Does anyone actually like hot desking and/or open plan?

[BMXsummoner]

I’ve recently started working for a company that does hot desking in a very open plan space. Prior to this I had always either had my own office (albeit entirely glassed so anyone nearby could see what I was doing) or my own desk in a cubicle type setup. Reasons I hate it:

• wasting a minimum of 5 minutes every morning and afternoon getting everything I need for the day out of my locker (power cables, headset, notebook, water bottle etc.) and getting set up at my workstation and then packing it all away again at the end of the day
• related, nowhere (like a set of desk drawers) that is convenient to store anything that would make my workday easier or nicer (snacks, extra stationery, painkillers, cardigan for when the office temperature is set to freezing)
• further time wasted if the work station I choose is defective and the monitors don’t work or connect to my laptop
• drab, impersonal workplace where no one can put up photos etc.
• putting up with all the inconsiderate arseholes in the office (the pen clicker, the chuckler, the stinker, the guy who gets 11ty million phone calls a day with his loud obnoxious ringtone)

I fucking hate it. I get why companies might think it’s a great idea (all the bullshit about fostering team work while saving money on floor space) but do any workers actually like it??

No criticism of them making it more comfortable for themselves but I’ve definitely noticed those who are vocal about hating hot desking do take a while to set up in the morning.

everyone works in different ways. I like to have my desk phone (we have those, we barely use them) on the left so i can answer with my left hand and write with my right. It's more efficient.

We have 2 monitors and the laptop, which is fab, but again, i prefer laptop on left, which leaves space on the right of the keyboard for my mouse.

There is one solitary desk in our building that never ever gets sun on it. So it's not hot in summer. I want that space every time (menopause) and if i can't have it it makes me grumpy (am aware that other people might like it too)

If i arrive too late and have to work in the canteen? I go home and book 30 minutes of my journey time as meeting because - fuck it. I got up early and didn't get anywhere to work.

I keep suggesting a set of lockers (like high school) or rolling containers, so that we can have the things we need (pens, papers, notebooks whatever) available if someone is using the room we usually use. But so far it's falling on deaf ears. So i WFH and it's fab.

Tbf while I loved having my own desk at my old job so much crap accumulated. Old invoice forms from 2011, peoples gone off teabags, magazines 5 years old.

I don't love hot dealing but everything is so much cleaner and tidier

Takes me 30 seconds to set up tbf. Laptop in, on, mobile phone out. Done. Might get a cuppa before I start.

I agree with you OP. The amount of stuff I have to lug to and from the office daily (we have no lockers at all) is giving me severe back pain.

I have to ring the floor manager on arrival to ask her to bring me an RSI keyboard that I then have to faff around installing.

I also miss the ability to have a few personal items on my desk to make it feel more like a welcoming space.

How is someone putting a few personal items on their desk annoying to others? Unlike loud talkers / pen clickers / smelly people, I can't see how it impacts anyone else.

Some people find clutter visually stressful or detracting.

Personally I like a bit of clutter, but I know some people prefer a minimalist work space.

In experience it tends to encroach onto neighbours desks as well.

@coincimental then they have the option of not looking, surely. What about those ago find the minimalist look stressful?

I liked open plan, but did not hit desk. I did have a really good seat though : )

I actually turned down a job I was offered as it was in a room by myself. I would hate that.

I don't mind open plan, but open plan hot desking rooms? Nope. I had this at a previous job. It was awful. It was like being stuck on a 10 hour train journey with everyone around me on tedious loud calls. I couldn't concentrate. I hated it.

I agree, although I haven't worked in a large office for quite some time.

Open plan I didn't mind. We didn't have hot desking though and I am glad we didn't. I would have hated it. To me (and to the others I believe) my desk was my own den. I personalised it with family photos and had ornaments of my own on and around it.

I no longer work in offices, but hot desking is not for me. Obviously if I was still working there I'd do it if I absolutely had to, but I think I would resent it a lot.

My DD1's employer does hot desking and she has never known anything else. DH's employer has also taken to it since the first lockdown. Both are only in the office a couple of days a week though so I can see that it makes sense. Their dens are their desks at home.

