subject: Space Saver - A Common Desk For All [print this page] Today, theres a price tag attached to every inch of office space. Yet how much space is wasted or under-utilised in Conventional offices where there are individual work stations, private offices and cabins, not to mention those spacious and Much-coveted corner offices? That could be about to change. A new concept in conserving work space is fast gaining ground. Its called activity-based working. It takes the idea of hotdesking a step further. With hotdesking the same desk is Shared by different people in rotation. They plug in, do their work and check out. They usually dont belong to the same organization. What happens with activity-based working is that private, individual work spaces within an organization are completely dispensed with. Instead there is one work space usually a long table that is shared by all. When you see an Empty space, you just move in and start working. People may be traveling or business or away on holiday. They may be out at a sales call or a client meeting. If they have private offices, those go empty a huge waste of space. Activity-based working ,on the other hand, makes optimum use of office space.
Cutting down on those hierarchical barriers also makes the whole ambiance more free and easy. People can move around and sit where they like. And they share more than space. They share ideas and get inspired by their neighbors. The eight-hour working day becomes more fun and, importantly, more productive. Theres a lot of flexibility when you adopt activity-based working. The whole work space opens up. There is so much more fluidity. No walls to constrain you. Its like opening up the barriers of the mind. With all its advantages, activity-based working does have Some limitations. What if you just want some quiet time to think, generate breakthrough ideas? What if you want to brainstorm with your team? One solution could be to have a special room that people can book ahead for just such a purpose. A white room, for instance, where phones and cell phones are banned. Once you have got those elusive ideas, its back to the drawing board or, in this case, the long table - to put those ideas into action. Security is an area of concern. You have to be extra careful about securing sensitive information. Technology is a great help here, offering special devices to protect data. But theres nothing like just making sure theres no one looking over your shoulder. Not everyone would willingly opt for activity-based working, however. Some people just dont like change. They like to have their own desks with personal photographs and paraphernalia around them. For them activity-based working may not work. At least not yet. But we believe they will come round in the end. The activity-based model will be increasingly adopted as the cost and space-saving benefits outweigh any resistance to the idea. Meanwhile, how about asking that attractive neighbor who just sat down next to you, to lunch? It could be the start of a great new friendship.
