Mine, mine, mine

Once heralded as the answer to real estate space woes and workers' desires to be less tied to the office, hoteling is getting a critical look as workers lament the loss of workplace anchors. First in a two-part series.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Faced with growing business and a commercial space crunch, executives with Chiat Day Advertising in Los Angeles decided to eliminate private offices and cubes in 1995. The 300 or so full-time employees would be stripped of their permanent, dedicated space, and instead work from wherever they wanted. If they came into the office, they would report to the concierge to receive a desk assignment, phone and laptop.

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"People were encouraged to work from wherever they thought they'd do their best work, home, a client's office, a bar or the beach," recalls Carol Madonna, now director of office services with TBWA Chiat Day, and formerly head concierge.

But workers snubbed the virtual office idea and kept coming into the office, which in turn created a space and resource crisis. "If you got to work after nine in the morning, there was a good chance there was nowhere to sit, there was not a phone and there was not a computer," Madonna remembers.

The experiment also brought out workers' primal instincts. Since Chiat workers rarely had the same laptop - if any - two days in a row, they began hoarding equipment. "Because if you gave it back tomorrow it might not be there," she says.

While there may be no "I" in team, alternative officing requires more attention to individual's needs than once thought. While facilities managers and real estate executives may believe hoteling benefits abound, it's not right for every company, and was wrong for Chiat. Ad shops thrive on ideas borne of collaboration and proximity. Hoteling sapped the creativity and spirit from some workers who formerly had found energy in traditional space and the impromptu brainstorming it encourages.

"We thought people would want to be at home, but they ended up wanting to be at work. People love to be together," Madonna says. "If you spread them out so they don't see each other, you lose that. Morale really slipped."

In September 1998 Chiat learned its lesson and abandoned the virtual workplace in favor of a 125,000 square foot warehouse turned office it dubbed "Advertising City." There, each worker has dedicated space - even the 10 media buyers and half-dozen advertising planners who primarily work remotely or from home with their PowerBooks.

While the virtual office is gone - some tools and benefits remain. Today, Madonna makes and takes her calls on an Ericsson cordless phone from anywhere in the office. Whether she's working from the office, the road or her Malibu home office, the company's Xtend Communications phone system will forward calls seamlessly to any location.

"Everyone wants their own desk. I need a staple remover to do my job," Madonna says. "Everyone has their own stapler and a picture of their own car, kids, whatever."

Next week: Good habits for sharing space.