Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

FacilitiesMobile workersWorking from home

Eight reasons to turn the tables on hot-desking

by David Whincup 3 Jul 2015
by David Whincup 3 Jul 2015 Hot desking is promoted as a way to cut costs on office space while appealing to "younger workers" - but is there a downside?
Hot desking is promoted as a way to cut costs on office space while appealing to "younger workers" - but is there a downside?

With the use of hot-desking and the number of flexible workspaces on the rise, David Whincup, head of the London employment team at Squire Patton Boggs, sounds a note of caution.

There is a trend for companies in sectors such as the media or web services to ditch many of their desks and desktop computers in favour of working “free range” on laptops and smartphones. Instead of having a fixed location in the office, employees can now work anywhere around the building at kitchen-style tables, or even in a local cafe. The aim is to build an office environment that suits the way that “young people” work.

Hot desking resources

How to manage homeworkers

Good practice manual: flexible working

This is clearly the sort of office most often seen in television advertisements for, unsurprisingly, laptops and smartphones, a world where everywhere is under 30 and has perfect teeth.

However, in the world outside such environments, would the introduction of “free-range” working really take off, or would the chickens soon come home to roost? Will businesses be able to keep a grip on the difference between “free-range” and “not actually there”?

The temptation is to conclude that whatever the merits of such working arrangements, they will not be effective in the majority of cases. Yes, they might save expensive floor space, and they might sound good to a generation that converses more fluently electronically than in person, but there are also clear downsides.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Osteopaths and physiotherapists warn of the musculoskeletal dangers of working from chairs and tables not designed for that purpose (those in kitchens and cafes, for example), but that is potentially the least of it. Here are eight things to consider when introducing hot desking or flexible workspaces:

  1. How much time would you waste trying to find the person you want to talk to?
  2. What damage could be done to team spirit and collegiality through physical separation? Humans are essentially social animals and often need the warmth and immediacy of workplace contact to function at their best.
  3. Studies show that concentrating on your work to the required degree is easier when you are in an environment without background distractions.
  4. Even if under-30s do function better in impromptu working conditions, how about the impact on the older members of the workforce, with the loss of the sense of security and being “home” when their allocated desk is brushed away with the personal effects they used to keep on top of it? The suggestion of a potential indirect age discrimination claim is not made wholly in jest.
  5. Reliance on electronic equipment works only if the matters you are working on are themselves largely or entirely already in electronic form. After the initial thrill, mundane issues such as carting paper files around, not having to clear your desk entirely each night and knowing exactly where you left your office stationery might make all your staff keen to re-colonise a fixed desk.
  6. Consider the confidentiality issues that arise if staff work outside the office, where others could look over their shoulder or their electronic equipment might be stolen or mislaid.
  7. Make sure that the type and amount of work being done on this basis is susceptible to meaningful measurement. Although one can argue that the volume or quality of the output is evidence enough of the value of the employee’s work, it would be naive in the majority of cases to think there will not be a need to keep an eye on attendance and timekeeping.
  8. Beware also of the reverse, the risk that an employee working somewhere else, whether within or outside the building, may become out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and so miss out on important information or opportunities.

An increased degree of flexibility or agility where it can be granted is clearly a good Thing, and a potentially significant source of competitive advantage. But woe betide the employer that follows this model slavishly without having first given a great deal of thought to shaping that flexibility to its work and not letting its staff do it the other way around.

David Whincup

David Whincup is head of the London employment team at Squire Patton Boggs.

previous post
TUPE: Protecting employers’ interests with post termination restrictions
next post
Dealing with workplace bullying: the occupational health nurse’s role

You may also like

Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate

21 May 2025

Senior execs at BlackRock to work in office...

8 May 2025

Reform UK councils’ staff face WFH ban

6 May 2025

Remote working may have triggered jump in employee...

17 Apr 2025

Global employees being relocated left feeling unsupported –...

15 Apr 2025

Employers struggling to manage rising levels of sickness...

7 Apr 2025

Hybrid workers less sick and less stressed

28 Mar 2025

Dog owners more likely to want to work...

24 Mar 2025

Five years on: how has work changed since...

12 Mar 2025

Return to the office: Gartner highlights the risks...

27 Feb 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+