Office preference

[Clobberingtime]

Was chatting with my colleague about her move. Long story short I work for a relatively small company, that was bought by a bigger company which was bought by an even bigger global company

Original company has a small "cozy" office.

Parent company's HQ has a big large building all to itself. So multiple floors etc.

What do you prefer?

I prefer a big multi-floor building but that's mainly what I'm used to working in. My current office is 12 floors and includes a huge gym, full medical suite, restaurant, multiple coffee shops/cafes, dry cleaner, dentist, shop, etc etc.

Same here. But alas I'm in the small "cosy" office

I'd prefer the one in the better location to get to by public transport or to park by.
Ideally the multi purpose one though.

Small cozy every day. But my back ground is start ups, entrepreneurial stuff and family businesses.

Yes I prefer large offices with lots of options - open plan hot-desking rooms, booths, small meeting rooms, large meeting rooms, quiet areas if you need to concentrate/don't want to be disturbed. At the moment I'm in a converted Victorian building which is all small 2-3 man offices with a few 'executive' larger corner rooms and some meetings rooms and I find it a bit of pain for the way we work today - since so many people work hybrid now it's a waste of space for everyone to have their own fixed desk but hot-desking only really works in a proper set-up IMO where you have clear desk policy, lockers, spaces to take private calls, quiet working areas etc. Trying to hot desk where people end up colonising certain areas with their personal clutter, nowhere designated for calls so people do them while sat next to you in a small room (and some people, my current boss included unfortunately are VERY noisy when on teams/zoom, to the point you can't get on with your work while sat next to them because they're shouting down the line 30cms from your ears). We have a lot of politics about who gets to sit where, who gets a fixed desk and who doesn't, who gets the 'good' corner offices, who has priority over the meeting room etc etc which is just distracting and annoying TBH. And if you want to find a specific colleague you have to wander round peering through office doors to work out which one they're in that day. Those helpful 'chance' conversations you get in more open plan offices where you can bounce ideas off one another or grab someone for their quick input or quick answer to a question don't happen because you can't see one another, we often end up emailling or teams calling colleagues who are actually in the same building.

Plus although we do have little staff rooms on each floor they are small and there's not really space to sit with colleagues and have lunch or a cup of tea together, and there's no canteen, it would be nice to have a proper social space since half the point of working from an office is to socialise and collaborate.

Basically I would much prefer a more modern larger office, not for the perks like an on-site gym but because I think a space that works makes it actually feel worthwhile coming in the office rather than doing exactly what I would do at home but with an expensive and annoying commute plus worse coffee than I have in my own kitchen!