Making the Office Spaces Worth the Commute in 2025

The Need for a Compelling Return

2025 has been the year of full-time RTO requests from big companies like Amazon or JPMorgan.

Most companies cited that a full-time RTO is necessary because it would help with their culture, collaboration, and productivity. But despite these announcements, many employers didn’t take into consideration that the office is still designed for another era.

Employees now feel they’re being asked to commute just to sit at a desk and do the same work they could easily accomplish from home. It's not a compelling trade-off, and it’s not very encouraging if companies want to maintain long-term RTO success.

For many employees, the office no longer matches how they work best. The post-pandemic shift gave people a taste of autonomy, flexibility, and balance.

Jennifer Moss, workplace strategist and author of Why Are We Here?, notes that too many companies are trying to execute the office “in the same way that it used to be.”

“You’re still on Zoom, still doing the same work you did at home—but now with a commute,” she explains. Without meaningful changes to space and purpose, the return feels arbitrary, not inspiring.

Another layer that shakes these full-time RTOs policies is trust. John Frehse of Ankura warns that mandating office time without explaining the benefits signals a lack of trust. “You only trust me when I’m in the office?” That unspoken message undercuts employee morale.

And then there are the everyday office frustrations.

Before the pandemic, office life had its fair share of headaches. Employees dealt with open-plan spaces where it was nearly impossible to concentrate because every conversation became background noise. Meeting rooms got double-booked, while others struggled to find a space or even schedule one directly. Desks were either too limited or not personalised, and the layout made it hard to find a quiet corner or a collaborative space that supported productive individual time or team interaction.

Fast forward to 2025, and many of these issues still linger. Meanwhile, employee expectations have grown. People now expect environments that support both in-person connection and individual productivity, along with seamless integration of digital tools.

There is a deeper issue beyond outdated layouts and logistical frustrations: control.

When employees work from home, they’re in charge of their environment. They can choose how, when, and where they work best—whether that’s total silence, a standing desk, or a mid-afternoon break that recharges them. In contrast, many office spaces strip away that autonomy. You're tied to a fixed desk, have limited privacy, and have rigid routines.

This loss of control directly affects job satisfaction. This study shows that comfort and a sense of choice significantly boost performance and well-being. When people feel their environment is working with them, not against them, they're more engaged, more productive, and more likely to view the office as a valuable part of their working week. Without that, returning to the office starts to feel more like a burden than a benefit.

“Office-space preferences can push employees away from on-site working, influencing their hybrid-work preferences.”- Lila Skountridaki

Giving employees the control they need, not just cubicles

So, what does a workplace look like when it supports control instead of removing it?

Employees want to decide how, where, and when they work best. That doesn’t mean a free-for-all; it means designing systems and spaces that enable flexibility without descending into chaos.

And this is where tech and culture meet.

Because when culture says, “we trust you”, and technology says, “we’ve got the tools to support you”, employee autonomy becomes possible. Not just over tasks, but over environments, schedules, and energy.

Tech can’t fix culture, but it can remove friction

That sense of control is what makes coming into the office feel worth it again. When people have ownership of their time and environment, it leads to better focus, stronger collaboration.

1. Smart meeting room booking

Say goodbye to calendar chaos. Intelligent room booking systems integrate with calendars, detect occupancy, and release unused spaces. This prevents bottlenecks and ghost meetings—an issue that used to plague large firms pre-pandemic.

Microsoft reported that 20% of meeting rooms were reserved but never used in pre-COVID offices. With hybrid now in play, automation can bring balance and fairness to space usage.

2. Desk booking & workplace wayfinding

Flexibility is only empowering when it’s organised. Desk booking apps let employees reserve their spot, see where their team is sitting, or find quiet zones based on mood or task. It also means that Facility Managers can track usage and adapt layouts dynamically.

3. Noise zoning & adaptive spaces

Open-plan designs aren't inherently bad, but they need structure. Sound masking tech, acoustic sensors, and smart zoning allow offices to flex between collaborative buzz and focused silence. Think of it as giving people a volume knob on their day.

