Low engagement — the primary output of a poor work environment — costs approximately $20,000–$30,000 per disengaged employee per year in lost productivity (derived from Gallup’s $438 billion global figure divided across the global workforce). More specifically: workplace distractions cost an estimated $650 billion per year globally; happy employees are up to 13% more productive; engaged teams show 41% less absenteeism. The aggregate annual cost of a genuinely poor physical environment in a 30-person knowledge worker team typically exceeds the cost of a complete pod deployment multiple times over.