean that all the long-term staff have bagsied a desk, and freelancers have to squeeze in to whichever workspace is empty due to its regular occupier being off site.

Today I was lent the desk of a man who is either a secret eater, or just doesn't give a fuck. I have never seen so many crumbs in a desk drawer. - not envy.

Also, I can't work out their etiquette for the tea-round, and definitely drank more than I made, so I think they all hate me.
I'm not asking if I'm being unreasonable, because I'm not! Companies encouraging noise and mess on the basis that it encourages collaborative working is just miserable. Ugh.

I have worked in a hot desk office for about 5 years. Lots of head counts and stats etc chowed that we never have more than 75% of staff in. The desks are completely impersonal, with no drawers. Some have desk tops, some have UTCs, some just have monitors and network cables to plug a laptop into. Everyone has a locker for their stuff. We have an online phone system, do your phone number goes with you when you log in, but most people just divert their calls to their mobiles.

Teams tend to cluster in the sane areas, but no one has “their” desk, officially or otherwise. Well, a few modellers, who need more powerful processors.

It works fine.

I work for s government agency, we share an office with other gov bodies. There is a suite of hotel desks for visitors. Very much the new normal in public sector.

Hot decking is shit. Sit down, can’t adjust seat or desk set up properly so end up in physio, John from the Newcastle office is visiting so he bags the desk next to you, waste 10 min asking who he is, what he does why he’s down here, how long it took, spend rest of day in silence slightly pissed off cos co worker who arrived 1 min past 9 has had to sit on a different floor as no desks and you end up phoning them and presenting over Skype to ask a “quick question”. You resent John from the Newcastle office, you will never see John again. You get half way through the day and notice you forgot to logon to your phone. At the end of the day clear everything up take your bag to your locker on the other side of the floor squeeze everything in eventually miss your train. It’s shit

Headphones are essential in the modern office. I work with a lovely woman who is delightful - and naturally speaks at quite a loud volume

That's exactly it, Olenna, they are following no hot-desk rules at all. Hence the desk drawers full of the regular occupant's belongings and crumbs. It's grim.

Interesting that proper hot-decking is so prevalent in public sector Bike. I can see how it might work, done properly, and save some costs too.

I discovered the necessity for headphones today, Northern, and will never, ever, forget them again.
I don't actually like listening to music while I work, but I'm downloading some podcasts.

Great article here about how clear desk policies (and hot desking by extension) actually lead to less productivity.

somerville it sounds like you were at my old office. Horrendous. I hated hot desking with a passion - I've now gone freelance too and I suspect will hate it more when I need to go into a clients office.

I've got a supplier who works in a fancy hotdesking office where you get allocated a seat when you swipe into the building in the morning. Which is great - except it can be anywhere, which is really unhelpful, and they bought exactly as many chairs as there are desks which means they all get abandoned in meeting rooms when people needed extra seats so it's chair roulette in there.

oh dear.... i work in an office like this and i know a few people like the man you mentioned.... i wonder.....

Chair roulette

I'm going to print that article and take it in for the boss...

The lack of maternity-leave had made me sour a bit to being a freelancer, but at least this week is reminding me of the reasons I love it.

I have a permanent desk in an office that also has desks "allocated" for hot desking. There's usually quite a few, say 7 or 8 that are free for hot desking. 2 of which are by me.

My (ex) manager now has a role where she visits the office a couple of times a week. This is a manager that treated me very badly to the point where she issued me with a written warning for "performance issues" having never highlighted any issues previously Now, I know what folk might think- "No smoke without fire" right? Well, wrong. It came out of the blue with no notice, no notifying that I could be accompanied, zilch, nada.

I appealed and won. There was no evidence of under performing, performance issues. As I knew there wouldn't be. Still can't for the life of me understand what her issue was. Could have raised a grievance I suppose but had already decided that I would start looking for another job and couldn't be arsed going through the process. The fact I won was vindication enough for me.

ANYWAY So, where do we think this ex manager chooses to sit? Yup either right behind me or right beside me. I'm sure she does this on purpose in a feeble attempt to intimidate me but it doesn't work. I proffer a just-on-the-right-side-of-professionalism-without-sounding-too-sarcastic-yet-certainly-not-friendly "Good Morning" and leave it at that.

And if you're reading, ex manager- I see you.

Another freelancer working from home here. I refuse to go into offices any more. Fortunately my clients are happy with that and prefer not to have to find a desk for me etc.

I actually find it bizarre that people do the ritual of getting up, travelling to an office and doing their work at a desk in an office - as opposed to just staying at home and doing the work there.

I know it depends on the job of course.

And yeah, sometimes you need to have a really long boring meeting for no reason. Because that’s a lot better than ringing someone up or sending an email.

But I really do think of it as mad these days.

I hate hot desking though it's the done thing at my office.

The best thing I ever did was buy a wireless keyboard and mouse that I take with me in my laptop bag. Some of the keyboards I was using before were utterly minging.

I am office based, and years back someone on my team had a specialist chair due to a bad back. When they left, I swiped said chair and now everyone thinks it was bought for me due to a back issue and I haven't said otherwise so I get the same chair everyday

I then just wipe the desk down when I get in, plug in my laptop and I'm good to go.

Millennial here, and I despise hot desking.

No idea why it was introduced as a concept in the first place.

@SuperBeagle probably because it's cheaper - less desks = less office space to pay for/desks to buy.

In my case, it means the govt can squeeze more than one organisation into a building and maximise the space.

I'm a millenial. Also hate hotdesking with the noise and awkward eye contact with near strangers and unfamiliar uncomfortable chair and colleagues 6 desks away discussing their car insurance renewal at top volume and disturbing my train of thought... Much prefer my little home office!

This is one of the reasons I'm super-shitscared going back to work after a massive gap.

@ajandjjmum millennial are not fine with hot desks - we fucking loathe them. Can’t say anything frankly as I’m not nearly senior enough. I know they make mine and all of our friends skin crawl ... i just don’t see how they make anything better.

At my workplace, the desks are allocated to specific jobs. If I’m using my specialism, I’ll sit on that desk, if I’m in charge of a different team, I’ll sit at the head of that desk, if I’m running information flow, I’ll be sitting in that position etc.

Works really well as we have lots of one off specialist contributors as well as long term and regular freelancers. Everyone knows where to find the person they need (or at least where they’re sitting and what their extension is).

I think that’s what hotdesking was developed for but has just been pointlessly adopted in offices where it has no benefit, unless you like your staff to be miserable!

Oh and @Somerville just make your own tea. I do, even though my team make each other it. I don’t drink tea, I drink coffee, I don’t know how people like their tea ... why can’t everyone just get their own??

An extrovert and a creative here too btw... still hate hot desks.

I was told by an agency rep that to spice up hot desking their agency removed the chairs in the morning and until they had made a certain number of booking calls they didn't get them back.
I agree with the noise though, I had to call an agency I didn't usually deal with during the olympics. I couldn't actually hear him over the bellowing and shouting. I hung up and when he called me back I told him why, and if he wanted my (long term, very profitable) booking I expected to be able to hear him. It went very quiet.

I'm feeling sorry for Millennials now; you're having to live in house shares for many more years than my generation, and then don't even get private office space at work. Both issues actually have the same root cause (sky-high property prices) I'm guessing.

This company I'm working for, however, is doing pretty well and I reckon the open plan, semi-hot desk environment is more idealogical than financial. The boss is a massive extrovert and it suits him.

Somer get yourself a Contigo. Keeps drinks warm for hours, so you can avoid the tea and coffee rounds!

We have hot desking in my office too and I hate it. There is a specific ratio of 3 workers for every 2 desks BUT we've had more staff and no more desks and people from other offices come in for meetings and get there early, claim the desks then fuck off to the meeting meaning everyone who is actually based in that office has no desk
I've gone home to work 4 times since Christmas as there hasnt been a desk and I can't get in earlier than 9. Each time I'm annoyed that I could've stayed in my pj's all along