The announcement of my NYC and DC office reorganization project came in on Tuesday. By Wednesday, I was fielding questions about desk assignments, technology needs and whether people could keep their workstations, offices, bullpens etc. By Friday, I realized nobody had thought about where 50 people's worth of files would go. At the same time, our in-house storage units were being downsized.
Welcome to managing facilities during organizational change.
As a facilities manager overseeing operations across multiple locations, I've learned that workplace reorganizations sound simple in leadership meetings. However, they become complex when you are moving real people with real belongings into real spaces. As facilities managers we are expected to make the vision work while keeping everything running smoothly.
I'm currently in the middle of aligning our NYC and DC offices to support how our nonprofit organization wants to work moving forward. On paper, it's about creating collaborative spaces and flexible work arrangements. In reality, it's about coordinating technology infrastructure, managing employee anxiety, sourcing sustainable furniture solutions and answering 47 variations of "Where will my stuff go?"
During the initial reorganization planning meetings, leadership focused on team alignment, workflow improvements and cultural transformation. All important. However, my role is to mention the electrical capacity needed for hot-desking technology, calculate storage requirements, eliminate assigned desks and of course, budget. Additionally, I must consider the acoustics of turning private offices into open collaboration areas and an entire floor into new storage space. This is where facilities managers earn our keep by identifying the practical realities that turn organizational vision into functional workspaces.
Here's what, in my experience, makes workplace reorganization particularly challenging for facilities managers. We can't pause building operations while transforming spaces. People need to work. Systems need to function. We're essentially rebuilding the plane while flying it!
In this case, I'm phasing the NYC and DC changes to minimize disruption. We're moving teams in stages, which means coordinating furniture delivery, technology installations and employee relocations while the rest of the organization continues normal operations. The systems thinker in me visualizes all parallel systems working together. My team is in full “all hands-on deck” as I call it.
My Lean Six Sigma training helps me considerably here. 5S, a lean method that improves workplace efficiency, safety and organization, is my method to reorganize and recategorize our storage areas, showing dependencies between tasks. It allows me and my team to identify potential bottlenecks before they cause delays. We build flexibility into timelines because something always takes longer than expected.
What surprises me most about this reorganization is how much of my role involves managing emotions, not just logistics. People are anxious about losing assigned desks. They're worried about finding quiet space in collaborative layouts. They're attached to their current spots and resist change. But, as a facilities manager, that’s the beauty of our role. We need to manage that too!
I've learned to acknowledge these feelings while guiding people toward solutions. When someone emails me upset about the changes, I don't just explain the new desk assignment, I listen to their concerns, explain why decisions were made and help them understand how the new layout might work better for their needs and the organization.
As a woman in facilities management, I've found that people sometimes feel comfortable expressing frustrations to me that they wouldn't share with other leadership. I'm grateful they trust me and it shows the value me and my team offer as a strategic partner.
One aspect of this reorganization I'm particularly focused on is sustainable furniture disposition. We're not just moving desks, we're eliminating workstations that no longer fit our model. Rather than sending everything to landfills, I'm coordinating donations to other nonprofits, working with recycling partners and finding second homes for furniture that is no longer needed.
These things take time. I've learned to be honest and upfront about timelines rather than promising unrealistic completion dates. It is better to under-promise and overdeliver than to create expectations I can't meet.
I cannot stress enough about the importance of having facilities managers involved in reorganization planning from the beginning. If decisions are made without the facilities manager, there’s a strong chance that potential problems will be missed and may become expensive mistakes. Facilities managers understand how spaces actually get used versus how they're designed to be used.
At this time, my team is humming along and recreating a space for our employees that adapts to modern workplace trends — specifically how people are wanting to work and what kinds of spaces they feel most productive in — all while being in compliance with rules, regulations and codes. That is workplace transformation at its best.
Maria Ruiz is a Facilities Operations Manager at UNICEF USA with 15+ years of cross-sector expertise. Overseeing multiple national offices, she applies Lean Six Sigma methodologies to create sustainable, efficient workspaces supporting humanitarian missions. Her writing champions women in facilities management by blending technical knowledge with practical insights that empower professionals in this traditionally male-dominated field.
