Classrooms might feel a bit more like Perez's machine than tidy rows of desks, said Gerald Wheeler, interim executive director of the National Science Teachers Association.
At Morningstar desks are right next to each other, and cube-dwelling Chief Executive Joe Mansueto sits on a floor with the company's investment services group.
Anne Donovan, a human-resources executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers, says she has learned a lot about her colleagues by sitting at their desks, surrounded by personal items.