Tips before choosing an office

Choosing an office looks like a decision for the head of operations or the CEO. In practice, it's a marketing decision, a culture decision, a talent-retention decision, and above all a decision you make once and then endure or enjoy for three to five years. Changing offices is so costly that most companies that get it wrong end up adapting to the space instead of adapting the space to the company.

This article gathers the criteria that matter before you sign, separates the obvious costs from the hidden ones, and lands on the mistakes that recur at every small company making the leap from its first office to a place of its own, or from coworking to a headquarters.

A brief history to avoid repeating mistakes

The modern office is not a natural phenomenon. It has authors, stages, and conceptual turns worth knowing because the mistakes we see today were already made decades ago.

In the early 20th century, Frederick Taylor and scientific management (The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911) thought of the office as a factory: rows of identical desks, visible spatial hierarchy, constant supervision. Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building (1906) in Buffalo materialized that vision in a single enormous hall with aligned desks.

In the 1950s, in Hamburg, the Quickborner group developed the Bürolandschaft ("office landscape"), a more fluid alternative that broke up the Taylorist grid with flexible furniture, plants, and diagonals. It reached the United States in the 60s.

In 1968, the designer Robert Propst, working for Herman Miller, launched the Action Office: a modular system meant to give the worker autonomy, with panels that delimited zones and allowed people to personalize the environment. His intention was humanist. The real adoption turned it into the opposite: the cubicle, optimized to fit more people per square meter. Propst, until his death in 2000, lamented how his idea had been corrupted.

The 90s brought Activity-Based Working (ABW), articulated by the Dutchman Erik Veldhoen: the office stops having one desk per person and is organized by activities —focus, collaboration, calls, rest. Each employee moves to the right zone for whatever they're doing. Companies like Microsoft Netherlands and Macquarie Bank applied it before many others.

In August 2005, Brad Neuberg, a San Francisco programmer, opened the first space that defined itself as "coworking" at the Spiral Muse premises. WeWork was founded in 2010 and popularized the model on a global scale.

The 2020 pandemic broke all the previous certainties. Remote work became viable overnight, and in 2026 the hybrid model —two to three days in the office, the rest remote— is the most widespread in knowledge sectors. This radically changed how much office space is needed and for what.

The operational consequence: today's office should be neither a Taylorist panopticon, nor a poorly applied Action Office cubicle, nor a noisy open space, nor an impersonal coworking. It should be infrastructure specific to the working modes of the particular team that will occupy it.

Before you search: the four questions

There are four questions worth answering before you start visiting spaces. Skipping them is like going to try out tables at an IKEA without knowing the size of your dining room.

How many people, realistically, will be there at once? Not the total headcount, but the expected simultaneous attendance on a normal day. In a hybrid model, average attendance tends to be around 50-70% of headcount. Designing for 100% is paying for empty space; designing for 30% creates friction on full days. The reasonable thing is to plan with a realistic peak scenario (days with the whole team) and a typical one (average attendance).

What kind of work is done mostly? Deep focus work (writing, programming, designing, analyzing) requires silence and stable desks. Collaborative work (meetings, brainstorming, pair work) requires enough rooms and informal zones. Client work (visits, demos, presentations) requires image and privacy. Few offices serve all three equally well; it's worth knowing where the real weight lies.

What growth is reasonable over the next 24-36 months? If the team is going to double, the office must be able to grow within it or be near available adjacent spaces. An office perfect for the current team that doesn't allow growth forces a move in two years, with all the cost and disruption that entails.

Who comes through here besides the team? Clients, candidates, external collaborators, press. If the office is invisible to the outside, its impact on the brand is almost nil and you can prioritize function over image. If you regularly receive people, the waiting area, the restrooms, the light, and the first impression count more than they seem.

Location: the most expensive thing to change

Location is the least reversible decision. The interior office can be remodeled; the address cannot.

Three dimensions to evaluate:

Accessibility for the team. The team's quality of life is reflected in their ability to work well and stay. An office 15 minutes by public transit from most of the team retains talent; one an hour away each day wears it down. It's useful to map the team's actual addresses and calculate average times before choosing.

Accessibility for clients and suppliers. If the business depends on physical visits, the office must be easy to find, with parking or nearby transit. An office in a poorly connected industrial park can cost you meetings with clients who'd rather not travel out there.

Commercial surroundings. What's around matters more than it seems. Restaurants for team or client lunches, cafés for informal meetings, supermarkets, gyms, post offices. An isolated office forces you to plan any errand; a well-located one absorbs those services without a second thought.

On top of this come factors specific to the local market: neighborhoods rising or falling in price, areas with better safety, zones undergoing urban regeneration. A real estate agency with experience in offices (not just residential) usually brings criteria a lay team can't see.

