One-third of desks globally sit empty all week long

Some 80% of total floor space is taken up by individual workstations, with just 20% left for collaboration, survey finds

An office worker at a desk in London. 'It’s time to rethink the humble desk,' said Alex Birch, co-founder and chief executive officer of XY Sense. 'They dominate space in our offices, they’re expensive and we’re just not using them the way we were pre-pandemic.'

More than one-third of desks in offices around the globe are unoccupied all week, according to a new report, raising questions about how well workplaces are currently designed as companies struggle to get employees back into them.

The report, from Australian workplace sensor provider XY Sense, found that 36% of so-called workpoints — cubicles and desks — are never occupied, “indicating a general oversupply.” Of those that are used, 29% were for three hours or less on a given day. Just 14% were occupied for five or more hours, according to the study that tracked 24,855 unique work areas in nine regions including the US, Britain, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Among the spaces used the most are meeting rooms for two or three people, which are 90% full on average. Overall, office utilisation is stuck at about 50% of pre-pandemic levels.