It's a matter of the INTENSITY of light that your plants receive. Office lights must provide enough light to read under (for hours), so the light intensity there is usually pretty good.

You can actually purchase a light meter to see what intensity of light your plants are receiving. I think that 1000 foot-candles is recommended, but plants will bloom (though not optimally) at lower levels.

If the plants are near a window which lets in some sun, that will create more light intensity.

My plants are between 1 - 2 feet from my lights, and do fine.

I'd place my plants as you were planning to. If they need more light, they won't bloom, and then you can move to Plan B.

I think lights too close (or left on too long) cause damage harder to fix than lights a little too far away. I'm convinced advice on lights has them too close more often than not.

Most of the violets prefer 600-800 footcandles - but dark leaf ones will take more, and pale green leafed ones will prefer the lower end.

The plant can tolerate lower light - but it will bloom less often if at all.

You can make your growing area with 2 feet under the lights - you will see them better and enjoy your plants with this distance - but you need to make sure that you still provide enough light.

Depending on the length of your growing area - if it is 2 feet wide - use 2 T5s - and if it is 4 feet - use 2 T8s or 4 t12s.

What else you can do to preserve the light you have - put a mirror behind your shelf - it will bounce the light back - and you will be looking at twice the plant amount. Or at least you can put aluminum foil above the lights, under your plants - etc. - work on something that is not looking too tacky and and still gets the job done.

Good Luck

irina