Open Office Floor Plans Get A New Dimension
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — In this bustling hub of the tech industry, space is at a premium. The seven-by-seven-mile city is bordered on 3 sides by water, and despite the popularity of recent statewide ballot measures, there is still a strong local aversion to building high-rises that NIMBYs fear could alter the “local flavor” of San Francisco neighborhoods.
In an attempt to make do with the tiny offices they occupy at the grace of their investors, some local companies are resorting to unorthodox measures. Among more mundane solutions like hiring remotely, one option that’s gaining a seat at the table is to stack workstations and their users vertically — an arrangement known as “bunk desking” or more colloquially as “the ol’ double-desker.”
Stacking employees’ desks vertically follows a long trend of tech companies trying to cram more employees into less space at the cost of even basic privacy. Tech employees used to have their own offices, which were collapsed into smaller cubicles ringed with half-hearted walls, which fell to noisy open office plans with no walls at all, to double-deskers where employees can turn their heads and see their neighbors’ legs. While some companies stagger consecutive employees between lower and higher desks, more budget-oriented modes preferred by earlier-stage enterprises usually involve having employees sit on each others’ shoulders.
We interviewed one employee, George Wilson of SaaS startup Lamtara, about his experience with this new paradigm in office organization. Mr. Wilson, who described himself as a “bottom” in the new arrangement, had seen the transition of his company to the new desk system.
“When we grew beyond 11 people, the company didn’t have enough funding to rent a third storage unit, so we started double-desking. I was one of the two people here who had ever set foot in a gym, so I was the first to try it out,” he said as another employee swayed perilously on his shoulders. “It took some getting used to, but the added strain actually helped reinforce some other recommended ergonomic practices, like getting up for a stretch every now and then and maintaining good posture.”
The practice has already kicked off a furor among techies-rights advocates (previously occupied with advocating for better snacks and complaining about their compensation on Blind) who complain that employees have the right to both a chair and a desk. However, startups who endorse the practice argue that double desking simply amplifies the health benefits of standing desks. One founder told Halting Problem that the upper level of desks would shade employees from the harsh glare of their fluorescent lighting.
We asked Mr. Wilson if double desking had cause any tensions or uncomfortable situations with their female coworkers, to which he laughed and replied, “What female coworkers?”
Are double desks just another passing fad that will be soon supplanted by a migration to cloud-hosted VR workspaces? Or is there really no replacement for the face-to-face (or in this case, cheek-to-thigh) interactions we can only get in the real world? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, Mr. Wilson’s company continues to struggle with limited space. Lamtara’s senior management is currently debating whether to convert their bathroom into a conference room or to convert their conference room into a bathroom.
