In this article, you will find all the information you need to know about the correct placement of your desk (or desks ) in the office and you will find that sometimes even small changes can make a big difference.
1. Where should you ideally place the desk?
Avoid placing your desk across a window as this can cause the following problems:
- You get unfavorable lighting conditions and a permanent “high-contrast situation”
- this can overload the eyes in the long run
- possibly even headaches are possible
- In addition, you get annoying reflections on the screen that reduces the readability
- You should therefore set up your desk at a 90 ° angle to the window. Then annoying reflections are excluded and the light comes from an optimal side.
- Right-handers should position the table so that the light comes from the left, for left-handers from the right
Example of an incorrectly set up desk. Through the window in the back, the eyes tire more quickly due to the reflections on the screen.
As a result, most companies place their desks at right angles to the windows of their offices so that employees sit to the side of the window, which ensures optimal lighting conditions.
2. What are the consequences of these errors?
f the desk is in front of the window so that you can look outside, there is a risk that you or your employees will be distracted.
It is worse when you are working on the screen with your back to the window. In bright sunshine, you have the major disadvantage that you are blinded by the reflections on the monitor so your eyes have to perform at their best to see something on it. This inevitably leads to dry or watery eyes and ultimately exhaustion and headaches.
3. How to choose the right placement for the desk?
When choosing the right placement, your first priority should be to create optimal lighting conditions. It is therefore advisable to place the desk near a window so that, ideally, you can work next to the window.
Irrespective of the lighting conditions, Feng Shui supporters also recommend that you align your desk so that you do not sit with your back to the door. Instead, it should be possible to overlook the entire room to ensure a quiet working atmosphere.
4. What are the advantages of a correct placement?
Example: This table is correctly aligned. If a lot of handwriting work is carried out, however, it should be rotated 180 ° so that no shadow falls from the writing hand on the documents due to the incident light.
Once you have found the right placement and implemented it, your day-to-day work will be immensely easier.
The optimal lighting conditions not only ensure a pleasant working atmosphere and are easy on the eyes.
In fact, studies show that people who don’t have a window in their office sleep worse and feel more uncomfortable than people who have direct daylight during their working hours. Further statistics show that most people do not attach great importance to the technical equipment or the office chair, but rather to the best possible lighting conditions.
And those who feel good at work are not only more motivated but also more productive!
By looking into the room, the work is also free of distractions. At the same time, it creates a calming aura. True to the motto: “Nobody can sneak up behind me unnoticed and I can concentrate on my work.”
5. What options are there for desks?
There are a few options for the correct positioning of a desk that can be implemented, for example, if teams have to work together on projects. In the last few years, there has been a tendency towards variable offices.
This means that as much office furniture as possible has castors in order to be able to choose the arrangement that best suits the task at hand. For example, two desks can be set up next to each other so that two people can sit across from each other and work together on a project. This works thanks to different table surface shapes, thanks to which several desks can be set up to form a seamless table group.
It is also possible to arrange the desks in a “star shape” with the team sitting around the desks. It is inevitable that someone has to sit with their back to the window. Since this person’s screen is more dazzled than that of his or her other group members, he or she takes on those tasks for which the screen is not needed (for example, jotting down ideas on paper or drawing sketches by hand).
Interesting data and facts
Typical example of a team workstation in the call center style
6.Did you know that there are legal regulations relating to the workplace at the desk?
Even when it comes to positioning, there is a rule that the passage to your own desk must not be narrower than 60 cm and that every employee must be granted 100 cm of free space in addition to the desk so that they can move freely and dynamically. These standards also apply to people who telework for a company from their own domicile.
There are also different room concepts that should not go unmentioned:
- Combined office: This room concept involves individual workplaces with adjoining common rooms. The latter should facilitate the exchange between colleagues and encourage new inspiration.
- Variable office: As the name suggests, this is office furniture that is equipped with special partition walls. These can be dismantled as required, for example to work together in teams.
- Call center model: In most call centers, several people do not work in individual cubicles, but in a large room. Headsets are used so that the respective employee can concentrate on his conversation. The employees sit at right angles to the windows at long rows of tables. They almost always sit across from each other so that they can use the space optimally. This ensures that a supervisor (foreman who monitors the work of the call center agents and offers assistance) can look after as many employees as possible.
7. Positioning examples for single spaces
These workplaces are arranged in such a way that each employee has sufficient space. In addition, the light falls optimally from the side of the window onto the desk.
If, for example, four individual seats are to fit into one room in an office, the arrangement could look like this: In order to remain in the optimal position next to the window, two seats can be placed next to each other and two opposite.
Two more tables can be set up in the middle so that the desks that are next to each other can be separated so that a corner desk workstation is created for each. This solution is particularly interesting if a separate room is available in an office for any meetings and mostly individual tasks have to be processed.
If there is no separate room for team meetings in the office, the desks can also be aligned with the view of the wall. In order to continue to sit at right angles to the window, two desks should still be placed next to each other. The space between the two workstations can be left free and there is enough space in the middle of the room for a joint project table where the team can meet for a meeting.
8. Location examples for team spaces
Some solutions can be implemented for the benefit of the optimal ergonomic position. On the one hand, there is the classic conference table variant, at which several desks are simply set up next to each other so seamlessly that the team members sit around the group of tables.
If space allows, a rectangle should be formed that – just like a single workstation – is at right angles to the window. As many people as possible sit across from each other and do not have to look directly into the sun.
The U-shaped arrangement of desks known from school is just as popular. This offers the added value that the center of the room remains free so that the materials and later the results can be stacked there.
As already mentioned, the star-shaped seating arrangement is also enjoying increasing popularity, as this is made considerably easier by the use of rollers under the furniture.