‘Not being stuck beside colleagues I don’t get on with’: social workers’ best experiences of hotdesking

We asked social workers to recount their best experience of hotdesking as part of our latest research into the subject.

A tiny proportion of respondents – 3.3% – said they had ‘largely’ and ‘entirely’ positive experiences of hotdesking, but one in five said they had a combination of positive and negative stories.

The opposition to hotdesking in social work is widespread among the 2,400 respondents to our survey – 86% said they felt hotdesking policies were not compatible with social work. But some observed that the existence of positive experiences may present learning opportunities.

Here are some of the best experiences social workers recounted as having while hotdesking:

1. Not being stuck beside colleagues that I either don’t get on with or put me off work.
2. Benefit of mobile working convenience of accessing place to work in locality nearest to work that day.
3. When there is a dedicated “pod” of desks for your team, so you at least have more chance of sitting next to the same people.
4. Having different colleagues to speak to about my work and to get advice.
5. Sitting next to allied health professionals and learning more about each other’s job, roles and sharing experience/learning on cases.
6. I have been able to work at an out of town venue between home visits, saving time travelling back and forward.
7. Can hold a desk for up to three hours, to allow you to go to a meeting and return.
8. The opportunity to work more agilely, including from home.

Read more from our hotdesking research: