another office one

[MaybeSwitzerland]

how private is your office?
i share with a specific colleague who i trust. He and I have senior management roles which can make sharing awkward, but make it work atm.

There is no reason whatsoever for anyone else to use that office.

The other day, a colleague got access to my office, probably via the janitor, and took a research resource without my authorisation. I found out when she told me via email after the fact.

i feel really annoyed and upset. But i don't know if i m overreacting. We have a lot of research and teaching resources in that office, in locked cabinet and also on our desks. I work under the assumption that when i m not there, it is locked and not for public access.

How does it work at your place? Am i overreacting?

Would upset me greatly. We are in the final months of having our own offices, of course cleaners occasionally come in, but otherwise ours. Be over soon though. But, yes, I'd be furious in your shoes.

At my place only the most senior heads of department upwards get a solo office all other senior roles share offices. The grunts on the ground like me share vast open plan areas that look a bit like a call centre.

Same set-up at ours. So often have people floating in and out around my desk when I'm not there. I would assume that things from my space get borrowed or used regularly when I'm not there. It's a bit offer when it's smaller offices - I would also think how close/collegiate you are with the colleague who borrowed the resource would also affect how cheeky/not cheeky.

What was the research resource that she 'borrowed' ?
why did she take yours & not get her own?

We wouldn't worry about borrowing scissors or a pen or a stapler, but I can't imagine touching much else.

She should have asked you first. I can't imagine getting the key to an unlocked office to take something, whatever it was.

@CleverKnot def not scissors - without going into what it is (because it is niche): a piece of kit we use in my field for measurements. It costs £2 to £3k and about £1k in servicing every 3 years, and luves in a little case in my office.

the borrowing without asking annoyed me
but what really annoys me is accessing a locked office which i treat as private space: not just the research stuff, but also full of exam scripts, notebooks with material from management meetings etc.

my query was whether such an office may not be seen as private by everyone (i d certainly never ask the jani to open my boss' office to borrow anything)

For me, it would depend.

Is this piece of equipment owned by you ?
Or is it departmental property, that she needed to use, that for some reason you have been keeping in your office?

I do think your office should be your private space.
I do think (obviously) your own private equipment is completely that - private.
but
If the department has bought some equipment which various people need to use, and one member of staff has squirrelled it away, then I do think it is reasonable that it be recovered if someone needs to use it, if the person who has kept it on their desk, isn't there to ask.

yes, it s mine, bought on one of my grants.
i can loan it, but i m a bit precious about it given that i need it, my students need it, and if it was damaged or misplaced, i d be in trouble to deliver planned work.

to me, it feels like if my neighbours had called in a locksmith to get in my home to borrow the kitchen aid.

i ve since talked to her and told her to never get into the office without permission or take stuff out. Her position is that it s basic "collegiality" to let colleagues come and go (and borrow). So it didn't go very well. She and others like her really annoy me.

We have 2 variants of office Keys in our department . "Professor" Keys open the doors to offices used by permanent academic staff, plus shared offices for phds post docs plus meeting rooms. other Keys open the doors to the shared offices and the meeting rooms. However, we dont unlock each others offices witjout permission. On the other hand all equipment bought on grants is owned by the departement and is definitely not personal or to be kept locked away.

On the other hand all equipment bought on grants is owned by the departement and is definitely not personal or to be kept locked away.

This is my thinking

so if you buy a piece of kit to use on an active research project, it's fair game for everyone to use, regardless of their involvement in the project?

it s definitely not the rule here - the "department" is massive, with 100s of staff and ownership of stuff at project level. Thinking of my closest colleague (in terms of research remit and job role), they d lose their shit if i went to borrow their kit without their authorisation.

At pur place, yes, that is the expectation. In fact not just the department. All equipment is expected to be registeret as part of the "share lab" project so that equipment is fully utilized and we don't buy new equipment we already have.
The practicalities are problematic, but that is the expectation, i'm only saying how it is here

In my department PhDs and postdocs are in shared offices. Lecturers upwards have their own office. It is very much expected though that if you're not in your office, PhDs can use it for e.g. zoom meetings so as not to disturb their office mate. I also wouldn't think twice about going into a colleague's office when they are not there to borrow a book from their shelves for example.

Shared offices here. And worse - hot-desking is now starting to be introduced, which means you could turn up to find someone already at your desk (with all your files, papers and books).

This reminds me of when I bought a program out of my own money as a very new postdoc, and an SL sent her RA to my office to borrow it, though demanding, not asking.

She sent an email saying 'we need your XXX functionality and Georgia will come to your desk when you're next in'.

If she'd asked nicely, I'd have been absolutely thrilled - I was so desperate to fit in, be helpful and valued. It was so different to my previous jobs. I was too new and junior to assert myself and say 'this is actually mine - ask nicely or buy your own'.

I think you need to go up the line and resolve it. Technically, it belongs to the department, and your colleague thinks she's done nothing wrong. But, you're obviously completely reasonable that as grant-holder you govern access to the equipment that you raised money for, and need to look after. You'll end up seething and then implicitly the onus is on you to be 'agile' or 'understand the context'.

There's no point blaming the Estates or office access policy - it needs a manager to set norms and expectations, because people will always behave badly.

I'd think it belongs to the funder for the duration of the project, and hence the PI, but to the department afterwards. So if the grant is current, I'd be peeved and ask for it back.

Plus is UKHE a business? Are you a VC!

@felissamy what are you asking, exactly?

Whoops. Posted on wrong thread!, just replying to some idiot saying UKHE was a business like any other. Managed to send to wrong thread!

😅 sounds like a fun thread!!

This is what my understanding would be too. If a grant has bought a piece of kit, the funder owns it and the PI is responsible for it, its safekeeping, and ensuring it's primary use is the grant its been bought with. I'm pretty sure I've seen that written into the conditions of some funders. Use by others is really the PIs decision but wouldn't fancy explaining that if it got damaged on someone else's watch. If kit was bought by the dept then yes, it's a shared resource that should be bookable and accessible to everyone, but in that case would be kept by a technician in a shared lab space. My institute and the staff were all v clear on those boundaries, with our Dean of research sometimes needing to weigh in remind people who weren't playing fair.

Some of the office access situations in this thread are wild: if it's my name (and even with someone else's) on the door, no way should you be accessing it without permission! At a v basic level, you'll undoubtedly have confidential documents in there not for wider viewing. If anyone can rock on in, anyone can snoop for those.. That privacy is kindof one of the points of having a locked office?? I'd be furious OP, only people who've been in mine had my permission and had my total trust.