Business Opportunities Weblog

Musical Office Chairs

By on July 22, 2010 in Ideas

The Boston Globe reports that for the second year, advertising and public relations firm Conover Tuttle Pace has held their Summer Sublet desk swap, a lottery that forces most of the firm’s 35 employees, from the rookies to the boss, to sit somewhere new until Labor Day.

To determine who was going to move where this year, the firm held a draft at the end of June. The lower the number drawn, the better the pick. Almost every desk is up for grabs during the swap, and the managers all have to give up their offices.

Some people end up only moving over a row or two; another may catapult from the lonely desk in the corner to a private office with a couch.

Dave Vater won the right to sit in president Fred Conover’s office, complete with a TV and views of TD Garden. “My friends are insanely jealous,’’ Vater said, or they “don’t believe me.’’

Executives came up with the idea last year as a way to encourage more cross-departmental interaction. Normally, the creative types sit on one side of the room and account executives sit on the other, and the hope is that employees will find inspiration in the integration.

Usually when people come into his office, boss Conover said, it’s to talk about something business-related; now he finds himself asking employees about their weekends or chatting casually about a client. “It’s just nice to be able to interact with people.’’

Photo by The Boston Globe.

advertising employees productivity work space

Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

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  • Jaclyn Wells

    This is such a cute idea. I think that at least once a year every manager and upper office employee should have to experience what it is like to do someone else’s job! I think it gives them not just a better understanding of everyone’s job function is, but also makes them appreciate their employees more and respect what they do and the kind of day’s that they have.

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