When I was a summer student, I shared a closet-sized cubicle, about 12 feet by 4 feet, with 4 other students.
I could be wrong on the measurements, but here is what I remember;
- If you were at the back, you had to navigate past everyone’s chairs to get there.
- I shared a phone with someone, but even then never wanted to use it because they were 3 feet from me.
- You could see everyone’s screens and what they were doing.
- You could not lean back and stretch because you would bump into someone.
And you never ate lunch at your desk.
It wasn’t a great work environment, and I didn’t last long. I was young, it was fine.
I’ve done the hotelling stations thing, and it doesn’t work well either; you’re always getting eyeballed by the person’s desk you took.
You don’t need to provide chefs, massage, and slides to make people happy, but you do need to provide them a place to work to be productive.
