4 Person Office Layout Ideas for Modern Workspaces

A 4 person office layout works best when it treats your small office as a flexible, multi-use space rather than just four desks in a row. In our experience at PersyBooths, the right office layout design blends individual workspaces, collaborative spaces, and enclosed spaces like office booths to support specific tasks, from deep focus to video calls and quick huddles.​

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What Is a 4 Person Office Layout?

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A 4 person office layout is simply an office space configured so four people can work comfortably with individual desks, storage, and access to shared areas like meeting rooms or phone booths. Instead of thinking only about individual offices, we see a 4 person office as a small ecosystem of individual workstations, shared spaces, and circulation routes that support different work modes typical of an activity-based workplace.

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In a small office, a 4 person layout often combines open layout desk clusters with one or two more enclosed spaces for calls or focused work.​

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A good 4 person office layout balances personal space, line-of-sight, and natural light so each person feels part of the team but not crowded.​

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Typical elements include individual desks or height adjustable desks, shared storage, a small meeting or touchdown table similar to a huddle room, and at least one private zone, such as Persy Two or another small meeting pod.

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Key Benefits of a 4 Person Office Layout

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A thoughtful 4 person office layout gives you more room to breathe than hot, crowded open offices while still using space efficiently.

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Our clients often choose a 4 person office as an early stages setup that supports both focused work and collaboration without the complexity of a large open office.​

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• Space efficiency: Small offices with a clear floor plan and well-planned office furniture can support four people, storage, and a small meeting area in as little as 15–20 m² while staying functional.​
• Boosting productivity: Studies show open-plan noise can increase negative mood by around 25% and raise stress indicators like sweat response by 34%, so giving four people defined individual workspaces and access to quiet zones can materially improve performance.​
• Hybrid office friendly: A 4 person layout works well with hybrid office strategies and hot desking, letting you combine assigned desks for core team members with flexible spaces for remote working staff who come in part of the week.​

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Popular 4 Person Office Layout Configurations

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The right layout depends on your office floor plans, how much natural light you have, and what your team actually does all day. We usually recommend starting with your floor plan and circulation first, then picking a 4 person office layout that fits around windows, doors, and shared spaces like meeting rooms or office booths.​

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Linear Layouts

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Linear layouts give you a simple, tidy way to place four desks along a wall or in two rows facing each other, which is ideal if your office space is long and narrow.

We usually recommend a linear office layout when you want easy access to natural light along one wall, or when cable runs and shared equipment need to stay in a single spine.​

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• Side-by-side desks: Four individual desks along a wall, often under windows, create a clean sightline and easy access to power, with personal space defined by screens or low dividers.​
• Face-to-face rows: Two desks facing two desks encourage collaboration and quick questions, but may increase eye contact and noise, so acoustic panels or an office booth nearby help preserve focus.​
• Pros and cons: Linear layouts are efficient and simple to plan but can feel like a mini open plan office if there is no acoustic treatment or visual separation, especially when people handle calls or sensitive information.​

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Cluster and Pod Layouts

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Cluster or pod layouts group four desks in a square or diamond, creating a compact 4 person office layout that feels more team-focused and social.

We often see this layout used for project-based teams handling the same clients or tasks, where fast collaboration matters more than strict separation.​

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• 2×2 pods: Four individual desks arranged in a square can share central storage, a cable spine, or a small shared screen, helping to optimise limited space in small offices.​
• Balanced privacy and collaboration: With low screens or storage units between desks, pod layouts keep lines of sight open for quick chats while still giving each person enough personal space to focus.​
• Best use cases: Design studios, client service teams, and startups often prefer pods because they mirror how people actually work: frequent collaboration with bursts of focused work throughout the day.​

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Bench and Dogbone Workstations

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Bench and dogbone workstations are modular office furniture systems that create long, shared work surfaces for four or more people with integrated cable management and screens.

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In our projects, we see benching work well in hybrid offices where desks sometimes run in hot desking mode rather than being assigned.​

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• Bench systems: A single shared worktop with four positions along it is very efficient on floor space and easy to reconfigure when your team grows, making it ideal in early stages or fast-moving startups.​
• Dogbone layouts: A dogbone layout usually places two people at each end of a central shared core with storage or shared screens, giving subtle separation while keeping an open layout feel.​
• Acoustic and visual control: Because benching often mimics an open plan layout, adding acoustic ceiling panels, desk screens, and nearby office booths helps reduce noise that can otherwise cut productivity by up to 66% when people overhear nearby conversations.​

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Acoustic Privacy and Productivity: The Role of Office Booths

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Office booths matter in 4 person layouts because office work pods give people somewhere to escape noise and handle calls without disturbing everyone else.