Costs: the obvious and the hidden

The nominal rent is only a fraction of the real cost. Before signing, it's worth calculating the total monthly cost including:

• Rent or monthly fee.
• Common charges (building maintenance, cleaning of common areas, security, building insurance). In commercial contracts these usually add 15-25% on top.
• Utilities: electricity (significant in offices with lots of equipment and air conditioning), water, gas if applicable.
• Dedicated internet. A serious business connection with an SLA can cost €100-300/month; the wifi from the floor above is not an alternative.
• Daily cleaning of the office (not included in common charges).
• Technical maintenance (HVAC, plumbing, electrical).
• Furniture, if the office comes empty. Ergonomic desks, chairs (Herman Miller Aeron, Steelcase Leap, IKEA depending on budget), meeting rooms, screens, an equipped kitchen. For an office of 10-15 people, decent initial equipment runs €15,000-40,000.
• Fit-out if it requires work (partitioning spaces, additional electrical installation, soundproofing rooms, decorating with brand identity).
• Liability and contents insurance.
• Insurance and tax registration depending on the type of contract.
• Local taxes depending on jurisdiction.

A reasonable rule of thumb in urban European markets: the real total cost runs about 1.5× the nominal rent once everything is added up. In full-service offices (typical of coworkings with a fixed fee that includes almost everything), the comparison with a "pure" rent looks unfavorable until you add up these extras.

The contract: what changes the risk

In Spain and most of continental Europe, commercial office contracts are less protective of the tenant than residential ones. Before signing, there are three parameters worth negotiating and understanding well:

Term and renewal. Contracts of 3-5 years are common; some landlords ask for longer commitments in exchange for better terms. Early-exit clauses with notice (typically 6 months) are reasonable for teams in uncertain growth.

Rent-free period and works. If the premises need adapting, a rent-free period during the work is standard. Negotiating 1-3 months without paying at the start is normal in serious contracts; landlords usually accept it in exchange for a longer commitment.

Rent escalation. Clauses tied to inflation (CPI) or other indices. In inflationary contexts like those of recent years, an open escalation clause can multiply the rent beyond what was expected. It's worth setting caps (a maximum of 3-4% per year, for example) or negotiating reviews every certain number of years.

Guarantees. Deposits of 2-6 months are common; some landlords ask for additional bank guarantees that carry a financial cost.

Assignment and subletting. Can the contract be assigned if the company changes size or reorganizes? Can part of the space be sublet? Restrictive clauses can block future solutions.

A lawyer with experience in commercial leases, paid for an hour before signing, usually saves problems that cost thousands later.

Space quality: what you notice every day

The technical criteria of the space are what make or break the daily experience. Five that deserve specific attention:

Natural light. Direct or diffuse natural light consistently correlates with well-being and productivity in occupational ergonomics studies. An office with a shortage of natural light feels claustrophobic by the third day. The operational rule: no more than 6 meters of depth without visual access to a window.

Air quality. A parameter undervalued until the pandemic. The concentration of CO₂ in indoor air is a direct indicator of ventilation: above 1000 ppm, cognitive performance drops measurably; above 1400, the air feels stale. ASHRAE and other standards define minimum air renewal per person per hour. Some modern offices install visible CO₂ sensors. If in doubt, bring a portable meter to the visit.

Acoustics. The ambient noise level is measured in decibels and speech intelligibility in other metrics (STI, Speech Transmission Index). An open space without acoustic treatment can exceed 65 dB at peak hour, equivalent to an average restaurant. For focus, the reasonable level is below 50 dB. Solutions: acoustic panels, rugs, desk dividers, phone booths in sufficient quantity.

HVAC and temperature. An air-conditioning/heating system that doesn't allow zone-by-zone adjustment produces daily conflicts. Knowing whether there's individual or zone temperature control, and the age of the system, saves headaches.

Artificial lighting. The European standard EN 12464-1 recommends 500 lux for office tasks. Lighting that's too low tires the eyes; too high or with flicker produces headaches. Modern flicker-free LED light, dimmable, with a temperature between 4000K and 5000K for working hours.

Rooms, zones, and proportion

The distribution of space matters as much as the total. Some practical references:

• Meeting rooms: approximately 1 medium room per 8-12 people. One small room (2-4 people, for calls and reviews) per 5-8 people. The lack of rooms is the number-one complaint in growing offices.
• Phone booths or individual pods: essential in an open space for private calls. 1 booth per 8-10 people as a reasonable minimum.
• Break / kitchen area: acoustically separated enough that its noise doesn't contaminate work zones.
• Reception / waiting area: if you receive clients, don't improvise with a sofa in the middle of the open space.
• Storage: physical files, supplies, audiovisual gear. Always underestimated.

Typical density varies a lot by sector. Technology in an open space can operate with 7-10 m² per person; sectors with a lot of confidentiality (law firms, advisory, private banking) usually need 12-18 m². Densities below 6 m² per person almost always result in overcrowded, uncomfortable offices.

Technology and connectivity

Dedicated internet, not shared with other tenants in the building. Symmetric fiber (similar upload and download) if you do video calls or heavy uploads. An SLA with a response time for outages. A second backup connection if the business depends heavily on being online.

Cabling and internal network. Network sockets at each desk if the wifi isn't stable. Business-grade switches and router. Homogeneous wifi coverage throughout the office —there's nothing worse than going into a room and losing signal.

