I think the line of thinking was to try and reduce the number of desks/space needed. The idea I think - and it is perfectly valid idea - is that most of the ti

I think the line of thinking was to try and reduce the number of desks/space needed. The idea I think - and it is perfectly valid idea - is that most of the time only ever about 70-90% of people based in an office are actually physically there. The rest of the time they are on vacation/training/client-meetings/working from another office/working from home etc. So there are a LOT of empty desks any day of the week, so why pay for office space to accommodate all of your staff when it is very, very rare for 100% of people to be there? I understand the rationale, but in practice it really sucked. Some suggestions for improving non-designated seating would be: * Run things at a more generous margin (e.g. space for 90% of employees rather than 75% - made up numbers but you get the idea) * Sort out issues with equipment - either through daily checks of everything or a more stream-lined approach to getting faults fixed (i.e. dont go through "raising a ticket" ball-ache, but something like put a rubber-duck on the desk or something then someone comes and checks out everything, or have floor-walkers who can be grabbed ad hoc) * Have a STRICT no-camping policy, and clear the desks Every. Single. Day. so that anything left behind is put into lost property bins at the end of the day, then given to charity at the end of the month if not claimed. * Clean & Tidy the desks up every day so it doesn't look like an explosion in a hacker's bedroom every morning. * Anchor specific teams in specific area - i.e. allow people to go anywhere if they want, but give some teams designated spaces where they get priority - e.g. "This is the QA team area", or "This is the test team area". * Allow people who need specialist equipment (e.g. developers) to have fixed desks with their equipment.