How to Survive Hot Desking“办公桌轮用制”生存指南

珍妮·萨哈迪/文　李亚姿/译

If you work best having a routine in a predictable environment next to people you know， you may soon find going to the office unsettling.

在一成不变的环境中，坐在认识的同事旁边，按部就班地工作——如果你在这样的场景下工作状态最好，那么你很快就会发现去办公室工作令你不安。

Thats because many employers are starting to use so-called “hot desking”—also known as “hoteling，” “dynamic seating” or “agile seating.” Translation： Employees have to reserve a desk or team room every time they come to work on site.

这是因为很多企业渐渐开始采用“办公桌轮用制”，又称“旅馆式办公制”“动态工位制”，或者“灵活工位制”。也就是说，员工每次来办公室工作前，必须预定工位或者小组会议室。

If the system is poorly set up， employees may be left feeling untethered， like theyre trying to snag1 a seat in a crowded waiting room， potentially next to some stranger with irksome habits. And they will spend real time not getting work done but instead inefficiently wandering around looking for colleagues who used to be within earshot2.

如果这个制度没有落实好，或许会让员工觉得没着没落，就像他们要努力地在拥挤的等候室里抢个座位，而邻座很可能是一个举止惹人厌的陌生人。这样一来，他们不会实实在在地花时间完成工作，反而毫无效率地四处寻找曾经近在咫尺的同事。

But it doesnt have to be that way.

其实不一定非要如此。

What is happening now

目前的情况

Hot desking is not new. Pre-pandemic， a lot of management consulting firms used it for employees who spent the majority of their time at client sites but only some days working in the home office during any given month.

办公桌轮用制并不是新概念。疫情前，很多管理咨询公司就采用了这种制度，实施对象是大部分时间在客户公司、每月仅有几天需要在自己公司办公的员工。

But post-pandemic， the strategy is taking hold in a wide swath of industries as employers try to adapt to a hybrid work model and reduce their real estate footprint.

疫情后，办公桌轮用制渐渐在各行各业广泛应用，因为很多企业试行混合办公模式，试图缩减实体办公空间。

The primary goal for many employers is less to cut costs （although that is certainly a priority for some） than it is to repurpose the office to better reflect how people work now.

很多企业采用辦公桌轮用制的主要目的与其说是削减成本（尽管部分企业的确优先考虑此事），不如说是调整办公室的用途，以便更好地体现人们现在的工作方式。

“We think of it as a liquid workplace… a boundaryless workplace，” said Sanjay Rishi， the Americas CEO of Work Dynamics at JLL， a global commercial real estate services firm.

桑贾伊·里希就职于全球商业地产服务公司“仲量联行”，是美洲地区“智动办公”业务线的首席执行官。他表示：“我们认为办公桌轮用制构建了一个流动的工作场所……一个没有边界的工作场所。”

In exchange for having largely unassigned seating at work， employees have the opportunity to work remotely more often， Rishi said. “Flexibility is very important to people. They get it. They say， ‘Im not in the office 5 days a week. Thats the tradeoff.”

里希说，办公室工位基本不固定换来的是员工有更多远程办公机会。“灵活性对人们来说很重要。他们能够灵活安排，而且会说：‘我不必一周五天都在办公室办公。有得有失。”

Transparency is key

透明是关键

Still， intellectually accepting that such a tradeoff is worth it doesnt mean employees will embrace hot desking if it becomes harder to get their jobs done.

不过，虽然人们从理智上认为这种有得有失的工作方式值得一试，但如果害工作变得更难完成，他们也不会接受办公桌轮用制。

While every employer has to assess what works best for their specific culture， there needs to be clear communication with employees about why the company is switching to a hoteling system in the first place.

每個企业都必须评估出最适合自身独特文化的工作方式，而首先要做的就是与员工沟通清楚公司为什么要实施旅馆式办公制。

And real thought needs to go into the physical layout.

此外，真实的想法都需要落实到物理布局上。

Ideally， Rishi said， individual teams should be assigned to their own area within an open-plan office. And within that area， there should be a mix of “me spaces” and “we spaces” to allow for both individual work and collaborative work between team members.

里希表示，理想的情况下，在开放式办公室里，应为每个团队分配属于他们自己的固定区域。在该区域内，应搭配设置“个人空间”和“团队空间”，让团队成员既可各自办公，又可相互协作。

That not only allows teammates to easily interact， but also informs others in the company where they can be found.

这样不仅方便团队内部沟通，还能让公司里的其他人知道该团队的位置。

If thats not possible， the reservations software program should at least make it easy for people to see who has reserved the available work stations on any given day. “Once youre coming to the office， its important to know who is sitting where，” Rishi said.

