Both approaches have merit. Any solutions would do well to achieve the best of both while still remaining feasible. In the past, I've thought about physically-

Both approaches have merit. Any solutions would do well to achieve the best of both while still remaining feasible. In the past, I've thought about physically-convertible setups, but this is probably far too exotic to be practical. Likewise, affording each employee two desks, one of each type, doesn't rank very high on the feasibility scale either. What about emulating helicopter cabin communication? Give each employee audiophile-grade closed headphones and\or in-ear monitors. Then, issue a high quality microphone along with it. Finally, use this setup with say, Slack (once they add voice support). Open office. Each desk angled back-to-wall or similar to afford visual privacy, and the only problem you're left with is conversational privacy. For that, anything from conference rooms to sufficiently loud artificial ambient office noise could work.