Why Some Bangalore Offices Look Full but Still Feel Unproductive
- 13 hours ago
- 8 min read
A 50-person office can have 50 desks, two meeting rooms, a few cabins and a couple of phone booths and still feel like the space is not working.
The problem is not always the size of the office.
Sometimes, it is the number of different spaces. Sometimes, it is where those spaces are placed. And sometimes, the office has simply been designed around headcount rather than how the team actually works.
At Purple Realty, we have seen companies rethink their workspace after realizing that adding more workstations does not necessarily make an office more productive.
Office space productivity in Bangalore is increasingly about how intelligently the available space is planned, not how many desks can be fitted into it.
A full office is not necessarily a productive office
Consider a company with 50 employees.
The obvious approach is to look for a 50-seater with:
50 to 55 workstations
A couple of meeting rooms
A few cabins
Two phone booths
Pantry
Reception
On paper, everything appears to be covered.
But what happens when the team starts using the office?
There are two very different possibilities.
Situation | What the office looks like |
Too many workstations, fewer collaboration spaces | Desks are occupied while meeting rooms and other areas remain underused |
Too few meeting/call spaces | Employees queue for rooms, take calls in pantries and work in noisy areas |
Neither is an efficient use of the office.
The important question is not:
"How many people work here?"
It is:
"How do these people actually work?"
The same headcount can require completely different spaces
A technology-heavy team may spend long periods working independently at their desks, with fewer requirements for physical meetings.
A recruitment, sales or HR-heavy team can have a completely different work pattern.
They may be on calls throughout the day, conducting interviews, speaking with candidates, attending online meetings and holding frequent internal discussions.
So why should both teams have the same office configuration?
They shouldn't.
There is no universal rule that says a 100-person office needs a particular number of meeting rooms or phone booths.
The right mix of workstations, meeting rooms and phone booths should be decided by the team's work pattern, not simply by its headcount.
Phone booths are becoming more important than ever
This is one of the most common changes we see while discussing office requirements with clients.
A client may initially ask for:
50 workstations + 5 meeting rooms + cabins.
Then we ask how many of those meetings are actually online calls.
Often, the answer is: quite a lot.
In such cases, having five large meeting rooms may not be the best use of the available area.
We may instead recommend a combination of:
1-person phone booths
2-person call rooms
Small 3 to 4-person pods
A few larger meeting rooms
This can provide more usable spaces without unnecessarily increasing the office area.
It can also reduce costs because a small phone booth or pod occupies considerably less space than a conventional meeting room.
For many modern teams, the phone booth is no longer an optional office amenity. It is becoming part of the basic workspace infrastructure.
The layout can matter as much as the numbers
Even when the numbers are right, the office can still feel inefficient if everything is badly positioned.
Imagine an office where:
All the workstations are packed into one section
Meeting rooms are tucked away at the back
Phone booths are far from the people who need them
There is no comfortable breakout area
Circulation space is minimal
The pantry becomes the informal meeting area
Technically, the office may have everything.
Functionally, it doesn't.
Good workspace planning should make movement between different modes of work easy.
Someone should be able to move from their workstation to a phone booth, a discussion room, a lounge or a meeting room without feeling that they are entering a completely different part of the office.
A well-planned office can feel more spacious and functional without necessarily being larger.
A real example: the same-sized office, but a completely different experience
One of our clients is a recruitment consultancy working with some of the largest ecommerce companies.
They had an office for around 75 people, but the space was not working well for the team.
The problems were fairly straightforward:
Very few meeting rooms
IT recruiters and non-IT recruiters were not organised effectively
No proper breakout areas
Limited privacy at workstations
Insufficient spaces for calls
The client was moving into another office of broadly the same size.
Instead of simply reproducing the old configuration, Purple Realty worked with its interior architecture support team to understand how the workforce actually used the space.
The proposed layout was substantially different.
The new configuration included:
Separate sections for IT and non-IT recruiters
Phone booths positioned back-to-back between the two sections
Smaller discussion rooms towards the ends
Manager cabins
A 25-seat training room
A collapsible partition allowing the training room to become a larger conference or discussion space
Breakout areas on both sides
Glass and soft-board partitions to help with sound absorption around workstations
The area was broadly similar.
The experience wasn't.
The client and employees were extremely satisfied with the new setup because the space reflected the way the team actually worked.
This is the difference between filling an office and designing a workspace.
Don't squeeze in another 10 desks just because you can
Coworking and managed office operators have also become increasingly efficient at using available floor space.
But there is a point where efficiency becomes overcrowding.
A standard workstation might traditionally have been around 4 ft x 2 ft. We now see configurations where workstations are reduced further and the distance between rows is also compressed.
The result?
More billable seats, but less circulation.
And that matters.
People need to move around. They need to step away from their desks. They need to have conversations without disturbing everyone around them.
An office that technically accommodates 100 people but makes 100 people feel cramped is not necessarily a better office than one designed for 80 or 90 people with better supporting spaces.
How many workstations do you really need?
