Desk Sharing: Definition, Explanation, Advantages

Macro Management: The Basics

• Macro-management is a leadership style in which managers set strategic goals, a vision, and resources, and delegate the operational implementation to teams.
• Unlike micromanagement, macromanagement relies on personal responsibility and focuses on results rather than individual tasks.
• Macro-management is a preferred leadership practice in larger companies that face increasing reporting pressures due to hybrid teams and compliance requirements such as CSRD or NIS-2.
• PULT handles day-to-day office management—including desk and room booking and workplace insights—so that executives have more time to focus on strategic management.

What is macro-management? 

Macro-management refers to a leadership style in which managers steer the company through vision, overarching goals, and resource allocation. They delegate day-to-day operational tasks to teams that make independent decisions within a defined framework. The focus of leadership is on the outcome rather than on individual steps.

At the management level, macro-management is part of strategic leadership—that is, the highest level of corporate management. Below that are tactical management (division management, quarterly planning) and operational management (day-to-day business, process control). Under the macro-management approach, you largely stay out of the lower two levels.

Unlike laissez-faire (French for “let it be”), macro-management requires established guidelines, sets clear expectations, and schedules regular reviews. Within this structure, however, the team makes its own decisions. If you mix the two, you could slip into micromanagement or cause confusion within the team.

What is the difference between macro-management and micro-management?

The biggest difference between macro-management and micro-management lies in whether, as a manager, you control your employees’ results or their work processes. Micro-management focuses on the how, while macro-management focuses on the what and why.

Micromanagement isn't inherently wrong. In crisis situations, when onboarding new team members, or when dealing with highly regulated processes, close oversight makes sense.

What are the benefits of macro-management for hybrid teams?

Macro-management works for distributed teams because the underlying focus on results is not tied to a specific location. Work outcomes can be measured equally well regardless of whether employees work in the office, remotely, or prefer a hybrid approach. Micromanagement, on the other hand, fails due to the sheer logistics of hybrid setups.

A second benefit is that it takes the pressure off managers. Instead of checking daily office routines and individual tasks, they have time to focus on strategic issues. These include, above all, CSRD reporting, AI governance in accordance with the EU AI Act, and cyber compliance under NIS-2.

Third, macro-management reduces bottlenecks. When every decision has to go through a manager’s desk, it can bring an organization of a certain size to a standstill. Delegating decision-making authority, on the other hand, spreads the load.

Where does macro-management reach its limits?

Macro-management reaches its limits in situations where your team needs clear instructions rather than being left to take initiative on their own: during the onboarding phase for new employees, in acute crisis situations such as cyberattacks, and in highly regulated processes with audit requirements. In these three scenarios, close supervision is the appropriate leadership approach.

• New team members with no experience need clear instructions and closer guidance. Anyone who assigns full responsibility to someone without proper training risks overwhelming them and leading to poor decisions. In this case, a hybrid approach combining coaching and selective micromanagement is more appropriate.
• In acute crises, such as security incidents or cyberattacks, quick and clear leadership is essential. Consensus-based decisions take time, which is simply not available in such moments. Macro-management is counterproductive in this context.
• Highly regulated processes such as compliance audits, data protection approvals, or financial approval processes require micromanagement in accordance with established guidelines. Deviations made on one’s own initiative tend to pose a risk in these cases. In such situations, macromanagement can serve as the default approach, while micromanagement can be used as a deliberate exception.

Guide: How Do I Implement Macro Management?

