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Hotdesking can be so utterly impersonal it makes a mockery of RTO. The point of RTO is that you are surrounded by colleagues in your team so that you can spont
by KaiserPro 3y ago
Hotdesking can be so utterly impersonal it makes a mockery of RTO.
The point of RTO is that you are surrounded by colleagues in your team so that you can spontaneously collaborate. It sounds like its just a meat market and everyone is jammed together regardless of team or affiliation.
hotdesking only really works for a small number of situations, and even then, it needs careful planning and thought.
You need permanent lockers so that you have somewhere to stash your shit.
the equipment needs to be all the same class(to avoid "I want this one") and _higher_ quality than non-hotdesk.
Repairs need to be proactive.
- raverbashing 3y agoThis. Pretty much all of this And a good booking system to assign people to desks "in their regions" But I guess the managers that "are worried about collaboration" didn't think of that
- carstenhag 3y ago(Somewhat ITish company in Germany, 250 employees) - I had to fight hard to get the company to buy seven 4K monitors (total of 2800€) and now those seats are always booked lol. At least my colleagues are a bit more productive I guess... the other desks have 1080p monitors and look terrible when connected with a Mac.
- microtonal 3y agoWhat kind of company is that? The cost of a 4k display (and 400 Euro is pretty much bottom of the barrel when it comes to good displays) is a fraction of the yearly salary of an employee, lasts many years, and a good screen can help reducing eyesight problems. It always surprises me that companies apply austerity to weird things, like providing a setup that keeps employees healthy, while probably throwing a lot of money at irrelevant stuff.
- dagw 3y agoYou'd be surprised how accounting works at some companies. I've seen companies buying 10k euro civil engineering software to run on 1k euro computers that could barely handle it, and refusing to also pay to upgrade the computers.
- ant6n 3y agoWell you know, Germans are ruthless optimizers. They just tend to optimize for the wrong objective functions, and the wrong constraints. Also the wrong time frames.
- _moof 3y agoHot-desking is awful. I was going to say it's the worst of both worlds, but it's actually even worse than that. You're not around your teammates, you can't "move in" to your desk, and you have to commute. Honestly, what is the point? Either give me my own desk or let me WFH.
- curiousgal 3y agoMy company uses a very simple system. Each team gets assigned an area that only they can book. For example a team of 15 people get a cluster of 10 desks. That solves it.
- pjc50 3y agoMy company uses an even simpler system. Each team of 15 people gets assigned 15 desks.
- muzani 3y agoBut that's less efficient than 10 desks for 15 people!
- pjc50 3y agoIs it? Of course, neither of us nor the company really has hard knowledge of what is "more efficient", because despite being entirely driven by profit metrics and A/B testing there is still no real way to measure productivity for knowledge workers. And even if there was, employee misery wouldn't be part of the metric unless it measurably affected retention.
- seanhunter 3y agoBut that in turn is less efficient than 0 desks for 15 people. Thinking about it, why stop there? Negative desking is the future. A team of 15 could have -15 desks (or less, if they are high performers). Super efficient.
- 3y ago
- smcleod 3y agoI think you’re mistaken about the meaning of RTO - it is purely there to satisfy out of touch and overpaid management.
- KaiserPro 3y agoIn meta's case its: "lots of people left who joined remote, perhaps its because everything is tribal knowledge based? lets evolve the culture to make it more frien.... YOLO RTO PEOPLE"
- clumsysmurf 3y agoI also want my own clean chair. I notice people have no problems putting their feet on empty ones ... well, I don't want to sit in those.
- pjc50 3y agoHotdesking for knowledge workers is basically so bad it's punitive. The same kind of disregard for your physical and mental comfort as Amazon warehouse workers, just with a higher salary attached.
- sensanaty 3y agoThe only point of RTO is to make the C-suite and managers happy to be back in control, since the only thing that gets them going is the thought of their underlings being miserable. These sociopaths don't care if it's awful for everyone involved as long as they get to see their minions at their desks, knowing that they're the reason dozens/hundreds of people are having their lives wasted on thumb twirling in some depressing office.
- noneeeed 3y agoWere I used to work they did all the things you suggested and it worked well. Every desk had a good setup, nice chair, massive screen etc. There were plenty of lockers and other storage if you needed to leave things in the office. Some of us had laid claim to a desk if we were always in, but most people tended to be in only a few days a month. Different teams tended to cluster in particular parts of the office when they were in. There were plenty of desks so there were no arguments. Hotdesking, hybrid working, remote working and fixed desk in-office setups can all work, but they require people to actually think about how space and systems are designed, and to put enough resources in place. Unfortunately, most companies just don't put the thought in to the details, or the resources in to make them work properly, so they become terrible work environments and then they complain that no one wants to come to the office. I have very little sympathy for companies that can't make hybrid work because they just put the minimum effort in, and then complain that it's all the employees fault.
- KaiserPro 3y agoA previous company managed to do hotdesking very well. The key was they started small and rolled it out as they learnt. By the time they moved building and went full hotdesking, they'd ironed out the problems and made it workable.
- probably_wrong 3y agoA company I know forced all employees to attend a seminar about ergonomics at work. It included a visit from the presenter who would come to everyone's desk and adjust everything (chair height, reclining resistance, screen angle, light, etc). This company is now migrating everyone to hotdesking. What I'd love to ask the CEO: was it all a circus back then, or do you not care about your employees' health now?
- rgblambda 3y agoCEO response: It is your personal responsibility to adjust your seating and workspace arrangements to your personal needs. Please do take the time (i.e. come in early) to make sure your work environment is suitably ergonomic. No mention of how this was sold at the time or how much time is invested in fixing everything every morning, or how that will work for employees with disabilities that make it difficult/impossible to adjust their workspace by themselves.
- glimshe 3y agoThey created hotdesking so we miss the already-awful permanent seat shared open spaces and beg for their return.
- ant6n 3y agoYou only get back your permanent seat in shared office of you work at the office every day, without any wfh-privileges. Sincerely, the management.