What Readers Want to See in the Workplaces of the Future

From mazes of cubicles to plentiful lush balconies , office designers keep re-envisioning spaces to support our professional lives. Not all of their ideas have been…work-friendly, shall we say.

We thought it would be productive to ask the workers themselves—in this case Wall Street Journal readers—for a little brainstorming to see what their employers could be doing better.

We asked, What office-design change would you most like to see?

Their responses covered a lot of ground, from workplace conventions to technology to the environment itself.

Put your phones away

Similar to a lunch break, I wish we could have a phone break each day. Staff members would place their phones in a box that would then be removed and face-to-face conversation would be encouraged instead.

This is an important cognitive disconnect. People are responding more slowly to face-to-face conversations as their minds alternate between concentrating on their device and in-real-life interactions.

This no-device speakeasy would be less structured around work and more like a hangout: Someone just kicks off a conversation and folks follow on.

• Desmond Latham, Pearly Beach, Western Cape, South Africa

No hoteling

One way companies could make the return to office smoother would be to have assigned offices and desks.

Having a consistent space provides employees with stability and a sense of belonging, rather than navigating the uncertainty of finding a spot each day.

• Gabriela Valdez, Prosper, Texas

Some place like home

I would like to see office buildings that blend seamlessly into residential neighbourhoods. I

nstead of towering corporate headquarters in city centers, companies would operate from house-like suites scattered across communities.

Employees could walk to work, bring their children or pets along, and enjoy flexible hours without the grind of daily commuting.

Walls would be lined with immersive video screens, allowing teams across the country to collaborate as if they were in the same room.

This model could save trillions in transportation costs, road construction and pollution while offering workers a healthier and more affordable lifestyle.

By eliminating the need for massive skyscrapers, corporations would redirect capital into smaller, interconnected hubs that foster community integration.

The environmental benefits are equally striking: fewer cars on the road, reduced emissions, and less strain on public infrastructure.

• Michael Lowery, Colorado Springs, Colo.

One size doesn’t fit all

I’d like to see a focus on the actual employees.

Why aren’t employers asking them what spaces they need to do the most productive work?

What environments are most conducive to enjoying the work they do? Private offices aren’t the answer for everyone but most workers need more than a traditional cubicle.

Same with artwork and furnishings. One size or style isn’t appealing to everyone.

• Nancy Sanders, Phoenix

Quiet, please

I want an actual functioning cone of silence at work. This would be used so workers that are on conference calls for many hours every day don’t disturb their co-workers with all of their talking.

At many firms, offices with hard walls and doors are only assigned to managers with a minimum number of direct reports.

I think they should be assigned instead based on how many hours a day the person is on conference calls.

And that’s not for the benefit of the projects they manage but for everyone else who otherwise has to listen to one side of a conversation for four to six hours a day.

I know many companies are enthusiastic about open-office plans, but I don’t know any engineers who like them, so many have no choice but to wear headphones and play music to drown out the distractions, which leads to isolation even in a well-populated office.

• Paul Egan, Milwaukee

Private time

I’m gobsmacked that there is no mention of bathrooms in these stories about future office design. If you want to get employees back to an office, offer more privacy there.

• Lisa Hale, Los Angeles

Double down on fitness

Standing desks are passé if not accompanied by an under desk treadmill.

• Taylor Archibald, Provo, Utah

Bring back the cubicle

I’d like to see a return to cubicles or small alcove-style workspaces and a step away from the fully open-office concept.

Open layouts were meant to spark collaboration, but in practice they often create constant noise, distractions and a sense of being “on display.”

Most knowledge work requires periods of sustained focus, and people do their best thinking when they have a bit of privacy and control over their environment.

Cubicles and alcoves don’t eliminate teamwork, but simply give employees a dedicated space to concentrate, recharge and hold quiet conversations without disrupting others.

When combined with designated collaboration zones, these semiprivate spaces create a healthy balance between focus and teamwork.

In a hybrid-work world, the office should be a place that enhances productivity and restoring a sense of personal space would help achieve that.

• James Wright, Grand Rapids, Mich.

A little colour

I’d love to see the addition of some colour. Any colour at all besides gray and beige. I’ve worked in offices for most of my life, and the “grayge” neutrals are suffocating.

I would also like to have more powered standing desks in the office. The hand-operated ones are too complicated or too fragile to allow for regular lifting and lowering. Every one I’ve had has broken.

• Tony Holmes, Prince William County, Va.

Keep us moving

I wish we had more flex space.

That would be where office designers create a variety of workspaces: standing desks, treadmill desks, quiet rooms, lounge areas, etc., so the team can move through different ergonomic worksites throughout the day and keep their bodies and minds flexible and active.

• Sam McNulty, Cleveland

Help us want to be there

I believe that companies should focus on how to make the workplace more comfortable, even homey.

We spend more of our time at the office than we do awake at home. The office therefore should be a place that one looks forward to going to.

This could be achieved with upholstery that shows the company cares that you’re there.

Comfortable chairs and desks, up-to-date technology, a subsidized kitchen and a dining room that invites collaboration and connection between co-workers.

• Andre Mora, Miami

Restorative options

We need nap areas, like pods or mini-bedrooms as well as gym and shower areas.

