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  "title": "Hot desking",
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  "description": "Hot desking describes using free desks on a first-come, first-served basis – without prior booking and without fixed assignment.",
  "summary": "Hot desking describes an office concept in which desks are neither permanently assigned nor booked in advance: whoever arrives takes a free desk. It is the simplest form of shared desks and differs from desk sharing with booking in that it creates neither predictability nor usage data.",
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    {
      "heading": "Where hot desking works",
      "level": 2,
      "text": "In small offices with a clear surplus of desks, hot desking is the most pragmatic solution: no system, no rules, no effort. As long as the probability of not finding a desk is close to zero, there is no reason to book."
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      "heading": "Where it tips over",
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      "text": "As utilization rises, three problems appear. First, uncertainty: people travel to the office without knowing whether a desk will be free. Second, placeholding: jackets and bags reserve desks nobody uses. Third, the missing data basis: without booking and check-in nobody knows how heavily the space is actually used – and that removes the basis for any space decision."
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      "heading": "The usual path",
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      "text": "In practice many organizations start with hot desking and introduce booking as soon as the first complaint about missing desks arrives. That is a viable path – it should just be a deliberate choice rather than interpreted as failure."
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    "title": "Hot desking",
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    "url": "https://doorjames.com/glossary/hot-desking/",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-22"
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  "generated": "2026-10-23",
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