Rooms equipped for video calls: an adequate screen, camera, microphone, and speaker, a room booking system (Google Calendar, Outlook, dedicated systems). A room with improvised technology eats up minutes in every meeting.

Physical security: access control, cameras where they make sense, an alarm. Information security: the employee wifi network separated from the guest one; clear device policies.

Hybrid, coworking, and alternative formats

For small teams or teams in uncertain growth, a place of their own can be excessive. Three alternative formats worth comparing:

Coworking (WeWork, Spaces, Talent Garden, Cloudworks, local multinationals). A monthly fee per person, all included (internet, cleaning, rooms, kitchen, reception). High flexibility —you typically come and go with a month's notice. Cost per person similar to or slightly higher than a place of your own, with no initial equipment cost. It loses personalization and, depending on the space, brand-control capability.

Serviced office (Regus, IWG, and similar). A hybrid between a traditional lease and coworking: you rent a closed office within an operated building, with services included. More private than open coworking, less customizable than your own office.

Sublease or office shared with another company. A company with surplus space rents to another. Cheaper, less formal, very dependent on how well the two teams coexist.

Hybrid with no main physical office. A fully remote team with occasional gatherings in spaces rented by the day or week. A growing model since 2020 in technology and professional-services companies, especially when the team is geographically distributed.

Certifications that indicate real quality

In mid-to-high-end offices, building certifications are reliable indicators.

• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, US Green Building Council, 1998): sustainability and energy efficiency.
• BREEAM (UK, 1990): the European equivalent, also environmental.
• WELL Building Standard (International WELL Building Institute, 2014): occupant well-being —air, water, light, comfort, mind.

A building with WELL Gold or LEED Platinum doesn't guarantee a good office, but it does guarantee a minimum level of air quality, ergonomics, and facilities that many low-end buildings don't reach.

Mistakes that recur

Deciding on price alone. The cheapest rent usually has hidden costs (exorbitant common charges, obsolete facilities, a location that costs the team time) that match or exceed those of an average one.

Deciding on aesthetics alone. An office with wood floors and plants that is noisy, poorly lit, or far from transit will generate more friction than pride.

Not testing the daily routine. Visiting at 11 a.m. when everything is quiet is misleading. It's worth also visiting at peak hour (9-10 a.m.), after lunch (3-4 p.m.), and at the end of the day (6-7 p.m.) to feel the real noise and temperature.

Underestimating growth. Signing for three years for a team of eight when you expect to double in twelve months is buying yourself a move.

Ignoring sound. An open space without acoustic treatment becomes unbearable after six months. Soundproofing afterward is expensive.

Not testing the internet. Ask to make a video call during the visit, ideally at the same time of day the team works. If the connection fails, they won't magically fix it later.

Forgetting the image for candidates. If the team has to recruit in competitive markets, the first impression of the office matters. A tidy office, with light, with visible identity, helps close hires that a similar but dull one loses.

Skipping the contract. Signing the landlord's standard template without reviewing escalation, early-exit, or subletting clauses is taking on risks that surface two years later.

How it fits into the company's flow

The office, well chosen, reflects the team's working culture. Poorly chosen, it contradicts it. For creative teams, where work alternates between deep focus, intense collaboration, and client meetings, the office must allow those three modes without conflict.

Creative operations deals with exactly this kind of coordination: how the team's working modes are reflected in systems, spaces, and tools. At Polimake, Studio helps translate how a team works into how it organizes itself —including how its physical space is distributed—; Studio coordinates the planning of space usage (room calendars, in-office days, events); Media works the visual and brand image within the space (signage, displays, materials).

This relates to the debate over open-space offices and to individual techniques like time blocking that make better use of a well-designed space.

To close

Choosing an office is choosing how the company will work over the coming years. The decision isn't aesthetic or one of pure cost: it's a hypothesis about how the current team and the projected team will interact with a physical space daily.

What most distinguishes the companies that get it right isn't the budget. It's having answered the four initial questions honestly —how many people, what kind of work, what growth, who comes through here—, having tested the space at different hours, having read the contract with a lawyer, and having resisted the temptation to choose by the photo. An ordinary office well chosen always beats a spectacular one signed in a hurry.

Quick references

• Four preliminary questions: real simultaneous people, type of work, 24-36 month growth, regular visitors.
• Total cost ≈ 1.5× nominal rent once everything is added up.
• Sustainable density: 7-12 m² per person depending on sector.
• Rooms: 1 medium per 8-12 people, 1 phone booth per 8-10.
• Air quality: CO₂ below 1000 ppm.
• Work acoustics: below 50 dB in focus zones.
• Lighting: 500 lux for tasks, flicker-free, dimmable.
• Dedicated internet with an SLA, not shared.
• Visit at different hours, especially peak hour and the afternoon.
• Contract clauses: CPI escalation with a cap, early exit, assignment.
• LEED/BREEAM/WELL certifications as an objective indicator of building quality.