As companies seek to gain efficiencies in the workplace, provide choice for employees, and attract and retain talent, strategies involving agile working and free-address have gained traction. When our Gensler La Crosse office relocated last year, we leveraged the opportunity to support an agile workplace strategy. Although there are arguments for and against agile working, here’s what I’ve experienced firsthand.

“Going agile” is an optional program for my office. Twenty percent of my colleagues and I elected to be agile workers. This means that we no longer have an assigned seat in the office. Every day we choose between a selection of stations, and they are first come, first served.

Each station is configured with the same dual monitor setup that plugs into our laptops. The stations are intermixed within all of the departments. Although similar, each station has slightly different characteristics: Some are adjacent to windows, aisles, collaboration spaces, etc. Per company policy, one cannot sit in the same station twice per week (in other words, no squatting).

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