Are Hot Desks used much?

[glennPattonWork3]

'Draws' point where am I going to keep my company jacket & tie?

[Jacquers]

I suppose when I was studying the computer lab was a 'hot desk' - you sat at whichever PC and worked there. I wouldn't really want to do that at work though.

[Chuck OHalloran]

Toe in the spectrum, they are implying the autism spectrum and not adhd.

[Bruce Patin]

At my desk, I have 5 computers, a KVM switch, a tissue box, lotion, two file cabinets full of notes, disks, dress shoes, shirt, tie, backpacks, mug, water bottles, spare mice and keyboards, a rack of books and binders, and my aluminum foil hat. Most can be moved around from one hot desk to another with a half days work, but the aluminum foil hat might get crushed.

[obermd]

When the CEO joins this idiotic movement then I'll think about it. Until then keep your paws off my desk.

[agolddog]

Make sure you get in before the management drone who came up with this. Sit at their desk. Proclaim it to be your 'hot desk' for the day. Repeat until this idiocy goes away.

[Leo56]

It IS a stupid idea, but don't rely on it 'settling down' - ours hasn't. I'm not working in a Dev environment (it's a pensions admin. office....) but I can assure you that so-called hot-desking is about as popular as a fart in a space suit. Of course, it was imposed from on high by the lords of creation who, in their infinite wisdom, decided that what was good for offices in which staff periodically spent time out in the community was also good for people who never left their desks. Go figure. So now, if you need to discuss work with someone you first have to scan/navigate the entire office looking for them... brilliant and so efficient! We now have the ridiculous situation where people are moved from 'their' desk to make space for another worker who has just come in - so, of course, then a manager has to find somewhere to 'park' the moved member of staff...Monty Python meets 'The Office'.

[User 13800111]

aka Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

[Dr Walt Fair PE]

Sounds like a ready made excuse:"I'll code that routine as soon as I find my desk"

CQ de W5ALT

Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software

[MSBassSinger]

The question might be not "how much", but "why"? There are people who make an income by dreaming up ways to change things without respect to whether the change is good or under what set of conditions the changes would be good. These ideas are quite literally "sold" in a way that tells the buyer that this is the newest/hippest/coolest/etc. thing and it would be good PR to do it. I remember the craze about adjustable desktops. That went over like a lead balloon with most developers (especially those over 30). The desire to be seen as contemporary with current trends is a powerful magnet that leads many to behavior they otherwise would know is useless. These fads come and go.

[Kirk 10389821]

It is a way to make people feel absolutely interchangeable. This is a problem Management has TOO MUCH OF in Software Development. When I was first starting out, we had 2.5 developers. We were looking at a huge copy/rewrite of our legacy system to go into a new market. We "estimated" it would take us 9 months to do this, if we dropped everything, which was not possible, but it gave us a cost basis. We would leave the 0.5 developer to maintain stuff. The 2 programmers were above average. And without distraction, we felt we could live with 9 months to do this. The owner looked at the room, and saw 5 people (a manager who had not programmed in years, a Computer Operations Manager who did not program beyond hobby level, and the 3 other programmers). He said well, if we hire 3 more programmers, you guys should be finished in 2 months. He just called us COGS in a wheel. Just get more of "us" and he will make us live with this. Never mind it took over a month to find and hire each of us, and I helped bring 2 of them in! LOL. So, I stood up and said basically "That's Amazing. So if you go out and hire 180 Programmers, we can have it done for you by tomorrow at noon!" And I walked out of the meeting and went back to work. My boss pulls me into his office about 45 minutes later to let me know that the meeting was not over when I left... I explained: "It was for me". I later read the Mythical Man Month and learned it has been a problem since knowledge workers became a thing. Management is clueless about the ability of any individual who is smarter than they are, or who have skills they do not! == Your future work environment is about normalizing all knowledge workers to be the same. A terrible mistake, because I know from experience that there are Programmers that can do 10-100 times the work of other programmers. We have seen it first hand. We have leveraged it. Good luck!

[JakeSays]

Amen to that! Last place I worked stuffed 90 engineers in to one room - less than 3 feet between each person. There is no way in hell I'd do hot desking. And I'll never do open floor plan again.

I miss punch cards.

[James Lonero]

Management will give us lockers like we had in high school.