4. Hybrid-ready AV and meeting equity

“Can you hear me?” shouldn’t be the soundtrack of a hybrid call. High-quality microphones, auto-framing cameras, and inclusive layouts ensure remote participants feel equally involved. Tools like Zoom Rooms and Microsoft Teams Rooms now support intelligent framing and transcription, making the office a place where hybrid meetings work.

5. Smart signage and spontaneous interaction

Use real-time digital signage to promote the community: highlight who's in today, upcoming events, or ad-hoc lunch-and-learns. Encourage spontaneous coffee chats, project brainstorms, or cross-team mixers that remote work can’t replicate.

Culture doesn’t live in code, but it does need space

Yes, culture is built by people. But it also needs the right conditions to thrive. Offices must be designed for belonging, mentoring, casual exchange, and moments of creativity that are hard to schedule but powerful to experience.

In other words, giving people a reason to show up.

“When we’re trying to get people back into the office, we still are executing the office in the same way that it used to be. We just can’t jam the toothpaste back in the tube.” - Jennifer Moss

This doesn’t require a full rebuild. Even small, intentional changes can go a long way:

• Curating zones for heads-down work, collaboration, and casual connection
• Using sensors and occupancy analytics to understand how spaces are used
• Making social spaces visible, inviting, and part of the workflow
• Protocols for shared spaces. For example: “Quiet hours in this zone from 10am–12pm.” Or “Headphones only for music or video.”

When people have the freedom to choose how and where they work within the office, engagement goes up, and resentment fades.

“Reduce the pace and give people that mental adjustment time that is needed genuinely, to take care of their lives before you change
[their lives].” - Sujay Saha

Takeaway: The Commute Must Pay Off

In 2025, the commute has become symbolic. Employees aren’t just travelling to a building, they’re deciding if it’s worth it.

If they arrive only to spend the day on video calls or struggle to find a quiet spot, that choice feels like a burden, not a benefit. A workplace that also offers a professional, client-ready environment can make a real difference.

When employees know they have access to impressive spaces for both internal collaboration and hosting external meetings, the commute feels more worthwhile and productive.

But if the office is a place where real collaboration happens, where ideas spark and relationships grow, then the journey makes sense.

That’s what the best RTO strategies understand: people want to feel that their presence matters. That showing up adds value, not just for the company, but for themselves.

Is the Open Office Layout still relevant in 2025?

A decade ago, open-plan offices seemed like the future of work. Companies wanted to break down silos, boost collaboration, and reduce real estate costs. For a while, it worked—or at least, it looked like it did.

But by 2025, we will have enough data to call it: the open office layout isn't delivering on its promises.

It's hurting productivity, employee satisfaction, and even the motivation to come into the office.

Let’s start with productivity. A Harvard study found that when two major firms transitioned to an open layout, face-to-face interactions dropped by 70%, while digital communication spiked. The open space, instead of encouraging spontaneous collaboration, pushed employees to retreat into digital silos. This counterintuitive result is a red flag for anyone designing spaces meant to foster teamwork.

There is also a lack of privacy in these types of offices. Open-plan offices often lack designated quiet spaces for focused work. This can lead to employees feeling overstimulated and unable to concentrate on their work. A study by Oxford University found that employees in open-plan offices reported feeling a lack of control over their environment, which can further hinder focus and productivity.

It’s estimated that open environments lead to a loss of 86 minutes of productive work per day. That’s more than 7 hours a week, per employee.

The negative effects don’t stop at performance. According to Gensler, only 41% of workers in open offices feel they can concentrate effectively. And a third report needs to leave the office entirely to get meaningful work done. That can negatively influence job satisfaction and retention.

The chart  below indicates that individuals in open-plan setups experienced significantly more audio and visual distractions on-site, on average. This pushes them to choose to work from home.



Health and well-being are also at stake. Studies show that employees in open-plan offices take 62% more sick days, possibly due to easier transmission of illnesses and elevated stress levels.

