BUT frequently this is actually done. One of my old professors works on positioning, and a client he did consulting for wanted to track their employees around t

BUT frequently this is actually done. One of my old professors works on positioning, and a client he did consulting for wanted to track their employees around the office; and then design new offices based on what came out of it. If you're a company with hundreds of worldwide branches, then the potential benefits make asking questions like this a worthwhile endeavour. Very large companies actually try to design their buildings around what will lead to the greatest productivity. If you're a smaller company, then you might want open plan offices for very different reasons (a perception of cohesion etc). Data can and is applied to this, but it typically isn't because the companies aren't large enough for it to matter too much in terms of productivity; the benefits start to be dwarfed by more pressing matters.