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Comment by ignoramous | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations on the launch!

> If you’re one of the 3 of 4 people who wants to work flexibly post-pandemic, or if you manage a workplace, we’d love to hear from you.

One of those is Andy Jassy, CEO-elect at Amazon, who is on-record that Amazon is likely to switch to a hybrid model where folks would may be reserve desks when they intend to be in-office but mostly work remotely otherwise.

Absolutely a huge market.

> Worksphere is $6 per active employee/month, and our clients only pay for employees that come to the office.

Curious: What merited, if I may, the current model? Did you also happen to consider charging for something like total office-desks in management (that scales nicely and makes for a predictable cost accounting)?

Thanks.

[0] https://youtu.be/izbg7CpoSqg?t=2079

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Thanks for sharing the Andy Jassy video. In most companies with office workers, the hybrid model as a better way of working is becoming the mainstream view. We hope we can help simplify the experience.

The per active employee pricing model was driven by the level of uncertainty from companies on how many employees will use the office on a regular basis. For some of our clients who have opened their offices only 10-20% of their employees are using it. Customers would prefer not to pay for all their desks when only a small fraction are actually being used.

Good points on the cost accounting and predictability of costs. We haven't gotten pushback on that so far. But we'll keep an eye out.

I wonder how having to hotdesk affects people wanting to work in an office. I prefer going in to working at home, but having to worry about whether there is a desk for me there and having to bring my desk toys (or important things, like mice) in every day might become grating after a while. If I could book a desk for multiple days and get penalized if I didn't use it, that would probably work fine. (Or even lose the reservation if I don't sit down by 9 am or something)

Booking a desk for multiple days is definitely something we've been thinking about, and we built it into the product for the same reasons you're saying.

Our workspaces are pretty personal. If you come into work, the chair is at the wrong height, monitors wrong, and you don't have what you need, it doesn't work.

But if you know you can have the same desk for the next 2 weeks on the days you want to come in, it can work. Losing the reservation or a penalty could be an interesting addition too -- we'll keep it in mind.

Dedicated lockable rolling carts work well in this situation. My external keyboard, mouse and miscellany roll around to whatever desk is available.

That’s a great idea. I’ve also seen a less secure “cubby” model where people just have trays.

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