The Link Between Office Design, Job Satisfaction, and Attendance

One of the clearest lessons from the pandemic-era shift to remote and hybrid work is this: employees are more willing to come into the office when it offers something they can't get at home.

That doesn't mean ping pong tables and free snacks. It means a space that supports their work and makes their day easier, not harder.

Activity-Based Working (ABW) is one model that meets this need. Unlike the open office, ABW provides a variety of work settings—quiet zones for deep work, breakout rooms for collaboration, and phone booths for private calls. Employees choose the space that fits their task. According to CBRE, over 53% of companies are adopting this model because it boosts both productivity and satisfaction.

ABW gives employees control, and that control increases their engagement. A study comparing office layouts found that satisfaction was highest in single offices, followed by ABW environments, with traditional open plans scoring lowest. It's not about eliminating collaboration; it's about offering choice.

Smart Layouts Meet Smart Tech

A shift away from open offices doesn’t mean designing in the dark. Sensors and analytics tools give facility managers real-time data on how space is used.

Motion sensors, for example, can show which meeting rooms are actually being used and which sit empty, helping teams manage bookings more efficiently. This data can be used to fine-tune layouts, move resources, and better allocate desks and rooms.

Testing and iterating with real data, organisations can develop a responsive, flexible office that encourages people to return, not because they have to, but because they want to.

Should We Ditch Open Layouts Entirely?

Open spaces still have a role to play, but that role needs to be clearly defined. In creative industries or innovation hubs, open layouts can support idea-rich environments. For short-term project teams, a shared, open workspace might foster camaraderie and quick communication. But these should be the exception, not the rule.

Most knowledge workers need both collaboration and concentration in their day-to-day work.

Open-plan layouts also fall short when it comes to hosting clients. They rarely offer the privacy, quiet, or professional atmosphere needed for external meetings. A well-designed office should support both internal collaboration and create an environment that’s impressive and functional for visitors. Spaces that can flex between focused work, team collaboration, and client-facing meetings are key to making the office a true asset, not just for employees, but for the business.

A mixed layout that includes open lounges, enclosed meeting pods, quiet rooms, and reservable desks allows people to flow between work modes without sacrificing comfort or focus.

In 2025, office design should no longer be about fitting the most desks into the least space. It should be about aligning physical environments with business goals, employee expectations, and data-backed insights. The open-plan layout was a bold experiment. Now, it’s time to take what we’ve learned and design spaces that truly work.

Final Thoughts: It’s Time to Rebalance the Office

We’re not saying open offices are evil. They had their place. But as the research and employee feedback roll in, it’s clear that open plans alone can’t support modern work. Offices need to be places of purpose: where collaboration is easy, deep work and privacy are protected, and coming in feels worthwhile.

The good news? We have the tools to make it happen. With data from sensors, feedback from employees, and flexible tech like desk booking systems, we can build better workplaces. And that starts with letting go of the idea that one big room fits all.

How Lagging Workplace Tech Is Hurting Your Return-to-Office Success

Everyone’s focused on bringing people back to the office. But here’s the thing: if the workplace tech doesn’t work, neither will your return-to-office plan.

In 2025, some companies invested in new desks. Others repainted the walls. A few even installed fresh coffee stations. But when employees returned, they were met with an old-fashioned meeting room booking process, double-booked spaces, and confusing desk booking systems. This can influence employees to choose to stay home the next time.

The truth is, bad or outdated tech is now one of the biggest blockers to successful RTO efforts. Let’s unpack what’s going wrong—and how to fix it.

Why Employees Still Aren’t Coming In

You can mandate office days, redesign the layout, and run all the engagement surveys in the world. But if the office experience is broken, especially the tech part, people will opt out. And they are.

According to a 2023 Gartner report, over 40% of hybrid workers cite poor in-office technology as a primary reason for avoiding their company’s physical workspace. McKinsey also found that employees in workplaces with seamless digital experiences are 1.8x more likely to report high job satisfaction.

So what’s going wrong?

