The age of the 'hot desk' has dawned, with the increasing use of virtual offices and on-demand workplaces, as more people work on the move or from home.
With office space in central business districts at a premium, more companies will be looking at 'hot desking' at their own premises or in serviced offices if trends in the United States catch on.
To make the most of the limited amount of office space in Hong Kong, business centres are ensuring that even the smallest room, which once would have been consigned as storage space, has a desk and phone line installed.
These ready-to-use facilities can be rented by the day, week or even hour to an entrepreneur or executive who has flown in for a few days of work.
It means companies will need less space and the days when someone makes a desk their personal domain or fiefdom may be over.
Companies such as Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems have pioneered hot desking, or non-dedicated office space, in the US. Workstations can be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis by employees who work at various locations or via mobile communication devices.
At IBM, 42 per cent of the workforce does not have a dedicated office, according to surveys reported by Officing Today. The average workstation in a 'traditional office environment is used only 35 per cent of the time during business hours'.