如果上述措施无法实施，那么预定工位的软件程序至少要让人们一看就知道谁预定了哪天的可用工位。里希表示：“员工来办公室工作的话，知道谁坐哪里对他们来说很重要。”

That can also be helpful for younger workers who may want to sit near an executive or someone else they want to observe and learn from.

这对年轻员工也很有帮助，因为他们可能想坐在主管或其他他们想观察和学习的人旁边。

Beware territoriality

提防地盘意识

Jessica Kriegel， chief scientist of workplace culture at strategy firm Culture Partners， was working with a department in a large company that operated out of an office with about 60 people.

杰茜卡·克里格尔就职于战略咨询公司“文化合伙人”，是专注于职场文化的首席科学家。她曾与一家大公司的某个部门合作，该部门有大约60人，大家都在一个办公室办公。

While she wasnt consulting with them about hot desking per se， she witnessed its failure in the course of her work there. “It was just wildly disliked，” Kriegel said.

虽然克里格尔没有与部门里的人讨论过办公桌轮用制，但她在合作的过程中可以看出该制度无法实施。她说：“人们非常反感这个制度。”

The reason， she explained： Tenured employees became territorial about the desks theyd chosen and other employees knew not to mess with the social hierarchy.

她解释说，原因在于终身制员工对自己选择的工位已经有了地盘意识，而其他员工也知道不能去扰乱这种社会等级结构。

That kind of anecdotal example illustrates a point that Carlos Martinez， co-managing director and principal at Gensler， a global office design and planning firm， makes to his clients： You never want to alienate any group of employees when changing the structure of the workplace.

卡洛斯·马丁内斯是全球办公室设计和规划公司“晋思”的联席总经理兼项目负责人。上述趣闻阐明了他向客户提出的那个观点：改变工作场所的结构时，千万不能冷落任何一个员工群体。

Thats also why employers embarking on the switch to hot desking may want to customize the options to best suit different employees needs. For instance， some might want or need a permanent desk because theyre on site far more than others. Or， some might benefit from sharing a desk with just one other colleague who will be in on different days.

正因如此，开始实施办公桌轮用制的企业可能希望根据员工的需求定制最适合他们的制度。例如，有的员工想要或需要一个固定工位，因为他们在办公室工作的时间较其他人多得多；有的员工或许可以跟另一位同事共享一个工位，两人正好不在同一天来办公室。

Aim for acoustic privacy

追求隔音

Noise in open-plan offices has always been a top complaint when designers havent taken care to create some acoustic privacy through use of sound-absorbing materials and locating collaboration spaces out of earshot of individual desks.

人们对开放式办公室抱怨最大的就是噪音，因为设计师在设计办公空间时没有专门考虑用吸音材料来隔音，也没有特别注意将协作空间与个人工位隔开。

In fact， Martinez said， some of the early missteps in the creation of open-plan offices were putting collaborative spaces right next to individual work stations， and putting cushions on top of individuals filing cabinets inviting people to sit and chat （loudly） next to colleagues at nearby desks.

马丁内斯表示，早期建立开放式办公室时其实存在一些错误，包括将协作空间设置在个人工位旁边，以及在个人放文件的矮柜柜顶摆放坐垫，鼓励人坐在那里跟旁边工位上的同事（大声地）讨论。

Creating acoustic privacy is especially critical in a hot-desking situation where people may be sitting next to new colleagues with different work habits and varying levels of courtesy regarding volume control on the phone or holding conversations or meetings nearby.

采用办公桌轮用制，员工旁边可能坐着有不同工作习惯的新同事，而且新同事在电话音量控制、与人交谈或进行会议等方面的礼貌程度也参差不齐。在这种情况下，隔音尤其重要。

Plus， people taking part in meetings held in open spaces may be less willing to contribute if they worry about being overheard by others， Kriegel noted.

此外，克里格尔指出，在开放空间开会时，如果员工担心不相关的人听见自己说的话，那么他们可能不太愿意在会上发表意见。

Invite employee feedback

征求员工反馈意见

Switching to hot desking should be viewed as a work in progress by everyone.

每个人都应该把采用办公桌轮用制当成一项不断改进的工作。

“Dont stop experimenting，” JLLs Rishi said. “Check in with teams to see whats working or not.”

仲量联行的里希表示：“要不断尝试，问问各个团队，看看哪些措施有效，哪些无效。”

In its 2023 global workplace survey， Genslers researchers suggest employers should design the office in ways that make it a destination of choice for employees who perform work that can be done remotely. The best workplaces， they wrote， “will… offer diverse and adaptable spaces where employees can self-curate their desired individual workplace experiences.”

在2023年的晋思全球工作场所调查报告中，研究人员建议，企业应将办公室设计成那些可以远程完成工作的員工首选的办公场所。调查报告里写道：“最好的办公场所能提供多样化和适应性强的空间，员工身在其中可以自己去创造他们想要的个人工作场所体验。”