Implementing macro-management means first setting overarching goals, then delegating decision-making authority, automating routines where possible, establishing review cycles, and finally building a robust database. Each of these five steps is a prerequisite for the next:

• Step 1: Define strategic goals and guidelines. Set clear OKRs or KPIs for quarters and years. The team needs to understand what their work contributes to. Without this focus, macro-management quickly devolves into laissez-faire.
• Step 2: Explicitly delegate decision-making authority. Document which decisions the team makes on its own and which ones are escalated to management. A RACI matrix or a simple list of responsibilities works well for this.
• Step 3: Automate operational routines. Desk booking, room reservations, and visitor management don’t belong on a manager’s desk. Your focus should be on numbers and analytics.
• Step 4: Establish review cycles. Regular one-on-one meetings, monthly team reviews, and quarterly strategy reviews form your framework.
• Step 5: Build a data foundation. Far-reaching decisions become sound when real data is available. Office utilization, attendance patterns, compliance reports, and ESG metrics provide the foundation for senior management.

Tip: With PULT Presence, you can track your teams' attendance automatically without needing their help. Get occupancy data and analyze the utilization of your workspaces.

How does macro-management work with remote work and hybrid teams?

The ability to manage the big picture in a hybrid office environment depends on what data is available to senior management for making decisions about space, teams, and compliance.

In a hybrid work environment, office occupancy fluctuates from day to day, as there are almost always some colleagues working remotely. Some popular areas of the office remain consistently overcrowded, while others are nearly empty. Without concrete data on this, your planning will be based more on daily impressions than on actual evidence.

Attendance data, room booking patterns, and visitor traffic are therefore essential to your management.

This is particularly evident in ESG reporting. The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) requires companies above a certain size to report data on, among other things, office occupancy and energy consumption. If you already track these metrics automatically in your office management system, you can easily transfer them directly into your reports.

For office managers and workplace coordinators, this means that hybrid work and macro-management work best together when you collect data at the grassroots level—and do so as automatically as possible.

Here's how to automate macro management with PULT

Macro-management requires data. After all, unless you know how spaces are being used, who is on-site and when, and which areas are chronically empty or constantly overcrowded, you’ll be making decisions based mainly on guesswork or, at best, half-hearted headcounts. PULT collects all this data automatically and in compliance with GDPR.

PULT Presence serves as the foundation for this: The system automatically detects which employees are actually in the office via the Wi-Fi connection of their laptop or smartphone. No check-in, no manually maintained list, no required responses.

This data is fed directly into PULT Workplace Analytics. The result is reliable reports on the actual utilization of spaces, rooms, and zones. You and your managers can see which areas are consistently underutilized, which bookings are regularly left unused, and how utilization patterns evolve over months and quarters.

You can request reports from the AI assistant by saying: “Give me the occupancy report for Building A from last week.”

• Automatic presence detection: The Wi-Fi signal detects who is in the office without the need for check-ins or manual lists within the team
• Workplace Analytics: Occupancy reports for spaces, rooms, and zones as a basis for real estate and ESG decisions.
• AI Scenario Planning: Simulate how staff growth or new hybrid models will affect your space requirements.

AI Assistant: Generate reports on command via chat, without having to search through the dashboard or the data yourself.

Desk Sharing and Personal Belongings: The Basics

• With desk sharing, personal items must be cleared from the desk at the end of each workday because the Clean Desk Policy requires that the desk be cleared for the next person.
• An employer may implement a clean desk policy as a directive, but may not impose a blanket ban on personal items that fall under the general right to privacy, and the works council has a right of co-determination under Section 87 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG).
• The three established storage solutions are lockable lockers for personal items, mobile rolling containers used as desk-sharing organizers for work supplies, and daily customization followed by storage.
• PULT is an all-in-one office management software solution that allows companies to book and manage desks, lockers, parking spaces, and catering centrally within a single application.

What rules can be established regarding personal belongings in a desk-sharing arrangement?

In a desk-sharing arrangement, the employer may issue instructions requiring employees to clear their desks daily, lock away all documents, and store personal belongings in designated lockers. However, the employer may not dictate which personal items are generally permitted. Personal rights and the works council’s right to co-determination set clear limits.

What regulations regarding personal belongings are legally permissible?

The Clean Desk Policy constitutes a directive under labor law pursuant to § 106 of the Trade Regulation Act (GewO). The employer establishes rules regarding order and hygiene in the office because the shared resource desk is available to multiple employees in a desk-sharing arrangement.