• Sara Jones, Hillsborough, N.C.

Let it shine

Get the private offices with doors away from the perimeter windows! Move those offices to the interior of the floor plates so more light can flood the workspace and everyone can look out the windows!

Our office was reworked this way and our copy/print/supply area ended up along a perimeter window.

Everyone looks outside while they wait for the print jobs to finish.

We also used low-rise desks so it’s possible to look out the perimeter windows from the private offices.

Our private offices are glass-doored and glass-walled, so there’s a lot of visibility throughout our offices.

• Andrew Skotdal, Everett, Wash.

The ultimate perk

I’m hoping for a coffee-delivery drone robot that lets me stay on a two-hour call without a BRB (Be Right Back) coffee break.

• John Dabbar, Oyster Bay, N.Y.

What’s more important than being a good employee right now? Looking like a good employee in the eyes of AI productivity trackers that more managers are using to evaluate their teams.

Employee-monitoring systems are especially popular at tech companies and are also used by other white-collar firms that want to probe how people spend company time. The scary thing: You might not even know you’re being watched because many states don’t require disclosure.

Metrics can include performance data that is undoubtedly relevant, such as sales results. But it also can employ dubious proxies like keyboard strokes and how often your computer screen goes into sleep mode.

We generally accepted, or at least understood, heightened surveillance during the work-from-home era. Back then it seemed reasonable for bosses to keep tabs on employees they couldn’t see.

Yet the oversight has only escalated, and tensions are rising, too.

A group of former Meta Platforms employees alleges in a lawsuit that the company used a “constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems” when it began laying off about 10% of its workforce in May. Meta says humans make termination calls.

However that case shakes out, a couple of things are clear. Companies eager to gauge which employees are locked in now have sophisticated AI monitoring systems at their disposal. And they believe they have leverage in a tepid labor market.

So while we may chafe at having our worth reduced to numbers on the boss’s productivity dashboard, we have to play the game as it’s being played. Here are some tips, based on conversations with people who make employee monitoring systems—and others who game the systems.

Be meticulous about your calendar

Calendar integration is one way that productivity trackers have gotten more advanced and, ostensibly, fairer.

Let’s say you make an old-fashioned phone call or attend an in-person meeting. Your Outlook or Slack status may switch to “away,” making you appear as inactive as if you were taking an extended coffee break.

Employee monitors like one made by a company called Insightful cross-check your online status with your calendar to see whether there is a valid reason for your apparent inactivity. If that call or meeting is on your schedule, then the system will recognize that you are busy offline. If nothing is on the books, it could look like you’re slacking off.

Hit the activity sweet spot, around 80%

Let’s not go any further without addressing the underlying question: How much downtime is permissible during the workday? After all, people have been scared to let managers see anything non-work-related on their screens since personal computers first arrived in offices.

No one knows this better than Roger Wagner, who is widely credited with creating the first “boss button” in the early 1980s. He designed a keyboard shortcut to instantly display a spreadsheet if the boss walked by your cubicle while you were playing a computer game. Boss buttons have been features of countless diversions since. (I confess to using one built into a March Madness streaming app.)

Wagner, the founder of computer-education company 1010 Technologies, says his original design was a joke—more of a commentary on overbearing managers than a cover for lazy employees. Good bosses understand workers need mental breaks throughout the day, he says.

This matches what I heard from Insightful Chief Executive Ivan Petrovic. He says customers that use his company’s workforce-management platform don’t expect employees to stay on task 100% of the time.

“On average companies are aiming for 60% to 80% of your time being utilized for work during the day,” he says.

Go ahead and exhale. It’s probably OK to watch an occasional YouTube video at your desk.

And if you’re going to artificially inflate your activity level, be careful. Hitting 90% could look suspicious.

Get physical

So don’t leave your mouse jiggler on all day. Choose the right one if you must resort to shenanigans.

There are lots of software applications that mimic the movements of a computer mouse, so you can appear to be working while away from your desk. There are also devices that plug into computer ports and do the same thing.

Corporate cybersecurity systems increasingly block these apps and devices, and productivity trackers claim to be able to detect them. But some workers swear by mouse docks, like one made by Tech8 USA, that keep cursors moving. The company originally made mouse-moving software but now focuses on physical jigglers.

“People are drawn to mechanical solutions because they’re so simple and don’t require software,” says Tech8 Marketing Director Sam Matthews. “As monitoring technology becomes more sophisticated, that distinction has become even more relevant.”

Use AI, but not too much

Another popular metric for employee-monitoring systems is AI usage. Companies want to know who is embracing new tools, and it can be tempting to think more is better.

“There’s a performative aspect where employees overblow their usage of AI so that they appear relevant in the organization,” says Andrea Derler, principal researcher at Visier, which helps companies track and analyze employee work habits.

In a recent Visier survey of 1,000 U.S. workers, 48% admitted to exaggerating their AI usage.

This is already an outdated strategy. Using AI for everything used to score points for experimentation. Now it can seem wasteful because many companies are watching AI token spending more carefully.

Look, productivity theater has always been part of work. Most of us aren’t trying to cheat the system, but expectations are changing so quickly that we need to be savvy about what the latest employee trackers are looking for.

Sometimes it takes a little gamesmanship to get full credit for our contributions.