Field note
A narrow bench is not a moral failing. It is a measurement.
We once sat a hire-car desk where the radio mic and the phone cradle were both on the dispatcher’s right. Every time a call came in during a radio offer, the left hand held the job slip in the air. Three slips hit the floor in one hour. Two were recovered. One became a “missing” job that a driver had already accepted.
Reach, not taste
The walk-through we sell is not decoration. We mark how far the writing hand travels. If that path crosses the radio cable, the cable wins during peak, and the paper loses.
A cheap fix we have left more than once: move the phone six inches toward the window and put returns in a tray that does not require standing up. The owner had been quoted a new custom bench. The six inches were enough.
When the walk-through is the wrong visit
If jobs stall because two people own the same pile, furniture will not help. That is a flow study question. The elbow test is only for desks where the body itself is the bottleneck.