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Research on open-plan offices links background noise to higher stress and mood disturbances, so providing enclosed spaces for specific tasks is not a luxury but a productivity tool.​

• Acoustic booths improve concentration by removing the nearest source of distracting conversation (highlighting the difference between soundproofing vs sound absorbing solutions), which is the main driver of reduced productivity in open office environments.​
• In a 4 person office, even one phone call can dominate the whole room, so a dedicated booth for calls, video meetings, or deep-focus sessions protects both the speaker and the three listeners.​
• For more guidance on noise control in an open office or small open layout, see our article on practical solutions for reducing noise in the open office, which applies directly to compact 4 person offices too.​

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How PersyBooths Improves 4 Person Office Layouts

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PersyBooths improves a 4 person office layout by adding compact, high-performance acoustic booths that integrate into your floor plan without swallowing your limited space. We design our office booths to sit alongside open plan office zones, creating a hybrid layout where collaboration and focus both have dedicated homes.​

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• Acoustic gains: Soundproof booths can significantly reduce perceived noise levels, which helps counter the stress and productivity losses linked to open office noise.​
• Flexible integration: Booths can be placed next to your 4 person cluster, bench, or dogbone workstation as a dedicated call zone or focus room, turning a simple person office into a mini hybrid office.​
• Real-world example: In one client story, SumUp used PersyBooths to beat open space distractions by adding enclosed spaces in an open office, which is directly relevant to four-person setups in similar noisy environments.​

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Practical Tips for Designing Your 4 Person Office Layout

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Designing a 4 person office layout starts with your floor plan: measure everything, map doors and windows, then decide where individual workspaces, collaborative spaces, and enclosed spaces will sit. We usually follow a simple checklist that combines space planning, ergonomic office furniture, technology, and aesthetics.​

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• Plan circulation first: Make sure each of the four individual employees can move freely without squeezing behind chairs and that there is easy access to exits, storage, and shared equipment.​
• Place desks near natural light: Where possible, line up desks or pods near windows to improve mood and reduce eye strain, while using screens to control glare on monitors.​
• Choose ergonomic, flexible furniture: Height adjustable desks, ergonomic chairs, and mobile storage let your layout adapt to different body types and work styles, which is useful in hot desking or hybrid scenarios.​
• Zone for specific tasks: Separate quiet zones from collaborative spaces so calls and huddles do not bleed into focus work; in a 4 person office, Persy Four can function as an on-demand mini meeting room.
• Integrate technology cleanly: Use cable management spines and under-desk trays to keep the office design clean and avoid trip hazards, especially with bench and dogbone setups.​
• Think hybrid from day one: If remote working is part of your culture, plan where people will take video calls, store shared equipment, and how hot desking will work when more than four people use the same 4 person layout across the week.​

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For a deeper dive into planning your office space, see our guide on how to design an office space: layouts, tips, and best practices.​

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If you are interested in how layouts support collaboration, our article on collaborative workspaces, from open plan to open choice explores how to balance focus and teamwork in different office layouts, including small 4 person offices.​

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Simple 4 Person Office Layout Example (Code-Style Sketch)

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Use this simple text “floor plan” as a starting point when sketching your own small office:

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+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————+
|  Window                                                            |
|                                                                    |
|    [Desk 1]    [Desk 2]    [Desk 3]    [Desk 4]                   |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|      [Storage]         [Small Meeting Table]                      |
|                                                                    |
|                        [PersyBooth]   Door                         |
+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————+

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This layout places your 4 person office layout along natural light, adds a small shared meeting space, and tucks a PersyBooths unit near the door for calls and quiet work, making a small office feel like a complete hybrid office space.​

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Example Image Prompt for Your Designer

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You can brief your designer or AI image tool with a description like:
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A modern 4 person office layout with four height adjustable desks in a pod, a glass-fronted acoustic office booth in the corner, natural light from large windows, and a small round meeting table in a compact 20 m² office space

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This will help you visualise how your future 4 person office could look and feel before investing in office furniture and booths.​