Why Gap's New CEO Doesn't Have A Desk In His Office

Last month, Gap announced that the head of its digital division, Art Peck, would take over as CEO in February 2015.

The hope is that Peck's digital expertise will help the company adapt to a time when people are doing less of their shopping in malls and more of it online.

One fascinating thing about Peck is that his outside-the-box thinking is evident in the way he has designed his office.

According to a profile of him written by Buzzfeed's Sapna Maheshwari, Peck has a conference table in his office, but he doesn't have a desk.

For one thing, he tells Buzzfeed that desks tend to accumulate a lot of paper, something he tries to keep out of his office.

For another, he wants people he meets with to feel that they are his equal and not be intimidated by a CEO with a fancy workspace.

"The desk, I think, is a residual symbol of power that I don't feel is really useful in my workplace because it's a way of putting a barrier between yourself and another person in a lot of respects," he tells Buzzfeed.

Peck isn't alone in ditching the desk.

Back in August, we profiled the consulting firm Gerson Lehrman Group, where all 250 New York employees work without a desk, and the CEO doesn't even have his own office.

Instead, everyone there is given a laptop and allowed to work from whichever part of the office they're most comfortable in at the moment.