Updated
Six weeks out: decide the plan, not the date
Start with the destination layout. Number every desk position on a floor plan and assign a person to each number. That plan becomes the labelling system, the crew's instruction set and the snag list all at once.
At the same time, ask both buildings for their after-hours access rules. Most Dubai towers require a permit for out-of-hours work, restrict lift use, and want the moving company's licence and insurance on file. This is the item most likely to move your date, so settle it first.
- Numbered destination floor plan with names assigned
- After-hours permits requested at both buildings
- IT provider engaged on shutdown and start-up timings
- Decide what is being replaced rather than moved
- Inventory furniture and identify surplus for storage or disposal
Three weeks out: crates, labels and comms
Deliver reusable crates to staff several days ahead with a one-page instruction: pack your own drawers and personal items, label with your desk number, leave monitors and docks to the crew. Self-packing by staff is faster and produces almost no waste.
Tell the whole company the plan in writing: last working hour at the old office, what to take home, what not to pack, and where to sit on the first morning. Most move-day chaos is a communication failure.
Move night: sequence is everything
Work in waves. Crates and personal effects go first, then chairs and loose furniture, then workstations dismantled in zones, then IT. Each wave is loaded and unloaded before the next begins, so the new floor fills in order rather than all at once.
IT is handled to your provider's timings: shut down after the last user, pack monitors in fitted cartons, bag and label cables per desk number, and move server or network cabinets with a dedicated crew.
- Waves: crates, then furniture, then workstations, then IT
- Every item labelled to its numbered desk position
- Cables bagged and labelled per desk, not per room
- Server and network equipment moved by a dedicated crew
- Supervisor on both sites for the whole window
Before 07:00: rebuild and check
Workstations are rebuilt to the plan, monitors reconnected, chairs distributed, crates delivered to the correct desks. The floor is swept, packaging removed and the old site cleared.
The supervisor then walks the floor against the plan, photographs each zone and lists any exception — a missing keyboard, a damaged panel, a desk that needs a different bracket. Handing over a known snag list is far better than letting fifty people discover snags at once.
The first morning
Keep the crew on site for the first hours. There will be adjustments: a monitor arm to reposition, a desk to rotate, a cable to re-route, a meeting room table that works better the other way round.
Then close the project properly: collect the crates, deliver surplus furniture to storage or disposal, and return both buildings' common areas to the condition they were in. That is what releases your deposits and your reputation with building management.