I TEND to slap my forehead in despair whenever I hear the term “hot desking”.

Efficiency experts have conned various organisations in to believing that it is more productive if several people use the same desk at different times.

The Greater Manchester police force intends to go down this route by moving 800 people in to a new north Manchester headquarters that has space for 550 desks.

Such a move would allow other GMP buildings to be closed to save money — a million pounds or so.

It sounds great in theory, but office workers of all sorts — including police personnel — have an inbuilt territorial need.

There is nothing wrong with creating personal space with family photographs, quirky souvenirs and familiar configurations of files and the like.

This “hot desking” lark, on the other hand, reinforces the suspicion that individuals do not matter all that much. It is usually coupled with a wish for a “paperless office” involving desks with a computer accessible to all who need to use it. For some reason, managers think this will automatically make all paper material unnecessary.

This is not the case in newspaper offices and I doubt whether things will be any different in the new police HQ.

But, the new “agile working”

plan needs “workstyle”

consultants to train staff on the “culture change” needed to use the new system. The Greater Manchester Police Authority has approved the expenditure of £220,000 on these experts.

Will they have a desk of their own while they impart their wisdom?