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&lt;p&gt;Earlier this week, the &lt;em&gt;Washington Post&lt;/em&gt; ran an interesting piece detailing some unusual changes underway at the McLean, Virginia headquarters of public sector consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.  Booz Allen, the publication says, has resorted to a method called &quot;hoteling&quot; in order to cut down on lengthy employee commutes and save office space.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float: left; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 3px;&quot; src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/articles/Work%20From%20home.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;230&quot; height=&quot;164&quot;&gt;Hoteling, it turns out, is the death of the typical office workspace; at Booz Allen, gone are the days of family photos on cubicle walls, derelict corporate mugs in rows.  In its place is a new system that the firm hopes will underscore its commitment to innovation for clients and employees alike.  Here&#39;s the idea: instead of assigning each employee a specific desk or office for the indefinite future, each Booz Allen employee must reserve their favored office space before the beginning of each day, much like a patron would reserve a hotel room for a night.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To make it easy for the employees, the firm hired on-site &quot;concierges who help employees reserve a room or locate other employees.&quot;  To further simplify the process, the tech-savvy firm created a web-based mechanism through which Booz Allen consultants can log in and check for open spots or reserve a desk online.  The result: for many employees, waking up and reserving a desk at the office (if they plan to go in at all) is just another part of the morning routine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Post&lt;/em&gt; also notes that the firm installed &quot;lounges, lockers and collaboration rooms&quot; in a bid to maintain a professional work environment; that effort also saw the construction of &quot;privacy rooms, like phone booths,&quot; where employees can place business calls in privacy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the heart of the plan is a commitment to improving work/life balance and maintaining a more flexible version of the traditional office model.  The hoteling system ensures that lead associates or below&amp;mdash;about two-thirds of the Booz Allen workforce&amp;mdash;has the opportunity to work remotely, skipping lengthy Beltway commutes and thereby saving more time for productivity.  The firm first dabbled with the idea a couple of years ago, when execs decided to &quot;get creative&quot; in order to keep employees happy and industrious.  Since then, it&#39;s been a major success; desk reservation is now the norm at five Booz Allen offices, with four more on course to make the switch in 2011.  One associate, 23 year-old Dee Dee DeHaven, summed up the workforce&#39;s feelings on the subject succinctly:  &quot;I don&#39;t miss the stuff,&quot; she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some worried that the constant rotation and encouragement to work remotely would affect Booz Allen&#39;s proud culture, but execs say that that simply hasn&#39;t been the case. &quot;I&#39;m from the old school and always had my own desk, my own office,&quot; admits a VP.  &quot;But now you can be more mobile, you can be more flexible.&quot;&amp;nbsp; So far, the move looks to be paying off.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For more information:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Washington Post: Now Booz Allen workers have to call to reserve their desks&lt;/p&gt;

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