Went into the office, all my stuff has been chucked out!

[CallieOp]

I’m perched on the end of a windowsill/shelf thing, my desk has been given to someone else and all my stuff is gone. Only explanation I’ve been given is shrugged shoulders and “sorry don’t know where it is”. This is my personal stuff, an expensive mouse, a Emma Bridgewater mug, a pen my children gave me years ago.

Was told to WFH two months ago but have been saying I need to come back in as there is stuff I have to be on site for. Manager has ignored all emails, never picks the phone up. I sent another email last week saying I have to come in as will miss a deadline otherwise, got a reply saying “come in then we will find somewhere for you”.

Come in to no desk (someone else sat there now), no stuff and manager just “well can you sit there, you aren’t going to be long are you”, pointing at the fucking windowsill!

Am i the only one who doesnt find this outrageous? Yes the not knowing where your stuff is is bad but the desk thing is a sign of the times. Presumably you're able to work from home? So as per government guidelines you should be. If these people who have no office need to be on site then they need somewhere to sit.

I went into the office a few weeks ago after working from home since early march and my desk had been taken over by someone. Our office is made up of a small post room where the admin staff work and a large open plan office. The computers in the post room are shared between admin staff and the room is small so social distancing is impossible. Therefore, as they cannot work from home, they have been given desks in the open plan office and one of which was mine. I just sat somewhere else for the day and then went home. I've got to work from home for a while again now anyway. There needs to be a certain amount of flexibility at the moment. I'd be annoyed about your stuff but I dont think you need to go running to HR or assume you're fired?! Just speak to them like an adult. Is this permanent? Or is it in response to covid? Find the details.

This sounds like incompetence rather than conspiracy to me, but unacceptable nonetheless. I’d be following up with Estates to locate your stuff, and HR to report the general attitude and incompetence of your manager.

This sounds like normal NHS treatment of staff.

How shite.

HR, with everything logged.

I’m not surprised it’s a NHS manager either. I agree that the belongings being lost sounds like incompetence rather than malice, and that your desk being reassigned is fine.

With 3 years of service you do have additional employment rights, it’s not as simple for them to sack you.

Definitely contact HR. I’m sorry your belongings have been misplaced.

@LiveFatsDieYoGnu

How fucking rude. I'd be thinking constructive dismissal I'm afraid (sorry).

Wow.

I’m so angry for you! I hope HR are helpful.

@IndiaMay

Am i the only one who doesnt find this outrageous? Yes the not knowing where your stuff is is bad but the desk thing is a sign of the times. Presumably you're able to work from home? So as per government guidelines you should be. If these people who have no office need to be on site then they need somewhere to sit.

I went into the office a few weeks ago after working from home since early march and my desk had been taken over by someone. Our office is made up of a small post room where the admin staff work and a large open plan office. The computers in the post room are shared between admin staff and the room is small so social distancing is impossible. Therefore, as they cannot work from home, they have been given desks in the open plan office and one of which was mine. I just sat somewhere else for the day and then went home. I've got to work from home for a while again now anyway. There needs to be a certain amount of flexibility at the moment. I'd be annoyed about your stuff but I dont think you need to go running to HR or assume you're fired?! Just speak to them like an adult. Is this permanent? Or is it in response to covid? Find the details.

But was the "somewhere else" you got to sit a bloody windowsill???

Much of the outrage (at least on my part) is the fact that the OP had no idea that she had no desk, that her personal items had been removed, or that her co-workers had been relocated, until she went in. She has tried to "speak to them like an adult", and to "find the details", but her excuse for a manager won't speak to her or tell her anything that's going on.

I love the way everyone thinks HR will be a) interested and b) sort it out.
Pretty sure they won't - NHS.

@Tyzz gotta have faith

I was off sick when everyone got sent to WFH. I'm pretty sure all my stuff will have been binned in the Dee clean.

@Tyzz

I love the way everyone thinks HR will be a) interested and b) sort it out. Pretty sure they won't - NHS.

I head up a NHS HR team. The things people think are our responsibility is eye raising on a daily basis.

The mugs of staff working from home is a new one though!

@Allergictoironing. I did say I would be annoyed of my mug and such had gone walkabout and no it wasn't a windowsill I sat at admittedly. It was someone elses desk. I needed to pop in, scan stuff and go as I can work from home and therefore I should be working from home. Not hanging around the office. The view was very much I go in, I scan and send, I leave promptly.

