The message here is for employees not to get too comfortable and that they should be grateful to have a place to sit down at all. This arrangement creates uncertainty and will result in workers becoming insecure and emotionally ungrounded. There will still be desks located in prime real estate so the more ambitious will make efforts to arrive earlier than others to claim "their space" before others arrive. The whole concept seems fucked to me.

I'll also add: The whole concept of capitalism seems fucked to me. I can't understand why a group of employers wouldn't want a motivated workforce instead of a bunch of cubicle sharecroppers.

Maybe I'm just old school but I thank gaud I didn't work in tall buildings.

Capitalism can work very well with good regulations, and a combination of social services to help those who are down get back up.

If you look at the Scandinavian countries capitalism, that is exactly what they have, it is a "Social-Democratic" system that works very well.

The problem is not capitalism, it is corrupt government, corrupt executives who only think about maximizing their bonuses and will make decisions that in the long run will affect the company negatively but show a gain for that year which will produce a big bonus for them, on top of that the "Safety Parachutes" which they get after they are kicked out due to nonperformance. Remember Carly Fiorina? She brought HP down to its knees, when they finally figured out how bad she was, they got rid of her with a $34 million check.

People complain about regulations, but regulations are good, greed has to be restrained, if you don't then we have the crap that we have today.

No reason why a CEO should pocket $400 million bonus when he/she did not create the company. If someone like Fred Smith who built FedEx form the ground up got a $400 million bonus, he deserves it, but an Exxon CEO who is nothing but a hired hand? No way.

We have been here before. During the first Great Depression, we had these very similar conditions. Before every US economic crash, these very similar conditions existed. If capitalism is so great why do we keep coming back to these conditions and keep having crashes?

I found Marx's arguments to be very prescient. It's almost as if he is describing the economic conditions we have today. And unfortunately he predicts more pain and suffering under capitalism until we change it.

as long as they keep paying and treating their workaday employees like shit.

Captalism has numerous built in problems. To make more and more capital, capitalists must pay their workers less and less. But capitalists need those same workers to buy their crap. Those workers can't buy their crap because they get paid so little.

Capitalism concentrates wealth. Because you need capital to make capital, the person born with just a little bit more will be able to take even more.

Regulating capitalism doesn't work because the capitalists don't want their capital regulated. The biggest capitalists gain the biggest power from their capital. Captalism is not democratic. It only allows the owner of the capital the power. With so much money at their disposal, the biggest capitalist buys up government.

What you had under regulated capitalism in the US was a democratic government overlaid by an almost feudal economic system. A democratic government can not be constantly overseeing and controlling the most powerful people in the country. Those powerful people have to agree to be regulated and they don't. Unless you remove their power, you can't control the inevitable march to ever unfair and excessive distributions of wealth that rival kings and slave masters.

You need to introduce democracy to the economic system. We don't have that.

To base an economic system on who has the most money, who can get away with the most loot, who can con the most people out of their life long earnings is ridiculous. But that is the bases of capitalism.

Democracy can Not flourish in a system that allows one person to gain more than an entire nation. Equality among people will never develop when one man has a golden palace and another man is forced to eat from his garbage can. Placing a man's life on the balance of how much he can earn from his labor while designing a system that encourages paying the absolute lowest price for that labor is a sick and broken system no matter how many controls you put on it.

The people who inherit their capital from their paents will always control the power in a capitalist nation, because they start out with so much more. And those very wealthy people will always try to eliminate democratic controls on their capital. Using democracy to control capitalism is like trying to use a slave to control the master.

Capitalism has the highly progressive feature of great personal advancement (in a well-regulated level-playing field).

Progressivism is nothing without a high degree of freedom. That includes the freedom to improve one's life by hard work and careful strategy. Hard work should be rewarded.

Further, the inherent competitive nature of capitalism fosters tremendous innovation. That is progressive!

