In the spring of 2022, a lot of people who were sent to work from home during pandemic lockdowns started.

There were new protocols to learn about social distancing, masking and doing temperature checks.

For one of my friends in New York City, Trish, she had one more task on top of a dizzying list of to-dos to prep for the office: She had to book her desk for the day.

No big deal — until Trish realized one of her coworkers regularly ignored the booking policy and would sit anywhere.

Now three years later, "it's a joke in the office that people know she just doesn't do it," says Trish, who asked to withhold her real name to keep the peace at work. Every now and then, that rogue colleague's seating choice can set off a game of musical chairs.

Once, Trish says, "my desk was taken by someone else, and so I went to go sit somewhere I hadn't booked, and then the office manager comes up to me and says, 'Someone else booked that seat, so you're going to have to move. If you need help looking a desk, I'll help you.'"

"I was like, but someone took my seat, and now I'm the one that's being punished?" she says in a tone I can tell is joking, but still annoyed.

As more people return to the office, many, like Trish, are finding they don't have an assigned place to sit. The concept, known as hot desking or desk hoteling, has ticked up in recent years: Roughly 20% of desk spaces in U.S. offices are unassigned today, compared with 10% of unassigned desks in 2020, according to data from Gensler, the office architecture firm.

The uptick spans industries but mostly comes from tech companies experimenting with a new way of designing their workspaces, says Brian Stromquist in San Francisco, who co-leads Gensler's technology workplace practice area. More traditional sectors like financial services and government offices are less likely to take up the idea, he says.

"From where I stand, I see it as the future of where [office design] is going, that when you come to a workplace you have zones of energy" for focused work, meetings, collaborative spaces and socializing, he says.

Awkward encounters and logistical nightmares

Jason Munger, 47, works in manufacturing near Lansing, Michigan. In one office, he recalls roughly 25 people sharing 10 desks on a first come, first served basis.

Some desks were unofficially known as "belonging" to certain people, but "if you beat them into the office that day, you didn't know if they were going to be there or not," Munger says.

That scenario would lead to a spiral of questions, Munger says: "Do I set up shop and start working, or am I going to have to move? And then what if I've got to get up to go to a meeting? Can I leave my stuff here and or do I take it with me? And is this quote-unquote 'reserved' for me all day? Or if I've got a four-hour meeting, should I take my stuff with me, because someone else might use it?" 

Hierarchies would come into play, too: If a junior employee took a desk but someone more senior showed up later, "do you get up and give them the desk, or does it go back to first come, first served?" Munger says.

Sometimes, Munger would show up to work 30 minutes early just to avoid any number of awkward encounters. "In my opinion, I've got more important things to worry about than a place to sit for the day," he says.

Munger no longer has to worry about any of that, though. He now works in a building where he has his own office and even a connected bathroom. "It's a big value," he says.

While hot desking is seeing a slow rise in the U.S., it's more popular abroad. Over 60% of global employees have unassigned seats at their workplace today, up from 38% in 2020, according to , an employee experience research firm.

Polly Frier, 29, used to work in an animal sanctuary in Cornwall, UK, where she and a dozen colleagues shared unassigned seats.

Frier always chose a spot in the corner where she could see everyone in the room and easily join conversations, but also duck down for focused work or a quick TikTok break.

"I always had that seat and they always left it as mine, because they know they'd get an absolute death stare from me if they sat in my seat," Frier recalls. "I never ever meant it maliciously; it was always just part of a joke."

Frier left that job a year ago and says old colleagues still make mention of "Polly's desk."

She now has a new job in social media that comes with her own desk. "It feels wonderful. I don't have to fight with anyone," Frier jokes.

When hot desking works out

For some people, hot desking isn't all bad.

Brendon Bentley, 50, was tasked with helping the Institute of Directors in New Zealand move to a new office and introduce hot desking in late 2024.

The firm's 45 employees now share 35 desks and work on a hybrid schedule with at least three days in the office.

On a busy day, the office is roughly 75% full, Bentley says, so there's never been a desk shortage. Seating is arranged in two zones: a main work area, and a quiet zone with six spaces for short sprints of focused work.

Bentley says the company made an effort to communicate why they were moving to hot desking "so that we can have a fantastic new office with more meeting collaboration zones," he says.

Leaders made the transition easy for employees by keeping the old spacious desks they were used to, upgrading to ergonomic chairs, giving everyone a new keyboard and mouse for individual use, and making sure the IT equipment at each space is in good working order.

Workers also get their own storage tote to keep their desk belongings organized, which they stash in a locker at the end of the day.

Hot desking has been a success for their office by "making [employees] feel comfortable that the purpose behind it was genuine," Bentley says. "It's not a just a cost saving."

Some offices are eliminating hot desks to encourage RTO

Still, the recent rise in hot desking could see its limits in the U.S., where office return rates have lagged . Some companies have even promoted assigned desks or cubicles , Bloomberg reports.

That means those who dip into the world of hot desking might not have to stay there forever.

Ash Duke, 32, learned the ropes of hot desking for her job in Nashville, where employees were expected to be in on a rotating schedule and everyone had a seat if they stuck with their designated days.

If someone came in on a non-designated day, however, there wouldn't be a space for them. And though each person typically got their own cubicle, if a sales colleague needed to take a private meeting with a client, they'd ask their neighbors to move.

Duke says her workplace changed to assigned seating at communal tables in November.

There isn't space for drawers or storage anywhere nearby, and the spaces are tight. "I could reach out my arm and touch" a neighbor, Duke says, and "we're kind of on top of each other."

That being said, "this is definitely better," she adds, "because at least I know I'm not going to have to pick everything up and move again after however many minutes because someone needs" a desk.

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