An office desk may belong to a company, but once someone works there every day, it becomes more than a piece of wood and a monitor. Employees personalize their workstation as they please. They adjust the chair, put their personal belongings on it, organize their notebooks, and bring plants or family photos. So, walking in to find someone else using your desk can definitely feel intrusive.
Especially when the company has several designated workstations available, there’s no need for a coworker to steal your desk when you are away. It’s your personal space, and everyone has an established space. Visiting employees are supposed to use the available hot desks, but a coworker in today’s story seems to have a strong preference for a woman’s personal desk. He changes the height of the standing desk, uses her equipment, and moves her papers. And it’s not the first time that she’s found her belongings moved again. Reasonably, she’s getting tired of this recurring situation.
What’s even worse is that, after her maternity leave, she displayed photos of her and her baby in her workstation, which made the space feel a lot more personal. And do you think he stopped using her space? Well, no. He continued setting up there, and he didn’t seem to care to be looking at her baby’s face while working. It’s understandable that she feels uncomfortable with this.
Now she clearly needs to have a conversation with him. Some people treat silence as permission, so it’s time to set a clear boundary. He won’t stop doing it without a clear message from her side. It doesn’t need to be a dramatic confrontation; just a simple, kind message setting a workplace boundary in a shared office should be enough.
Author: Kayitsi.com
