When Maïa Maury, 25, started a new job in the US, she was happy to find that it came with her own fixed desk.
As a French native who had left home, she wanted to make the space more comfortable.
“I like having my own space, like a little box,” she said of her office space, “some people find it depressing, but I really like having my own space to work in.”
After seeing a number of TikTok videos of people decorating their desks, she decided to decorate her own and display the results on TikTok.
Over $200 later, she had completed her makeover – decking out her office with cushions, an ergonomic mouse, a poster and an oil dispenser that resembles a fire pit. She also bought a desk vacuum to pick up crumbs from her desk.
She ended up getting nearly 11 million views on the TikTok video.
But Maury isn’t the only GenZer eager to make himself at home in the office.
She’s one of many young professionals taking to TikTok under the hashtags #cubiclelife and #worklife to show off their new office setups and share decor tips. And people seem to love it, with viewership on some videos reaching into the millions.
While a designated desk was once a given in an office, the pandemic ushered in an era of hot desking and working from home. For the youngsters, this was their first experience in the corporate world.
Now, designated office cubicles and desks are more of a novelty, meaning that the lucky few who get one are sometimes inclined to make the most of it. They’re turning their office desks into a space that feels more like a home office setup, with posters, candles, new accessories, and cozy blankets.
Maury decorated her desk after being inspired by other people’s TikToks. Maia Maury
Trying to make the office less depressing
Instead of giving in to the mundanity of office life, many Gen Zs are taking matters into their own hands.
“It’s a little depressing to be stuck inside for eight-plus hours a day just staring at a computer screen. And I feel like to make it even more depressing by having a bare desk, I’m setting myself up for failure,” Maury told BI .
Another Zer General, Zernab Saeed, wanted to make the most of having a personal office desk at her first job out of college.
She found that having a soft desk contributed to the feeling that office life was “repetitive and mundane”. “I was like nobody knows this is my desk and nobody stops to have a conversation,” she said.
She did something similar to Maury: she bought posters, candles, pillows and blankets to make the office more comfortable. She added personal touches like a fake crochet vine made by her friend.
And she found that people started stopping by her desk for a chat, and she had to share more of her personality with her colleagues.
Zernab wanted to stand up to her colleagues by showing her personality at work. Zernab Seid
Saeed said she is one of the most loving people in her workplace. “I’m what everyone is calling a friend these days, so when I see someone new, I go up and talk to them.”
However, as one of the youngest people in the office, she has discovered that not everyone is so enthusiastic.
“The older generation, they are very much to themselves. They keep their personal life and their work life separate,” she said.
Some don’t want to waste time decorating in case they get laid off
Some people in the comments of Maury’s video weren’t so enthusiastic about her office setup. Maia Maury
When Maury posted her original TikTok video of how she decorated her desk, she said she received a flood of comments criticizing her for spending so much time and effort on it.
“But what about layoffs, girl,” one comment read. “Never be comfortable in a job,” read another.
Maury was shocked by the hostility toward work that many young people felt toward their workplace.
“Was this the idea that, apparently, you shouldn’t like your job?” she said.
“This idea that a job is just a job, it’s here to pay the bills… That’s the problem. If that’s how you think about a job, then you’re definitely not going to enjoy what you do,” she added.
For her, having her own space is a real perk of the job.
Experts say having a designated desk can reap benefits for young people
In the wake of the pandemic, many companies switched to hybrid work and realized the potential to save real estate space by introducing heated tables.
But recently, more workplaces are looking to bring in more designated desks.
If most people come in three days a week, there’s not a significant amount of real estate to be spared by the hot desk, Caitlin Turner, interior director at the HOK architecture firm, explained.
“People have long journeys and when they arrive, they want to know where they’re going to sit,” she said.
Most employers are concerned about attracting and retaining employees — a lot of it depends on getting people to come to the office and get mentoring from seniors to their juniors, Turner said.
And some employers are finding that downsizing is the way to go, especially when it comes to younger workers.
Gen Zers moving to a new city right out of college often live in smaller apartments that they share with roommates. So most of them don’t have the resources to have comfortable or even practical work-from-home spaces.
“They’ve been very nomadic,” Turner said of Gen. Z. “They’re a sharing economy generation: they share bikes and Ubers and all that stuff.
“So when they’re given their own desk, it’s seen as a benefit to them,” she said, versus previous generations like Gen X who took assigned desks for granted.
However, this is not a one-size-fits-all approach. For some, hot desking means making smoother connections and avoiding being stuck with hapless companions.
Many companies are still moving towards shrinking office space, leaving less room for people to enjoy their desks.
Leonora Georgeoglou, a design expert for the future of work at architecture firm HED, said she expects “a designated seat for each employee to be a thing of the past”.
Instead, companies are increasingly trying to find a middle ground by offering more enclosed spaces and private offices for dedicated work alongside hot desk spaces.