Open Workspaces, Hotelling, etc.

[alto_stratus]

We are moving toward a more flexible workspace for the fall, where no one will have a permanent office, we will add more desks in open space, and offices/space will be assigned to or reserved by individuals to use a couple of times a week. Is this becoming more common on campus in student-facing offices?

Anyone have examples from their experience of 'what works' and 'what doesn't work'? In particular if no one has a permanent space and the space will need to be managed by sign-up? 

Juggling all the moving pieces seems worthy of a full-time concierge, which we will not have.

[Vkw10]

We are moving toward a more flexible workspace for the fall, where no one will have a permanent office, we will add more desks in open space, and offices/space will be assigned to or reserved by individuals to use a couple of times a week. Is this becoming more common on campus in student-facing offices?

Anyone have examples from their experience of 'what works' and 'what doesn't work'? In particular if no one has a permanent space and the space will need to be managed by sign-up? 

Juggling all the moving pieces seems worthy of a full-time concierge, which we will not have.

No experience with hotelling, but my college job involved a desk shared with five other people at a service point that was staffed 24/7. Think about how you're going to organize your stuff for easy pack and move. You want the bare minimum stuff, but if you regularly need a legal pad, ink pen, ergonomic mouse, and metal straw, you'll need to carry those things with you. Don't count on your office mates to leave a decent pen at the desk you're using tomorrow.

[alto_stratus]

I think some kind of moveable storage thing is in the works. Remembering to leave no stuff behind and to wipe down spaces will be a new part of our lives.

[dismalist]

Hotelling? Harold Hotelling? Use the desk closest to the middle. :-)

[mamselle]

You need some unbiased,, capable person to be "in charge..." of room assignments.

One pharma office I worked had about 10 "hotels" of various classes: 2-3 cubicles for visiting lab rats, few tiny offices for interviewees, out-of-town conference speakers, grand-rounds folks, and consiltant visits; and 2 exec-level corner suites with mahogany board-room-like furniture.

Oh, and the 《TV room》for international connecrions...

I did most of the bookings, which was an online dance of amazing proportions.

There is no power like the power that lets you move a mid-level lab super into an exec suite because it's open and all the other offices for their clearance lever are full....

I always requested chocolate when someone wanted to say, "thanks..."

;--》

M.

[ciao_yall]

Imma leave this right here...

https://dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-10

[clean]

where no one will have a permanent office,

Im guessing that this place does not have a research requirement? 

[sinenomine]

A division at my school that wanted to be edgy and modern tried that a few years ago and it didn't go well. Employees found it hard to settle in and concentrate, and those who regularly met with students pointed out quite rightfully that they needed private spaces to avoid problems with confidentiality, FERPA, etc.

[downer]

Who is the "we" here? Does it include the dept chair and dept secretary/coordinator?

Are numbers of faculty growing? Does this include new people?

I think some kind of moveable storage thing is in the works. Remembering to leave no stuff behind and to wipe down spaces will be a new part of our lives.

People always leave stuff behind, and the piles grow. Nobody wants to lug stuff around unnecessarily. Watch for spaces to get filled. I'd recommend a locker system.

[ergative]

My college tried that a few years ago when they were building a magnificent new building that was going to have glorious open atriums and art exhibitions open to the public, a cafe, performance spaces, and then for working there were break-out "areas" in a massive open floorplan and conference rooms that could be booked. Staff would have to cope with shared offices and hot-desks for staff. They made the strategic error of consulting us about these plans, and got back an enormous outcry against it. ('We've been told that younger staff tend to actually do their work in coffee shops or work from home, so we want to accommodate these preferences.' 'WE DID THAT BECAUSE WE DIDN'T HAVE OFFICES TO WORK IN! IT WASN'T A CHOICE!') We won! They backed down! Private offices!

Then the building project was canceled and now we're all still in our old buildings.

[spork]

We

[. . .]

Is "we" full-time staff? Full-time faculty? Part-time faculty? All of the above?

Working from home during the pandemic has taught me just how much I dislike my commute to campus. I would be amenable to some kind of semi-shared space arrangement if it guaranteed me fewer trips to campus when things return to "normal."

[AvidReader]

My last two adjunct jobs had adjunct offices that largely match your description: large open rooms with desks and tables (most with computers, some without), lockers, a communal microwave, a printer, and 2-4 rooms or cubbies for student conferences. Both were staffed with a concierge, and at our numbers, this was really useful.

My thoughts:
1) Volume of storage matters, as do policies for getting storage. One adjunct office had 24 lockers (for over 100 adjuncts) and the "old guard" had multiple lockers each. I got a locker in my 4th semester (in the interim, I bought a lovely and enormous wheeled briefcase and used that as my office). The other office had plenty of lockers, and it made a huge difference.
2) There should be clear policies for how any private spaces are managed. One office allowed faculty to reserve the attached private rooms for student conferences, but there weren't enough rooms for all our overlapping office hours, and there weren't clear guidelines for how the space should be allocated, so I sometimes found myself discussing work with students in the big open room while other colleagues sat alone in the private rooms, just grading. The other office had a flat rule that anyone could use the private spaces, but that if those were full of faculty working independently and another faculty member needed to hold a conference, the student conference took precedence. This worked really well; most of us just sat in the big room and worked until our students arrived, then transitioned over as needed.
3) It's useful to have a clear community area and a designated work area, and to have clear guidelines about noise. Some of my colleagues got annoyed when anyone talked, anywhere in the room, which is unreasonable if that is the room used for office hours and if the private spaces are already occupied.

AR.

[ergative]

We

[. . .]

Is "we" full-time staff? Full-time faculty? Part-time faculty? All of the above?

Working from home during the pandemic has taught me just how much I dislike my commute to campus. I would be amenable to some kind of semi-shared space arrangement if it guaranteed me fewer trips to campus when things return to "normal."

In this case, the 'we' was 'almost everyone who showed up at the scheduled consultation.'

[lightning]

We are moving toward a more flexible workspace for the fall, where no one will have a permanent office, we will add more desks in open space, and offices/space will be assigned to or reserved by individuals to use a couple of times a week. Is this becoming more common on campus in student-facing offices?

Anyone have examples from their experience of 'what works' and 'what doesn't work'? In particular if no one has a permanent space and the space will need to be managed by sign-up? 

Juggling all the moving pieces seems worthy of a full-time concierge, which we will not have.

Are there cubicles, or is this truly an open workspace where there are no cubicles?

[Caracal]

In theory, I always have a shared office. In practice, most semesters I've been able to rely on having it all to myself. For part time faculty who don"t attend meetings it is usually pretty simple to pair people who have MWF schedules with someone who is TTH or pair day classes with night classes. Most of the time, I'm the only one really using the office for more than printing. I take my stuff off the top of the desk out of courtesy, but I can use the drawers and store stuff on bookcases. I sort of like that setup since it keeps my desk from looking like a rat's nest. There have been one or two terms where that didn't work out for some reason and it was pretty annoying to have to figure out how to either vacate the office or