Headcount alone should not determine workstation count.
Consider a company with 100 employees:
50 work from the office regularly
20 follow a hybrid model
30 primarily work from home
Does the company really need 100 permanent workstations?
Probably not.
A configuration of around 70 to 80 workstations may be more appropriate, depending on actual attendance patterns.
The remaining area could potentially be used for:
Phone booths
Meeting rooms
Collaboration areas
Breakout spaces
Lounges
Training areas
Recreational areas
This can create a better balance between cost and usability.
The objective should not be to maximise the number of seats. It should be to maximise the usefulness of every square foot.
The opposite problem: too much space in the wrong places
There is another side to this.
An office can also look impressive while wasting a significant amount of space.
A huge reception area, oversized cafeteria, multiple underused cabins or meeting rooms that remain empty most of the day can all contribute to this problem.
The answer isn't simply to create more open space.
It is to understand which spaces the workforce actually uses and how frequently they use them.
Natural light, plants, breakout areas, lounges and recreational spaces can add real value, but they need to be planned as part of the overall workspace rather than added simply because they look good.
Don't forget the future
One of the biggest office planning mistakes we see is designing perfectly for today and badly for tomorrow.
A company may have 100 employees today but expect to reach 130 or 150.
If the initial workspace leaves no room for expansion or modification, even a well-designed office can become difficult to manage.
Before finalising a workspace, companies should consider:
Area | What to think about |
Workstations | Current office attendance |
Hybrid workforce | Peak attendance rather than total headcount |
Meeting rooms | Actual meeting frequency |
Phone booths | Online calls and individual conversations |
Breakouts | Informal work and collaboration |
Circulation | Ease of movement |
Expansion | Future headcount |
Flexibility | Ability to modify the layout |
How Purple Realty approaches workspace configuration
At Purple Realty, we don't believe that an enquiry saying "we need a 200-seater" should automatically result in a search for a 200-seat office.
We first try to understand:
Total workforce
Actual office attendance
Hybrid and remote employees
Nature of the work
Hiring plans
Meeting frequency
Online call requirements
Collaboration requirements
Growth expectations
Budget
Preferred locations
Office format
Sometimes the answer is a larger office.
Sometimes it is a smaller office with better planning.
Sometimes it is a managed office.
And sometimes the requirement itself needs to be reconsidered.
We once worked with an automobile company that approached us looking for space for 250 people.
During the discussion, we found that around 75 employees worked from home.
Instead of putting 250 people into a fully furnished office, we planned the requirement around approximately 200 workstations, with additional meeting rooms, phone booths and open space.
The client was able to optimise the requirement and save up to around 20% on the overall space cost.
They had also previously received proposals for larger spaces from landlords who believed the additional area would be ideal.
The difference was that we were not trying to fill a particular building.
We were trying to understand what the company actually needed.
What should companies look for before taking an office?
Before finalising an office for 50, 100 or 200 people, ask:
How many people actually work from the office?
How many are hybrid?
How many spend significant time on calls?
How many meeting rooms are genuinely required?
Would phone booths work better for some conversations?
Is there enough space to move around comfortably?
Are there areas where employees can work away from their desks?
Can the office accommodate future growth?
Is the layout designed around the team's actual work?
Are you paying for space that will rarely be used?
The best office is not necessarily the one with the highest seat count.
It is the one where every part of the space has a reason to exist.
Looking for an office that works for your team?
If you're evaluating office space in Bangalore for 20 to 200+ employees, don't start by looking at buildings alone.
Tell Purple Realty about your workforce, work pattern, growth plans and budget. We can help you evaluate the right micro-market, office format, configuration and properties before you commit.
The goal is simple: find an office that works for your people, not just an office that fits your headcount.
FAQs
1. How does office design affect productivity?
Office design can influence how easily employees move between focused work, meetings, calls and collaboration. The right balance of workstations, meeting rooms, phone booths, breakout areas and circulation space can make the workspace more functional.
2. How many workstations should an office have?
The number of workstations should be based on actual office attendance, hybrid working patterns and expected usage rather than total employee headcount. A company with 100 employees may not necessarily need 100 permanent workstations.
3. How many meeting rooms does a 100-person office need?
There is no universal ratio. The requirement depends on the team's work pattern. A sales or recruitment-heavy team may need more meeting and call spaces than a team whose employees primarily perform individual work.
4. Are phone booths important in modern offices?
Yes. Phone booths can provide dedicated spaces for individual calls and online meetings without occupying an entire meeting room. They can be particularly useful for teams that spend significant time on calls.
5. What are common office space planning mistakes?
Common mistakes include maximising workstation count, under-providing phone booths and meeting rooms, ignoring circulation space, failing to plan for expansion and creating a layout that does not reflect how employees actually work.
6. Can Purple Realty help with office space planning in Bangalore?
Yes. Purple Realty works with companies to understand their workforce, work patterns, growth plans, budget and workspace requirements before shortlisting suitable office options. The process can include property sourcing, workspace evaluation, property tours, negotiation and deal closure.
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