Guidelines regarding the proper disposal of documents, notes containing personal data, and security-related information are permitted. Article 32 of the GDPR requires this anyway. If someone on your team leaves job applications, contracts, or health data lying around, that person is violating the obligation to ensure technical and organizational security.

A blanket ban on personal items during working hours is not permitted. Photos, plants, and mugs are protected under general privacy rights. The rules should therefore be included in a desk-sharing company agreement with the works council.

When must the works council give its approval?

The works council must always approve desk sharing because Section 87(1)(1) of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG) provides for mandatory co-determination regarding workplace regulations and employee conduct. This includes the clean desk policy, booking rules, and locker allocation.

Without a works council agreement, the clean desk policy cannot be enforced; unilateral directives are subject to challenge and often fail in conciliation proceedings.

Therefore, involve the works council during the planning phase, before ordering any furniture. Involving them early on is more likely to result in practical, workable policies, especially if you want to introduce desk sharing.

What storage options work best for personal belongings when sharing a desk?

Three storage solutions have proven effective for personal items in desk-sharing environments: lockable lockers for personal belongings, mobile rolling carts to organize work supplies, and the option to personalize your workspace for the day and then pack everything away into a backpack or bag.

How can I make up for the loss of my own desk when sharing a workspace?

The most effective way to compensate for the loss of a personal desk is to offer alternatives that match or exceed the comfort of having one’s own desk. A high-quality, well-equipped office kitchen, a lounge area that’s pleasant to spend time in, and complimentary perks like snacks and drinks shift the focus from personal desk space to a positive workplace experience.

Employees who have had to give up their personal coffee makers or kettles as part of the desk-sharing initiative are more likely to accept this if the new kitchen is better equipped and the office is properly designed. High-quality coffee stations, ample refrigeration options, and a varied selection of snacks make the transition easier.

Since desk sharing reduces the space required for individual workstations, it creates room for these upgrades. Companies typically reduce their desk space by 30 to 45 percent and invest the freed-up square footage in lounges and break areas, among other things. The goal may be to create a clubhouse-like atmosphere, which is significantly shaped by the right desk-sharing equipment in the workplace.

4 Steps to Mastering Desk Sharing and Personal Belongings

The practical implementation is carried out in four sequential steps: first, the infrastructure; then, legal coordination; followed by internal communication; and finally, the booking system.

• Step 1: Storage infrastructure should be set up before the transition. Lockers, mobile rolling cabinets for desk sharing, and kitchen equipment should be available.
• Step 2: Establish rules in a company agreement with the works council. The agreement covers the clean desk policy, booking windows, locker allocation, and procedures for violations.
• Step 3: Actively inform employees about what they stand to gain. Let your team know what benefits will replace the fixed desk.
• Step 4: Implement a booking system that consolidates desks, lockers, and resources.

Here's how to offer desk sharing and all your office services in a single software platform

If you provide lockers, rolling cabinets, kitchens, and relaxation areas , it will be easier for your staff to transition to desk sharing. The most important thing is to ensure fairness in the allocation of all new office resources: Every employee must be able to rely on the fact that the desk they booked is actually free when they arrive. The same applies to meeting rooms and reserved zones. You can achieve this fairness with PULT.

• Planning certainty before heading to the office: Desks, rooms, zones, and parking spaces can be reserved in advance to avoid any conflicts.
• Automated No-Show Management: PULT Presence uses the office Wi-Fi to determine whether a reservation has actually been honored. If someone does not show up after the grace period, the space is automatically released, making ghost bookings and holding spaces unnecessarily a thing of the past.
• Set booking rules: You set rules for zone access, booking priorities and maximum advance booking periods, so that no team permanently monopolizes capacity.

Real-time office layouts: The digital floor plan shows who has booked which space and where everyone is seated. This makes it easy to sit next to your teammates.

