A recent trend in the world of flexible workspaces is hot-desking. According to Heidi Mitchell in her recent piece, "Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking," a growing number of employers, responding to the increases in remote working, are asking employees to "grab an empty [desk] on days they come into the office." Unsurprisingly, as Mitchell notes, "Many employees hate it." And, that hate, from my perspective, is largely explained (surprise!) in the lack of autonomy, connectedness, and competence found in many hot-desking scenarios.
This experience of hot-desking strikes me as similar to the feelings many of us experience as we go to the local public library or coffee shop to work. We walk in and immediately scan for a desk or workspace, although, in the case of hot-deskers, leaving the building is not an option. As humans, we are quick to establish patterns with and even territorial feelings towards places we visit regularly. For example, I teach a class of 120 students in a lecture hall that can hold 250 students, so there is plenty of room. Nonetheless, by the second week of class, students have established their space and their seat. There is an unwritten rule, a social norm, about violating this hypothetical seating chart. So, I can't imagine the disconnectedness felt by employees as they enter their workspaces and search for a desk.
Beyond the fact that hot-desking violates our territorial social norms, it also brings a lack of control to employees; they can't control where they sit or who they sit near. As Jennifer Veitch, who has studied hot-desking, explains, when workers lack control of where they sit to work, it not collaborative, rather it is "a soup of random desks."
From a competence perspective, hot-desking limits, in many cases, worker's self-efficacy. They don't have regular access to workspaces that fit the work they need to do. As Mitchell notes, some employees need dual monitors but complain about the inability to find such desks. Or, perhaps, the need for a basic whiteboard proves unmet in certain workspace options.
If employees are unable to find collaborators, or feel like they are in a "random soup of desks," there will be little sense of connectedness. This weaker sense of community is captured in Anna Haapakangas's depiction of hot-desking: "The move to hot-desking...'may also increase perceived work demands, at least in the short term,' because less contact with colleagues and a weaker sense of community could create stress that leads people to feel that their work is more demanding than they previously thought."
Ultimately, if employees find themselves lacking in autonomy, competence, and connectedness, then employers find themselves with both a "real recruitment and retention problem." This issue tracks back to my previous writing on the potential disconnect between GenZ and current employers--don't assume young people want random flexibility and "hot-desking."
The solutions some employers are implementing to ease the strains of hot-desking respond to our need for autonomy, competence, and connectedness. A key element is bringing employees into the discussion of re-creating workspaces. Dr. Bergsten, author of a 29012 study, found that "the more workers participated in activities that explained the change process, the higher their overall satisfaction." Autonomy is not found in assuming a certain flexible spatial or time arrangement works for all employees. Seeking their input feeds autonomy.
From a connectedness perspective, many employers are implementing a neighborhood approach to hot-desking, where employees have control over their interactions and can move between more private or public areas of the "neighborhood." Such moves even led to more productivity on the part of employees. In a quote from one of the researchers of hot-desking regarding workspaces and productivity, "Employees felt that their productivity was judged less by time spent being seen, and more on their work outputs in the new office space." Despite a dip in the numbers of remote workers in the past year, that number remains higher than pre-pandemic numbers and indicates that remote-work, however defined, is here to stay for many workers. But what that remote work scenario looks like may differ from workplace to workplace. As seen in many employees "hate" for hot-desking, employees should be involved in discussion around flexibility and remote work and employers would be wise to consider how workers can find autonomy, connectedness, and competence in that post-pandemic environment. As noted earlier, it is a recruitment and retention problem.
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