Hot Desking - Overcoming the MDB challenge

We have recently started moving from conventional seating arrangements at office to Hot desking. For clarity let me explain what we wanted to attain. Our hot desking approach was to make employee work from any workstation at different point of time in a given work day. Therefore, all the conventional workstations were made personalization free and some new collaborative workstation were also placed.

Let me admit, the overall experience in the first couple of weeks is encouraging. However, it took some time for our colleagues to come in terms with the concept. Here are some of the issues we had to sort out on our journey towards new way of working and workstation associated habits.

The MDB challenge

MDB here stands for Makan (House), Dukan (Shop) and Bhagwan (God). This is the biggest change management challenge while shifting from conventional office set up to Hot desking.

Makan: In conventional approach a workstation typically involves work desk, chair, Cubical, cabin storage cabinets and finally IP/Extension telephone connection. Employee treat these as their own and it delivers to them the sense of belonging, a safe heaven to unwind, it is their own den.

Dukan: Over period employee gather different type of items that personalize their work station. Awards they received, Greetings cards, paintings of their kids, Calendars, family pictures/frames, Team pictures/ frames, decorative items, books, Magazines, money plants, Lucky Bamboo plants, mouse pads, magnets, stationary, Water bottles, Coffee Mugs, snacks and other food stuff etc. These items make employee workstation personalized. It builds that distinct identity and pride.

Bhagwan: Irrespective of religious beliefs employees have tendency to have blessings if gods at their workstations. In some extreme cases part of work station is converted in to make shift Temple, Church, Mosque etc. You will find fruits and offerings to all mighty on the desk along with deity, pictures of all mighty or their messages in calligraphy. We can also add preferences associated with direction of seat in this category; must of effect of Vaastu and Feng Shui.

Samadhan (The solution) for the MDB challenge at our end had three responses.

Communication was key to get rid of Makan challenge. To break mind blocks we kept talking about possible shift to Hot desking for more than six months. The communication was more in line with asking employees to be free from bondage with desk. In informal gatherings we used dialog like “do not get married with wood and furniture” “Enjoy freedom by divorcing furniture”, “Work from anywhere as long as you are connected to Wifi”, “Be bachelor again” etc. But let me tell you till the reality strikes people they do not fully comprehend the new normal. We are encouraging all team members to divert calls from IP phones to mobile and asking to use mobile for all primary and secondary communication. 

Enablement was important to solve the Dukan issue. It is a challenge to depersonalize workstation. We have asked employee to take back the following to their home – Decorative items, Personal water bottles, Calendars, photos frames, magnets, books, Coffee Mugs, snacks and other food items. We have created common place to keep all lucky bamboo plants and other plants. We have replaced employee specific stationary with common stationary at each work desk, personal water bottle with common water bottle with paper cups. Every employee is given with a personal locker to keep their personal stuff. One interesting problem cropped up during the period is the problem of laptop charging cables. Luckily, most of our laptops are of same make and with same charging port type. We have now installed charging cables at each desk, so that no one must plug and unplug when moving away from workstation.       

A collaborative and open work space also tends to be a very loud work place to start with. Across the table chit chat and discussions at time becomes too noisy. It took little time for the teams to adapt and the noise levels come down to acceptable levels in a period of 2 weeks.

As we moved beyond depersonalizing the work desk, we got in to new problem of how to depersonalize the chair. Though all the chairs are of same make and design, each employee has adjusted the chairs to suit their preferences. This challenge looks to be insurmountable.   

Bhagwan (God) is the most difficult challenging, as it is difficult to dislodge god/faith. Mostly employees have adhered to new requirement, but we still see employees strongly associated with their deities, pics and calligraphic messages. In the initial few days we have observed employees carrying Bhagwan to where ever they are moving but over the time some Bhagwan’s have gone home and some found their own new corners in work space. They do not move any more and are shared with every new occupant of the desk.

Hot desking is the future and it need to be get rooted in to the culture of the company. It not only brings in substantial economic benefit, but it also contributes in a big way in creating an interactive and collaborative work environment. It is an interesting journey for us so far and we look forward to move in this direction.