Look, the difference between capitalism and communism is who decides who gets rewarded. Capitalism is more responsive to reality. Communism is more responsive to political power. The so-called "dictatorship of the proletariat" becomes in actuality a dictatorship of the party elite, which soon has nothing to do with the proletariat.

Socialism is substitutes democracy for some of the reward-decision making and levels the playing field more or less by progressive tax structures and other similar mechanism. Democracy, properly applied which depends on a well-educated electorate with some wisdom, is the brake that prevents "a system that allows one person to gain more than an entire nation". The latter problem is not inevitable in capitalism.

Socialism overlaps capitalism to a great extent. If you throw out capitalism, you are left with communism. Don't make that mistake, which you do when you say "I do not believe there is anything progressive about capitalism".

be stated. We barely do.

Regulations to rein in greed, as you say are good, but here dog-eat-dog capitalism is much more prevalent than the socialist aspects of our system and the repugs are constantly trying to strip away all of our hard-fought-for social safety net (our bits of socialism) in attempts to move us towards oligarchy.

They've been trying to roll back FDR's and LBJ's achievements since they we're instituted, and they've had some success, most recently with the tax scam they just passed.

As you note the people in the social democracies of Europe have the highest standards of living and the highest happiness quotients yet we have this constant battle with the repugs fighting to enrich the rich even more while fooling their base into thinking they're fighting for them.

I like my desk and my office my way. Namely uncluttered and organized. I judge people (accurately I've found) by their office.

The stand up desks aren't for me but if it's good for you fine. My wife bought herself a convertible stand up desk addition and she loves it.

Unless you thoroughly disinfectant each desk each day it could present a problem. Considering that I came down with scabies last month, I don't believe that my coworkers would want to be in close proximity of anywhere I was during that time.

Also, is your desk for the day reserved for you if you need to step out for a break or go to lunch? Does the employer expect you to remain at your spot the entire time you are at the office?

I opted to work from my desk at home...my commute is as long as it takes to find my slippers in the morning.

Before I retired, I telecommuted several times a week and was glad to be able to (I had my own office at my workplace though). Colleagues of mine down in D.C. did end up literally hoteling (alternating with telecommuting) given the cost of leasing space down there.

The best part of WAH is the food is much better, the worst thing is the food is much better

And would not accept any gigs that would require me too either..

Aside from going in a couple of times to get replacement keyboards or monitors I haven't been in the office in almost a decade as well and I miss none of it.

I don't miss the drama, the chatter about their spouse, child, grandchild, latest reality show or sports game.

I really don't miss the co-worker who when she wasn't making personal calls from work hummed the rest of the time. I also don't missing tasting the perfume of another co-worker.

Ain't THAT the damn truth!

The coworkers who would go from person to person to person gossiping and whining and keeping them (and me) from doing work.

I worked a company called Appnet and they had special rolling file cabinets, people would find a desk and move their cabinet under the table. When they left they put the cabinet back into storage.

Maybe address the OP?

It has been called MANY names over the years which is the point of my post, I just retired after > 30 years working for the government and have been through many bullshit verbal vomit terms for this and other things used by the business community.

I am seriously thinking of leaving or retiring because of this, even though otherwise it's a great job with great people. I know I am not alone - we'll all be ripe for the recruiter's call.

And regurgitate something on the desk to save our spot.

or you just have to take your files with you. Maybe each employee has a cabinet drawer assigned to them for storage. ???

Files?! What about my snacks!?!??!?

if you leave anything unattended.

This describes my employer pretty well, and there are some of those hall monitors you describe. Their job is to look at the hotelled cubicle you occupy today, and put a warning card in your desk if you forgot to lock your computer when you stepped away, or left something that looks vaguely customer-related sitting there unsecured. Or anything else they deem to be a security issue.

.......people have little two-drawer cabinets into which they must stash everything that's theirs or that they have that they will need the next day and that, then, is rolled into a 'garage' area for the night. When you come in in the morning, you stash your coat etc in a small locker and take your drawers and find an open space at one of the very large tables with monitors and that's where you'll work for the day.

