Office holiday cheer takes a weird turn when a four-foot blinking Christmas tree shows up on someone’s desk, and management decides the solution is not to move the tree, but to move the worker.
The tree eats half the desk, pushes the computer into a corner with no legroom, hijacks the power outlet, and literally displaces work documents. Decor here is not subtle, nor is it about decoration. It’s a squatter’s rights situation with ornaments. The acting manager admits she put it there without asking, acknowledges the inconvenience, then basically says productivity can relocate so morale does not have to. Translation: the staff’s feelings about their craft project matter more than the person whose actual job happens at that desk.
The funniest part is the fake compromise. Instead of moving the tree two meters, the worker is supposed to bounce between empty desks and share a computer like it is 2004. All because last year, when the computer was broken and the desk was useless anyway, she said yes once. In office logic, one temporary favor magically becomes a lifetime consent form. Suddenly, using HR to enforce basic workspace function is treated like some kind of anti-Christmas attack, complete with coworkers pouting because their tree got demoted to a less central spot.
So, as it turns out, calling HR wasn’t going overboard, it was the only language management actually respected.
