Office Space — 6 min read
How much office space does a five-person team need?
A method for sizing a small office that starts from how your team works rather than from a rule of thumb.
Count presence, not headcount
Five people on the payroll rarely means five people in the room. Look at the last month honestly: how many were in the office on the busiest day, and how often did that peak occur?
Size for the peak if it happens weekly. Size for the average, with a plan for overflow, if the peak happens twice a quarter.
Then add the space between the desks
Desks are only part of the requirement. You need circulation space, somewhere to put a cupboard and a printer, a corner for tea, and somewhere a private call can happen without the whole team hearing it.
In a conventional office all of that is area you rent. In a serviced workspace most of it is shared, which is why a small private room can feel larger than its square footage suggests.
Plan the next two hires
Decide in advance where hires six and seven will sit. If the honest answer is 'nowhere', you are choosing between paying for empty desks now and moving in eight months.
A flexible arrangement lets you defer that decision — which, when hiring plans are uncertain, is usually worth more than the per-square-foot saving on a fixed lease.