Like quite a few others I've spoken with, if and when that happens in our office, I'll be history. Just not a productive way to work for me.

Businesses view employees as material assets that can be bought like so much equipment.

and humanity of workers

the latest, if you've been keeping track of the goofy ideas as they go by.

will sit in the same spots regardless. Just think about the places that have unassigned seating, chuches, classrooms, prep sporting venues and then think about how you usually sit in the same spot and others do too. I remember back in my college days being in big lecture halls for popular electives or introductory classes. Even in a room that might hold 300+ students, the same kids would be sitting in the same spots every time.

Just as bad as having conference rooms with chest high tables and no chairs so meetings become as short as possible a-la-Cabletron run by Craig Benson and Bob Levine in the 90's. That certainly worked well for them until the company went out of business.

a certain amount of sense in certain situations.

Where I work, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of my coworkers (including myself) don't come into the office on a regular basis so it doesn't make sense to have desks for everyone when many go empty well over half the time.

for coming up with this idea and will probably not have to participate.

. . . that promoters of this idea says nobody wants anymore.

"Oh, all right! Even though i don't believe in corner offices, i'll take one!"

my first thought is how disgusting it is that someone got paid to create itl

Sorta like those scenes in Austin Power's Dr. Evil.

and the computer technicians had up to a half-dozen computers prioritized to handle massive downloads from the data warehouse I am dubious as to whether it helps overall efficiency. It seems like an effort to see who can show up earliest at the office to get the prime real estate and undoubtedly some of that time is considered to be off-the-clock so that those early birds stay as late as everyone else. I made it to work on time, but since I only lived two miles away I never was more than 20 minutes early.

If not more, so while the office might be full everyday, it could be a different cast of characters.

If they could pay you nothing, and force you to work at your own expense, they would.

employees are in once or twice a week. I don't go in the office often. But when I do, I see a lot of empty desks because people are either working at home by choice or out in the field where they should be. All that is fine with me, because it makes it easier to get away with not going in office and putting up with that BS. I suspect one can make a good case that it is better for environment too.

Sometimes, I think we just look for things to complain about. Most people I know are glad to not have to go into a building to work every day.

Furniture, heating or AC and rent while you work for them. And then paying you the lowest possible price for your labor.

You ungrateful wretches

I'm sorry FarmerRick, I work at home and if they offered me 50% more to go into the office, I'd quit and go back to consulting.

The office makes a lot of sense, hence why it started in European countries and not here. Heck, law and accounting firms have been doing this for years with junior associates who are on the road most of the time. They have a line of tables for them to use in the unlikely event they come in the office.

And I agree with you, I prefer it. But you would think what with all their savings, they would pay you more not less for working from their office. But it's been my experience that work from home jobs don't pay as much....especially piece work.

But face it, the savings are really better for them than the employee.

...and therefore a smaller number of desks will suffice. You imply that this reflects a capitalist tendency towards cutting costs. Why wouldn't the same principle apply in a non-capitalist business?

I'm just thinking of worker run co-ops where workers wouldn't vote for floating desk situations if it made it too difficult to do their job. A lot of supposed cost savings for capitalist are merely externalizing costs to others. Like externalizing the cost of cleaning up pollutions or paying wages that do not cover the cost of living forcing the state to pick up those costs.

A corporation reducing desks, saves them rent and facilities maintenance. But now the workers pick up those costs either by living out of their cars, running heat and AC, costing more gas, or paying for more home facilities costs like running the heat and AC longer at home. Someone picks up those costs, it's just not the capitalist anymore.

....are focused on saving costs or maximizing profits.

it's a good model. Similar to teleworking, one needs a space to be able to work from.

But if they expect people to be at the office for eight to ten hours everyday, it's a bit problematic. If your work needs to have a way of tracking the location of workers - especially in a consulting environment - knowing where to find them can be the difference between resolving a problem quickly or allowing it to snowball out of control.

