Desk sharing is often applied across the board, the same for every team. It works where presence is genuinely discontinuous; it produces disorder and tension where it isn't. The variable that determines the outcome is the work profile, and that profile is measured before the space is changed.
The work profile determines the sustainable ratio
Not all roles relate to space in the same way. People who often work off site, people who alternate focus sessions with moments of collaboration without fixed equipment, people who manage their own day independently: these profiles can sustain a shared ratio because their presence on site is structurally discontinuous. A shared workstation reflects a reality that already exists – and frees up square metres that can become something else. The precise calculation of the sustainable ratio for each profile is described in detail in the dedicated article: desk sharing ratio.
Where desk sharing produces the opposite result
People whose work is continuous at the desk, who use fixed equipment or personalised set-ups, who are present on site in a stable and predictable way: these profiles cannot sustain desk sharing because the workstation is an integral part of how they work. Forcing the ratio onto them produces no saving – it produces disorderly use of space, informal conflicts over workstation availability and widespread discontent. Any square metres freed up should be reinvested in support areas calibrated to the real mix of activities, not simply eliminated.
Measure first: the survey as a starting point
Knowing which ratio to apply to which team requires data. Through interviews and surveys we reconstruct the typical day of each group: how many hours on site, how much presence out of the office, what type of activity takes up most of the time. From there the stated needs and the latent ones emerge, and the ratio becomes a measure grounded in reality. The square metres freed up by calibrated desk sharing do not disappear: they are reinvested in support areas – small rooms, focus areas, informal spaces – sized to the activities the typical day reveals. It is that reinvestment that makes the difference between a project that works and one that frees up space only on paper.