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Fixed desks are an unnecessary expense. With desk hoteling, workspaces can be booked on a daily basis, much like a hotel room.

Internationally, this has been standard practice for years, but in Germany it comes with specific requirements. Employee participation, occupational safety, and data protection determine whether the implementation is legally sound or turns into a pitfall later on. This article explains the concept, provides its legal context, and highlights what matters most during implementation.

Desk Hoteling: The Basics

• Desk hoteling is a workspace model in which employees reserve their desks in advance.
• In Germany, the works council’s right to co-determination under Section 87 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG) applies upon implementation.
• Even if several people share a desk, the employer is responsible for ensuring that each workstation is ergonomically suitable, provides sufficient space to move around, and does not pose any health risks.
• Booking software must be used in compliance with the GDPR. Data minimization and the avoidance of performance monitoring are key considerations here.

What is desk hoteling?

Desk hoteling refers to a flexible workspace concept in which employees reserve a desk in advance for a specific day or period. Instead of having a permanently assigned seat, there is a shared pool of workstations from which everyone can choose as needed.

This topic is becoming increasingly relevant. According to the ifo Institute, approximately 24.5% of employees in Germany work from home at least part of the time. At the same time, in its study “Home Office and the Future of Offices” , the ifo Institute forecasts a structural decline in demand for office space of around 12% by 2030. Companies are responding by downsizing their spaces and switching to desk sharing.

Employees can use the Desk Booking Software to see which seats are available in real time, book them with just a few clicks, and know where they’ll be sitting and which colleagues are nearby even before they arrive.

Desk Hoteling, Hot Desking, and Desk Sharing: What's the Difference?

The three terms "desk hoteling," "hot desking," and "desk sharing" are often used interchangeably, but they refer to different models each with its own implications for the company:

• Hot desking: First-come, first-served. Employees spontaneously choose an available seat on the spot. If you arrive late, you’ll be out of luck.
• Desk Sharing: A workstation is shared by several people according to a fixed schedule, often in a 3:2 or 2:1 ratio. The specific assignment is sometimes managed with software and sometimes without.
• Desk Hoteling: Employees reserve their desks in advance using software. This provides the same predictability and structure as a traditional office, while also offering the space efficiency of shared workspaces.

Desk hoteling is therefore the option that is best suited for hybrid teams in larger companies. No one comes to the office only to find themselves without a seat. This eliminates the risk of “desk hunting.”

What are the benefits of desk hoteling?

It offers concrete benefits on several levels:

• Space efficiency: Office space is allocated based on actual needs, not on the maximum capacity of full occupancy, which rarely occurs anyway.
• Transparency: Employees can see if a spot is available and which team members will be on-site.
• Predictability for Office Teams: Cleaning, catering, and reception services can be tailored to actual occupancy rather than assumptions.
• Data-driven decision-making: Booking patterns reveal which zones are in demand and where space can be reduced.

Less stress in everyday life: No more searching for a seat in the morning; teams come together in a targeted manner.

Legal Requirements for Desk Hoteling in Germany

In Germany, it is generally permissible to implement desk hoteling. However, there are legal requirements that must be met. By following the rules, you can avoid costly corrections and legal disputes.

Co-determination: Does the works council have a say?

According to the Federal Labor Court and lower courts, the mere decision to introduce desk hoteling is not subject to co-determination. The employer may, within the scope of its managerial authority, decide how workstations are organized. However, several implementation details are subject to co-determination under § 87 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG):

• Workplace Order (Section 87(1)(1) of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG)): Clean-desk policies, guidelines on personal belongings, and shared use of space (e.g., combining work areas and break areas).
• Technical monitoring systems (Section 87(1)(6) of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG)): As soon as accounting software is used that theoretically allows conclusions to be drawn about behavior or performance, the works council must be consulted.
• Occupational Health and Safety (Section 87(1)(7) of the Works Constitution Act): When different users occupy the same desk on the same day, new questions arise: How often is the desk cleaned? How are noise levels in open-plan offices limited? The works council has the right to participate in decisions regarding such occupational health and safety regulations.
• Operational Change (Section 111 of the Works Constitution Act): If desk hoteling is combined with the renovation or redesign of entire office areas, this is often considered an operational change. In such cases, the works council has a broader right to information and negotiation that goes beyond the scope of mere co-determination under Section 87 of the Works Constitution Act.

