Two-Thirds of Office Workers Hack Their Workspaces, Gensler Survey Finds

Two-thirds of office workers worldwide now deploy do-it-yourself "hacks" to personalize their desks, according to an international survey by global design firm Gensler covering nearly 16,500 workers in 16 countries.

The anonymous, panel-based study, reported by Fast Company on October 12, 2026, found that workers rearrange furniture, modify air vents, and bring personal heaters, fans, and extra reading lights into the office to compensate for environmental shortcomings. Roughly a quarter of respondents said they use such hacks specifically to address ergonomic, temperature, privacy, and storage problems.

"A clear majority of workers use do-it-yourself fixes to maintain comfort and privacy and personalize their workspaces," Gensler found.

What hacks are workers using?

The survey catalogs a wide range of makeshift solutions. Workers reported:

• Rearranging furniture to suit their tasks
• Bringing in personal heaters and fans to address temperature
• Modifying air vents to redirect airflow
• Adding extra reading lights to compensate for poor overhead lighting
• Wearing headphones to mask office noise

Where are people actually working?

Gensler's data also documents how the modern worker splits the week. The average respondent now spends 55% of working time in the office and 26% in coworking spaces, client or vendor sites, third places, or while traveling for business.

Workers have settled into these ratios over the past three years, according to the firm, even as employers tighten return-to-office mandates and roll back pandemic-era flexibility.

Why does this matter for office design?

The findings suggest standardized corporate workplaces are failing to accommodate diverse work styles and physical needs. Workers do not wait for facilities teams; they modify their environments in real time with whatever tools are at hand.

The quarter of employees who hack their spaces for ergonomic, temperature, privacy, and storage reasons represent a structural failure in how offices are specified. Personal heaters under desks, repositioned monitors, and taped-over vents function as stopgaps rather than solutions. Gensler implies the office must be designed for the worker who actually uses it, not the average figure on a floor plan.

For Gensler—one of the world's largest design practices, with offices spanning architecture, interiors, and workplace strategy—the data reinforces a case the firm has built across successive annual Workplace Surveys: occupant-led improvisation is a leading indicator of design underperformance.

What happens next?

As return-to-office pressure intensifies through 2026, building owners and corporate real estate teams face a choice. Either the built environment adapts to the people inside it, or the improvised fixes documented in this survey will harden into permanent features of the contemporary workplace.