An of course I wasnt told i had lost "my" desk. It isn't mine, it is my employers and they can allocate it to whomever they want. It doesnt need to be left vacant for me whilst I work from home and neither does the OPs

oh dear.. I did a serious desk squatting exercise about 6 weeks ago (when I heard a new person was coming into office and I didn't want him poaching MY DESK). I littered personal and office stuff all over MY DESK the very next day, and put a name tag down.

[quote CallieOp]@notalwaysalondoner, and after 6 weeks she only called to ask me for a phone number for someone![/quote]
Tell her the phone numbers are in your personal phone book that was in your desk.

Do you not have a working at home policy? I work in the NHS and can see how it’s happened recently. COVID policies mean less people can safely fit in an office at the moment and so people have been moved all over the place to enable those that need to be on site do so safely whilst those that are able to do their job from home are able to do so.

I get that it’s annoying that you weren’t informed but I think you should be proactive and contact estates to find out where your belongings have been put and look on the intranet to see if you can find the COVID policy that covers working at home. This should outline what your managers responsibilities are in relation to this.

You don’t say what service you work in and whether you can actually do your job at home but I think you should take some responsibility to find out as much information as you can so that you can approach the right people for help ie HR if the policy isn’t being followed, your colleagues to ask a bit more about what happened with the move, estates to locate your belongings and your managers manager if necessary to say you can’t get hold of your manager. Occy health might be worth contacting as well if you need support with the psychological aspects of working at home.

Update.

Estates have no idea. Other two women came in to find the office moved, they weren’t told beforehand. Only one had stuff and she doesn’t know where that is either. We do different jobs so I can work from home but need to come in once every few weeks. I haven’t gone in for months because I couldn’t get manager to respond to any of emails re me coming in until I mentioned the deadline.

I have spoken to managers manager once before. Managers manager then copied my email to manager and said can you respond to Callie as she says she can’t get a reply from you . Manager told me not to email her manager again.

I didn’t get any response to my text telling her I was going home.

I head up a NHS HR team. The things people think are our responsibility is eye raising on a daily basis. The mugs of staff working from home is a new one though!

It's not the mugs per se though, is it? It's the piss poor staff management, both in terms of welfare & productivity. The fact that you can't see why it's an HR issue tells us all we need to know about people management in the NHS.

Managers manage. HR is an enabling function. Issues should be escalated through the management chain. Not to HR in expectation of final resolution.

If she wants to raise a grievance against the manager we can support her to do that.

That was what i was going to suggest too ..ex nurse here..astonishing levels of nastiness and incompetence at manager grades in NHS ..shes making your job impossible and possibly leaving you vulnerable to performance assesments..grievance and escalate but dont be surprised if you're moved sideways or out ...

Ex nurse here...long used to astonishing levels of incompetance , arse covering and general uselessness from mid level managers...raise a grievance and cover your own arse as she could accuse you of poor performance and have you managed out...keep your emails and escalate if need be ..but dont be surprised if you're moved sideways and she is promoted 😞

That was what i was going to suggest too ..ex nurse here..astonishing levels of nastiness and incompetence at manager grades in NHS ..shes making your job impossible and possibly leaving you vulnerable to performance assesments..grievance and escalate but dont be surprised if you're moved sideways or out ...

Sound the alarm !!! The Emma Bridgwater mug has gone !!!! ... .. engage a human rights barrister .. crowd fund ..

@Feminist10101

Managers manage. HR is an enabling function. Issues should be escalated through the management chain. Not to HR in expectation of final resolution.

If she wants to raise a grievance against the manager we can support her to do that.

Some managers don’t manage, or are incompetent at it. That is exactly where HR should be involved. I agree with a pp, if you can’t see why this should be of interest to HR, or the value of supporting staff before they reach formal grievance stage, then that is a rather damming view of NHS HR.

Signed, a public sector HR manager.

It should the Poorly-performing manager’s manager that leads on it, with support from HR (predominantly coaching). I certainly don’t spend my days going around looking at not-liked managers over my specs and trying to sort them out. I’ve spent about 10 years in public sector HR and 10 in private industry and don’t know any other HR functions that operate that way either. It’s all HRBP model now.