Two-Thirds of Office Workers Hack Their Workspace. The Oldest Hack Is an Extension Cord
Gensler's 2026 survey of more than 16,400 office workers found that two-thirds have changed their workspace themselves to make it work. The fix nobody counts is the one under the desk.
"When meeting rooms are used as personal workspaces, productivity suffers."
Janet Pogue McLaurin and Katherine Engel, Gensler, on the Global Workplace Survey 2026
Gensler's Global Workplace Survey 2026 asked more than 16,400 full-time office workers in 16 countries how their workplace performs. A large share answered by describing what they had changed themselves:
- Two-thirds hack their workspace. They rearrange furniture, bring in heaters and fans, add lighting, or otherwise work around what the space does not provide.
- One in four has made a DIY fix for ergonomics or temperature.
- Meeting rooms double as desks. A majority of workers use them for solo focus work, which is one reason they are so hard to book.
Gensler's point is that people have accepted the office and are now waiting for it to deliver. The hacks show where it falls short.
The hack nobody reports
Gensler's list of hacks is about comfort: light, temperature, posture, privacy. There is an older one that most people no longer notice, because it has been part of office life for so long. It is the extension cord.
Every flexible office has it. A power strip taped under the shared table. A cord run from the wall to the sofa where people actually sit. Seats by the outlets taken first, and the rest filling up only when they have to. The furniture plan says the room is flexible. The outlets say where people will sit.
It is the same pattern Gensler found with meeting rooms. When the space does not provide something, people route around it, and the workaround quietly becomes the layout.
Take the outlet out of the layout
Battery power removes the reason for the oldest hack:
- Power goes to the seat. A person takes a power bank from an Omni Power Station and works wherever the day puts them, at a hot desk, a shared table or a sofa. No cord to the wall, nothing to tape down.
- One outlet serves the floor. An Omni Power Station 20C+ 7-Bay or 30C+ recharges a full set of banks from a single wall outlet, so the furniture plan can change without an electrician.
- Meeting rooms go back to meetings. When focus seats have power of their own, fewer people need to claim a room to plug in.
Two-thirds of workers are already fixing their workspace. Giving them power that moves is one fix the workplace can make for them. See how it works on our Powering Spaces page and in our case studies.
An industry perspective, not a partnership
This article is Omnicharge's commentary on published industry research. Omnicharge is not affiliated with, partnered with or endorsed by Gensler. The survey does not address power or charging; that reading is ours.
Quoted excerpts remain the property of their authors and are used with attribution. Photos on this page are Omnicharge's own.
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