The desk is dead.

At least as a CRE metric and as a proxy for people.

The Desk as the Atomic Measure of Work

The desk is dead. At least as a key CRE metric, and as a proxy for people.

I have been undertaking some research into CRE design in an era of liberated work alongside Domino Risch of Placeology, and it became apparent that most CRE metrics still hang onto the desk as the atomic measurement of a workspace. This no longer holds true.

The desk was once the primary reason to go to an office, because the phone, fax, computer, and paperwork were anchored to it, and that was the constant ‘address’ where colleagues could find you during working hours. As such, the office - and specifically the desk - was the only place that ‘office workers’ (remember that term?) could do their work. It was a miniature manufacturing plant for paper based outputs, a factory with its equipment locked in place.

The desk was also a physical embodiment of office hierarchy, as well as the primary measure of the number of people that could fit into a workspace: the desk was a proxy for people.

Technology Has Liberated Work from the Desk

Today, the desk is little more than a chipboard plank upon which items can be placed in gaps between more important tasks, and a generally uninspiring plank at that. With personal technology now lighter, mobile, ubiquitous and commonly untethered from cables, the desk has lost much of its purpose. Consequently, desks as a primary work setting are grossly under-utilised, as individual concentrated work can, and does, happen anywhere. Currently, in a typical CBD office, 45% of desks are utilised for less than one hour daily, and 27% of desks are never used (Source: XY Sense).

Activity-Based Working and the Desk Ratio Problem

Many companies have long recognised this vast waste of space and resources. For the past 10 to 15 years, time utilisation data has been used to support the extensive implementation of Activity-Based Working (ABW) or Agile Working with unassigned seating, recognising that not only is office space significantly under-utilised, but also that a normal working day/week/month involves a broad range of tasks, many of which cannot be completed at a desk. But hyper-conservative CRE principles linked to concerns about there ‘not being enough desks for everyone’ led to inappropriately generous desk ratios - too many desks – which led to a simultaneous lack of individual focus and meeting spaces available on demand.

In effect, desks were installed at the expense of more useful spaces.

The Seat: A Better Metric for Liberated Workplaces

Now, I am not suggesting for one minute that the deskless office is the future. Far from it, as 15% of existing desks are regularly utilised (>5 hours per day). But we can confidently say that with 66% of desks rarely or never used (27% never; 18% <1 hour; 21% <3 hours), the reliance on desks as the atomic measure of density has undoubtedly been consigned to the past.

The seat is a much more appropriate measure, since a large majority of office-based functions occur with participants being seated in a broad variety of settings.

With the HQ Venue being a central hub that fosters engagement, culture, and productivity by prioritising social interaction, collaboration, and employee experience, the seat (in all its forms) is the new atomic measurement of a workspace. All desks need chairs (even standing height desks), but not all seats need a desk to be a productive place to work.

Rethinking the Seat-to-Desk Ratio

But the seat does not just describe density - the functional variety of ‘seats’ in a workspace is huge, and this is emerging as a reliable indicator of the level of hybrid readiness in a workspace.

Twenty years ago, as ABW was becoming de rigueur, a ratio of one desk chair to one collaboration chair (chairs for meetings, collaboration, lounging and socialising for shorter periods of time) was an indication of a progressive workspace.

Now, a ratio of one desk seat to two social & collaboration seats - a roughly 35/65 split - is much more indicative of a workspace designed to support a hybrid and liberated workforce.

It is in this ratio of different seat types that the seat metric comes to life as a key measure of the strategic intent of the workspace, and its readiness as a HQ Venue supporting liberated work.

In the new era of liberated work, seats — not desks — define how we design and operate for people, culture, and performance. The measure of a workplace’s success is no longer how many desks it holds, but how intentionally it enables connection, productivity, and commercial resilience.