My husband does it and we both hate it. For all the reasons others mentioned, plus, it makes him feel like the company wants the employees to feel temporary and as if they are simply placeholders in the job. Any employee can be easily replaced without even needing to clean out their desk. They don't have lockers, so everything you need for the workday needs to be packed in and packed out as if you were a hiker in the forest. There's nowhere to have a confidential conversation even though confidential conversations are part of his job. He can't keep any of his professional books in the office because he doesn't have a space, even printouts of the stuff he's actually working on. So an entire room in our private home has been taken over with his work papers that he can't keep at work.

It's just the corporation using their asymmetric power to make employees life even sh#$#$er than they were before, IMO.

The only advantage that I could see was that the reduction in overall office space, from switching to hotdesks, discouraged the company from asking everyone to come in every day, so he was able to work from home even after the pandemic restrictions ended. But now they have gradually rolled back to getting him to come in every day. So now he's getting all the bad aspects of a hot desk and none of the good ones. He hates it.

Well exactly. Everyone is different and that's perhaps why some people don't like big open plan offices - because the noisy/quiet, minimalist/clutter lovers, cold people/warm & menopausal people, smell sensitive/mackerel lovers all have to share the same space. And the bigger the space, the more people and the more chance of a clash.

Obviously lots of people are also easy come, easy go, middle of the road even stevens and don't mind any of it. But possibly also don't understand why some people do!

The subliminal message with hot design is actually don't get settled. We might not want you for too long.
It is a bonus if it means you can avoid sitting near to someone you dislike.
But it also is disruptive, and I think unhygienic. All those fingers on the same keyboard. Especially people who lick their fingers, don't wash their hands etc. But essentially it isn't your space. And I think companies lose more than they gain by using it.

You’ve just reminded me that in the early days of Covid, we had to wipe down our desks and shared equipment with sterilising wipes in-between users. Yet more faff!

Most people stick to the same areas in the office in my experience. Some like the same desks amd some desks are prized over others. I do get fed up of the loud Team / Zoom calls. Moderate your voice!

I like open plan but I suspect that’s because (a) I’m nosy and (b) I’ve never worked on anything else. I have been lucky enough to always work in offices with good facilities and space around desks.

I hate hot desking and not having my own desk. I’ve learnt to like some of the benefits such as having a nice clear area to work in, but I miss making it my own by having a plant and a couple of photos pinned up.

Don’t care about open plan but I think hot desking if you’re in the office every day (not like just in one day a week & wfh) is ridiculous and serves no purpose other than discomfort and infantilises employees. I had it at one work place and it was so stressful and awkward X

Why does anybody need to have photos on their desk when they have all their photos on their phone?

Unless exceptions are made for disabled employees who need adapted equipment, chairs etc (and maybe cannot carry their stuff around easily) then this seems rather discriminatory. I am now retired, but when working had a special chair and footrest and one of my colleagues who had had a stroke had a special keyboard (which was almost impossible for anyone else to use!) and I think other adjustments too. How does this sort of thing work in a hot desking situation?

Nope = we have to book everything in advance and have no lockers

I work with highly confidential information and can't just take a call where anyone could hear

I need my team around me to bounce off and ask for help/support or just off load - again confidential stuff at times - we no longer sit together

I have to book a room for meetings and often end up sitting in it all day so may as well be at home

We have asked to move to two other buildings where similar teams work - open plan but confidential and not desk booking - no can do

We used to have a small office we all just about fit into - this is just silly for us!

I only go into our actual base now for monthly meetings - it's anywhere between 40 mins and 2 hours commute depending on traffic and there is now point as I can work from home - but I hate it as I miss my colleagues

Hate both. Really triggers my adhd. And highlights to me how lacking in social skills and awareness somepeople are. E.g not using headphones for a loud zoom call in a packed office. I feel like throwing headphones at them ha

Don’t mind it providing it’s implemented properly - clear desk policy/ no hogging desks. It’s v good for networking/ getting better known throughout the company. You can just plonk yourself down to more senior people and impress them with your ruthless efficiency :-). I don’t mind the noise but I’ve always worked in hectic environments - trading desks etc. I like a high energy workplace.

We hot desk and it's not too bad, although I have no idea what someone had done to the laptop docking station this morning, it took me ages to sort out and I was suitably grumpy.

Anyway, the worst thing is the chairs. Office chairs are so uncomfortable. But that isn't a special feature of hot desking, although I guess if you have your own permanent desk you can sort out the chair.

I think if people have a disability, they should be able to have a set desk so they don't have to sort out their "settings" every time. But I guess that only works if you work full time in the office.