Four Tech Red Flags That Keep People Away

1. Desk booking systems that cause chaos

Imagine reserving a desk for Wednesday only to find someone else sitting there—or worse, the system crashed before you got in. Inconsistent or unreliable desk booking software breaks trust.

Real comment from an employee in a Leesman Index study
“I’ve stopped booking desks because it’s always a gamble. I just stay home if I want to focus.”

2. Meeting room tablets that never seem to work

Meeting room tablets are supposed to solve problems, not create them. But when they’re out of sync with calendars, slow to respond, or misreport room availability, people waste time hunting for spaces.

According to CBRE, 63% of employees have been unable to find a room despite seeing multiple empty ones—a sign of system breakdowns, not space shortages.

3. No visibility into who’s in the office

Employees don’t just come in for the coffee machine, they come for people. But without a system that shows who’ll be in, office days can feel lonely.

4. Tech that feels outdated and out of touch

Slow Wi-Fi, clunky logins, poor video conferencing setups—these all send the message: this isn’t a serious workspace. And that’s a deal-breaker when home setups are now better than ever.

So What Should Workplace Tech Do?

Here’s what today’s workforce expects from the tech that powers their in-office experience:

• Be seamless – One tap to book a desk. Real-time room availability. Auto-cancellation if no one shows up.
• Be reliable – No outages, syncing issues, or confusing user interfaces.
• Be insightful – Offer facilities teams real-time data on usage, trends, and comfort levels (think temperature, IAQ, occupancy).
• Be social – Help people coordinate days in, see who's around, and plan collaboration opportunities. Support team office days and make it easy to reserve spaces like meeting rooms and project areas.
• Be responsive – Update based on feedback, usage data, and workplace patterns.

And most importantly, tech should help, not hinder—the reason people came in.

Give your employees a reason to return

No one wants to commute just to fight for a desk or troubleshoot a meeting room display. Employees will come back, but only if the office helps them work better than they can at home.

The most effective full-time RTO strategies don’t lead with mandates. They lead with experience. And that experience starts with intuitive, dependable, human-first technology.

Let’s stop blaming employee resistance and start looking at the systems we’ve built for them.

Because in the end, return-to-office success isn’t about compliance—it’s about delivering a better workplace experience, powered by tech that works.

How to handle No-Show Meetings

As offices welcome more foot traffic in the post-COVID era, challenges like no-show meetings are making a noticeable comeback. When meeting rooms remain empty, it's not just a scheduling hiccup - it directly impacts your bottom line by costing you money on unused space and overhead.

We’ll explore the everyday challenges of no-show meetings in modern workspaces. Along the way, we’ll share practical strategies and smart tech solutions, like Door Tablet, to help you optimize your meeting spaces.

The Common Scenario of No-Shows and Abandoned Bookings

Employees often book meeting rooms only to decide later that a quick email or phone call would suffice, or they simply forget to cancel the booking. This results in empty rooms and wasting valuable time as people scramble to find available space when they need it most.

“When meeting rooms remain empty, it costs you money because you are still paying for the unused space”

The Cost of Booked but Unused Meeting Rooms

Let’s do a math exercise

Let’s say your company rents an office space in central London (£150 per square foot; source: K2Space). Within this prime location, you have 1 standard small meeting room, designed to comfortably accommodate 4 people, taking up approximately 100 square feet (source: Workspace)

100 sq ft * £150/sq ft per year = £15,000 per year in rent just for the physical space.

Daily Cost: £15,000 / 260 working days ≈ £57.69 per day or £7.21 per hour, assuming an 8-hour working day across 260 working days per year.

Now consider this common scenario: a weekly team meeting is scheduled in the room, but no one shows up. The room remains booked and unavailable to others, yet entirely unused.

While it may seem minor, the cost of that one-hour weekly no-show adds up to:

£7.21/hour × 52 weeks = £374.92 per year – per room.

Multiply that across five similar meeting rooms, each experiencing a single unused booking per week, and the annual cost rises to:

£374.92 × 5 rooms = £1,874.60 per year

These figures account only for rent. But the cost of empty meeting spaces goes beyond just wasted square footage. You're also paying to heat, cool, and light rooms that no one is using.