The Baden-Württemberg Regional Labor Court clarified this further in August 2024 (Order of August 6, 2024, Case No. 21 TaBV 7/24): Neither desk sharing nor a clean desk policy as an overall concept requires consent, but specific rules regarding what items employees are allowed to bring in or how spaces are used for dual purposes certainly do.

If your company has a works council, you should involve it from the very beginning. A works council agreement is the most reliable way to ensure that the arrangements are legally sound.

Occupational Safety: What Does the Workplace Ordinance Require?

The provisions of the Workplace Ordinance (Section 3a ArbStättV) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Section 5 ArbSchG) apply in full even to shared workstations. In essence, this means:

• Every workstation must be ergonomically adjustable to suit individual needs. Height-adjustable desks and chairs are required when different people work at the same station.
• The space requirements specified in ASR A1.2 remain in effect. As a rule, 8–10 m² are allocated per workstation.
• A risk assessment pursuant to Section 5 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (ArbSchG) is mandatory and must take into account the specific characteristics of changing usage patterns (hygiene, psychological strain caused by “desk hunting,” noise).
• Computer workstations (ASR A6) must meet the minimum requirements for the monitor, keyboard, lighting, and space for movement, regardless of who is using them.

As a result, desk hoteling works well only in environments where workstations are standardized and fully equipped. Equipping some workstations with monitors and docking stations while leaving others without creates inequality. And that immediately reduces acceptance.

Privacy: GDPR-compliant booking software

Every desk-hoteling solution processes personal data. Who books which desk and when? Who is in the office and when? This means that the provisions of the GDPR apply, particularly the principle of data minimization.

This means:

• Only data that is strictly necessary for the purpose of the booking may be collected.
• Performance or conduct evaluations are not permitted. Attendance data may not be used to evaluate individual employees.
• Analyses must be anonymized at the team or zone level.
• Employees must know what data is being collected and for what purpose.
• With Wi-Fi-based presence detection, such as that used by PULT Presence, it is essential to ensure that no movement profiles are created.

Compliance Checklist Before Implementing Desk Hoteling

Before you launch a desk-hoteling project, you should make sure you’ve covered these points. If you handle this properly from the start, you’ll avoid having to make corrections later on.

• Involve the works council early on: No rollout without prior consultation. Especially when accounting software is involved, there is no way around the right to co-determination.
• Conduct a risk assessment: In accordance with Section 5 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (ArbSchG) for the new workstations, including psychological stress resulting from changing usage.
• Establish ergonomic standards: Height-adjustable desks, adjustable chairs, docking stations, and monitors must be available at every shared workstation.
• Create a privacy policy: What data does the software collect, how long is it stored, and who has access to it? These questions need to be answered before any contracts are signed.
• Define hygiene protocols and cleaning schedules: When users change daily, surfaces and work equipment must be cleaned more frequently than when users have assigned seats.
• Document the rules in writing: Ideally, all rules should be included in a company agreement, but at a minimum they should be set forth in an internal policy that all employees are aware of.

Desk Hoteling: Setting the Course for the Workplace of Tomorrow

The figures from the ifo Institute leave little room for doubt. Hybrid work is here to stay, and office space will continue to shrink. Companies that switch to desk hoteling now are laying the groundwork for an organization that can adapt to the changing world of work without having to constantly make adjustments.

Whether desk hoteling ultimately works depends less on the software and more on how smoothly it was implemented. If you plan ahead from the start, you’ve already cleared the biggest hurdle. PULT takes care of the rest.