Especially for administrative or trouble-desk personnel.

Haele

improve productivity at all costs. !!!!!!!!

jeessssusssssonaharley, what will the masters of the universe want next? Perhaps a spot in your kitchen or bathroom where they can see if you are improving productivity 24/7/365.

No wonder those tall building windows don't open.

Because next thing will be that work will be expected to be done while you take a shit.

.... this happened at my company, whereby cubicles were deemed too "private" and offices too "egalitarian" so the trend was for everyone to sit in rows, screens fully exposed, exposed to being monitored 8 hours a day to ensure worker productivity wasn't being cheated by a 5 minute game of solitaire. The so-called purpose was to "improve collaboration." BULLSHIT. It was to save money.

Oh, and tensions flared among people sitting on top of one another, whereby a simple phone call 3 feet from you interfered with your ability to concentrate. Someone I mildly disliked turned into a loathsome enemy due to their annoying bad habits which were amplified by having to sit six fee from them. Interruptions skyrocketed and the sense of having any personal space vanished.

But by all means, let's shuttle people around so they don't dare even put up a picture of their family to remind them of why they're there!

If you want a nice desk, not in the hallway, it will cost you even more. Capitalism, always ensuring you're nickeled and dimed to death.

They were starting this crap at Shell where I worked and we were none too happy about it. Its one thing to have an open workstation that visitors can plug into. It's quite another to have regular emploees vie for open desks.

That's intentional, and I don't like that part of that concept. It increases the impersonal side of employment. If you don't have your own spot in the office, you're just an interchangeable part of the clockworks.

I've been keeping a lot of minor things at my various desks over the years - toothbrush, toothpaste, Advil for headaches, snack food (a lot cheaper to buy in a grocery store and bring in versus a vending machine), and maybe a few other small items for possible other minor things like allergies/colds.

I think I have two drawers of stuff. Mini drug store. Feminine care products....

Now we just need to train them to recognize that simple fact.

Not doing as well on the job.

that would drive me nuts.

When will Holograms be affordable? Can you imagine a portable hologram device that can throw projections on your desk so that your family photos and keesh-keesh souvenirs can be displayed all over your work space? Then, when you're done, you just take the hologram machine with you.

From the Oxford English Dictionary definition:

1991 Sunday Times 5 May iv. 17/1 The new trend, ‘hot desking’, is that desks are shared between several people who use them at different times. This has been made possible because more people are now working from home or with the customer.

1994 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 6 Apr. d1 They're designing new systems, sometimes called hoteling, hot-desking or just-in-time offices, that let professionals reserve their offices as they would hotel rooms—that is, only when they need them.

Can't even get a scrap of respect and a workplace "home" to feel appreciated in crapholes like that. No thanks.

... the phone with a side panel of lighted buttons and switches. A list of people I could rouse from their sleep.

I fucking OWNED that desk night and graveyard shifts. I could call helicopters out of the sky.

Regular hours I had to find my own spot, usually in some darker corner, sitting on a stool, sorting and initialing papers on a cheap fold up table, no computer, no phone, no nothing. Mild mannered Hunter by day, superhero at night.

Completely and utterly stupid.

Recently moved to a new office. It's not big enough for everyone because they want to save costs by having people work from home most days.

So I go into the office maybe one day a week (fine with me because now my commute is longer), and there are no assigned desks. But my dept and others ended up picking areas they would sit in.

I'd rather just work from home all week. It's a weird set up.

I work from home at least one or two days a week, and parts of the other days. I'm an academic, and I do have an office, since I need it for office hours and for getting work done between classes, but the rest of the time I work in my office at home.

Depending on the kind of business, this setup makes sense to me. If you have 20 employees and on any given day only 10 are in the office because lots of folks are working from home, then it makes sense, especially if it's a largely paperless office. You can provide lockers for personal items if there's a need for that, the way they do for doctors in hospitals.

I don't see the issue, except if people are in fact expected to be in the office every day - then they really should have their own desk spaces.