When meeting rooms are booked but remain unused, they quietly drain your budget—while limiting the flexibility and efficiency of how your office space is utilised.

So how do we avoid this situation?

1. Define Clear Booking Rules

Think about it: when an employee neglects to show up for a meeting, that empty room isn’t just a vacant space; it’s a potential moment for collaboration that’s lost. To make sure everyone is on the same page about how to use the meeting room spaces, create Booking Rules for everyone who is coming into the office.

Policies to Consider:

• Set Maximum Booking Durations: Limit the length of each reservation (e.g., two hours per meeting) to ensure equitable access and prevent long, unproductive blocks.
• Implement a Cancellation Window: Require cancellations to be made at least 15–30 minutes before the meeting start time to free up space for others.
• Mandatory Check-Ins: Introduce a check-in system that confirms attendee presence. If the check-in isn’t completed within a set time, the room is automatically released.
• No-Show Penalties: Establish consequences for repeated no-shows, such as temporary suspension of booking privileges or departmental accountability measures.
• Recurring Booking Guidelines: Review recurring meeting bookings periodically to confirm they are still necessary, avoiding “ghost meetings” that waste valuable space.

These practices can be easily implemented with clear guidelines. Make sure to communicate the rules to everyone, integrate them into your booking system, and monitor compliance.

How do you get the whole company to actually follow them?

When you roll out these rules, make sure they’re not just “rules” that are imposed top-down. They need to be integrated into your company culture - think of them more like friendly guidelines than hard and fast regulations.

It’s not about control, it’s about respect.

Respect for space, respect for each other’s time, and respect for keeping things running smoothly.

Instead of viewing meeting spaces as personal reserves, they should be seen as shared resources. When everyone gets on board with this idea, you’ll see a shift - people will be more thoughtful when booking rooms and more considerate when they no longer need them, keeping things open and accessible for everyone.

2. Use a Meeting Room Management Solution

The technology behind your meeting room management solution can make or break how employees view meetings. If the process is not easy, you're likely to see more empty rooms or double-bookings because people waste time navigating a clunky system.

Every minute counts for those who choose to come into the office - they're there to be productive and get things done.

A system like Door Tablet offers a seamless solution that helps prevent wasted space by ensuring every booking is validated and up-to-date.

Door Tablet provides real-time availability updates so employees can instantly see which rooms are free, eliminating the guesswork and last-minute scrambling for space.

Key features include:

• Automated Release: The system prompts attendees to check in as soon as the meeting starts, automatically releasing the room if no one checks in within a set timeframe.

Important Mention: Door Tablet motion sensors can be added to automate the check-in process. Placed in each room, they automate check-in when someone enters and release the room if it stays empty, removing the need for manual tablet interaction.

• Real-Time Integration: Door Tablet syncs with major calendar systems, ensuring that reservations are always current and preventing double-bookings. This seamless integration minimizes scheduling conflicts.
• Automated Reminders: Timely notifications remind participants of upcoming meetings, reducing the likelihood of no-shows.
• User-Friendly Interface: Designed for simplicity, Door Tablet makes it easy for anyone to reserve, extend, or cancel bookings on the fly - ensuring even the least tech-savvy employees can navigate the system effortlessly.

Empower your on-site teams with technology that simplifies navigating the office and managing meetings, making their time in the office more enjoyable.

The Takeaway

Ensuring your meeting rooms are used efficiently isn’t just about setting rules - it’s about fostering a culture of accountability. When employees understand that rules like booking limits, cancellation windows, and check-ins aren’t there to create extra work, but to help everyone, they’ll be more likely to respect them. A shift in mindset from seeing rooms as personal reserves to shared resources makes all the difference.

Pair this cultural change with smart tech like Door Tablet, which automates check-ins, sends reminders, and updates availability in real-time, and you’ve got a system that helps employees stay on track without hassle.

With the right tools and the right mindset, you’ll get more out of your office space, keep meetings on schedule, and ensure those rooms are used when they’re needed most.