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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Hotdesking

110 replies

theeternalstudent · 30/11/2014 14:47

I've been offered my dream job. It's been a long time in the planning. However, I've only just found out that the company operate a hot desk policy. Think large open plan department and free for all on computers/desks. Turns out that there just isn't enough desks or equipment for everyone. So much so that they have had to implement a compulsory 'work at home' day for everyone. Work at home doesn't really work for me and my personal circumstances. TBH it just sounds like hell to me. Doesn't everyone like to have their own desk where they can set out their stuff and make themselves comfortable?

Do I have to accept that this is the way of office working in the future? or should I just turn down the job.

I sound like I'm a bit full of myself saying that I won't do it as I need a desk. So does everyone!

OP posts:
whois · 01/12/2014 00:21

A PP asked about sharing keyboards and mice - we don't. Everyone has their own.

KeatsiePie · 01/12/2014 00:25

Aha, you do? That's really sensible. That would remove my only real problem with it.

TsukuruTazaki · 01/12/2014 00:35

Don't like it. I find it a real time waste with all the extra faff and setting up required each day rather than just coming and carrying on as you left off the day before. Also didn't have anywhere to keep my stuff (papers I was not working on, not personal junk) as no lockers!

QuietsBatmobileLostAWheel · 05/12/2014 15:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

QuietsBatmobileLostAWheel · 05/12/2014 15:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NoLongerJustAShopGirl · 05/12/2014 16:01

Nightmare where I used to work too..govt department where home working was not possible - 75% space for staff in an environment where a heck of a lot of people just didn't take time off - I remember sitting on the floor in the corner one day phoning a "customer" thinking "this stinks" I don't work there any more.

QuietsBatmobileLostAWheel · 05/12/2014 16:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NoLongerJustAShopGirl · 05/12/2014 16:54

no - but a bit similar...

missknows · 05/12/2014 17:22

I did not even know this existed. I find people watching quite a hobby and so would love to observe the dynamics of this in action.

Do you not find that after the initial novelty factor wears off most people just end up sitting in roughly the same places though- or certainly next to the same person? And anyone who attempts to sit in someone's 'usual' seat is given the look of death.

Or are there rules about not sitting in the same place twice in a week to prevent this type of thing?

QuietsBatmobileLostAWheel · 05/12/2014 20:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mrsladyman · 05/12/2014 20:23

We hot desk in our office. I need to use a tracker bar mouse after an injury to my hand and leave it set up on my desk. No one ever sits there when I am not there as no one likes the look of it ! It is a great deterrent.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 05/12/2014 21:45

I have worked at one place that used hot desking. It was the one place I could guarantee picking up a virus every couple of months. Usually just a cold but once it was conjunctivitis which wasn't pleasant. I also could never find anything that I needed because the last person had moved it or used the last paper clip or whatever and so I had to get more- AGAIN. Grrr....

WaroftheRoses · 05/12/2014 21:58

This is a genuine enquiry from someone who has always worked in an outdoor environment.....What? Why? Where? When? Confused So there aren't enough desks for all the workforce? Are WFH days all co-ordinated so that a certain percentage are out all the time? What kind of roles make it so easy to work from home? If it is easy to WFH why doesn't everyone and loose the office altogether? What are people doing so they can meet and mix with different people every day? Does it become like a school room with people scrabbling to sit with their mates?
Honestly-this whole concept has just blown my mind-but as I said I have never done any office work so I guess I had never really thought about it!

KenDoddsDadsDog · 05/12/2014 22:31

We have enough desks but just sit wherever. It's a call centre so each workstation is set the same and it's clear desk for security. I look after a couple of hundred people so it's nice to sit in a different place and catch up.

EBearhug · 06/12/2014 13:32

They do go round our building - certainly weekly, possibly daily - with a clicker, to check how many desks are occupied. I think Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the most heavily occupied days - can't remember by how much, but we were wanting to work out which would be the best day to run an event. Fridays (unsurprisingly) are quietest - we all knew that without having it officially counted.

They have also calculated the cost per desk of running the building - building rental, taxes, electricity costs, water costs, heating, insurance, telephones, network connections, furniture costs, cleaners (not that my desk often sees a cleaner, I would say), and it's several thousand a year. If you never have more than 80% occupancy, it's quite a substantial saving if you can take up less physical space by not providing a pile of desks which won't get used.

I do think you need to have done that analysis first, though, and work out how feasible home-working is for your business, as changing could involve outlay in laptops rather than desk PCs or whatever, so it might mean you have to roll it out over a few years, if your infrastructure isn't ready for it, unless you have millions to spend.

I like the option of working from home once in a while, but I know from when I had to do it for 3 weeks in a row after writing off a car that to do it permanently would be very bad for my mental health. I live alone, and I found it very isolating, because I just didn't see other people, except for behind the shop counter if I popped out to get some milk or something.

velvetspoon · 06/12/2014 13:48

Try the lunacy that is the office I work in.

the majority of staff have permanent desks. The rest of us get to hot desk in their desks when they're off. There are no spare desks. And because they're other people's desks I'm not allowed to change or alter them. So I get to spend every day sitting in a chair that's too low for me looking at monitors that are completely the wrong height.

Oh, and I'm not even allowed to work from home. So that's nice.

BackforGood · 06/12/2014 13:56

I hate hotdesking, but consider the fact I'm allowed to work from home to be SUCH a bonus of my current job - can't see what's not to like!

If it were a 'dream job' though, I think the hotdesking is just something you'd come to terms with - annoying, but there really isn't a 'perfect' job with no downsides.

Andrewofgg · 06/12/2014 14:11

In one team the rule was promulgated that you could not take the same seat two days running. So two people who arrived earlyish and at about the same time took to meeting in the lobby and swapping between themselves. The rule was soon dropped.

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 06/12/2014 14:13

Im looking for a new job and am a bit nervous about all this Hotdesking shennanigans! I currently work in an office with two desks and one of them is mine (only FTer) and the other desk is shared between the PTers who only work together on my days off (so borrow my desk).

I like having my own space, though I do operate a self inflicted clear desk policy as I like to come in to a clean and clear desk in the morning - I file everything away in my last 20mins.

I have desk-obsession though - I would need a desk that has my back to a wall and lookig out. I hate sitting with my back to people, it just feels rude.

itispronouncedpenguin · 06/12/2014 14:27

Part of my job involves doing desk assessments for staff with medical issues etc. Hotdesking is the bane of my life. Its very difficult to help someone feel more comfortable in their working environment when it changes every day (the same goes for staff who work on different sites). In my experience staff who hotdesk are more likely to get sick with viruses (esp in offices with air con), and are harder to keep in their jobs when they have other medical problems be they caused by the job or not. I don't have national stats to back it up, this is just based on my 10 years experience in my job working for employers who have both hotdesking and convential offices. I'm really not a fan.

itispronouncedpenguin · 06/12/2014 14:28

Conventional, sorry typo.

FelineChristmassy · 06/12/2014 14:41

There wasn't a desk for me when I went back to work after maternity leave and I was told we were "hotdesking". What this means is everyone else sits in the same place every day and I scramble to find one, then have to spend 20mins setting up the PC, tidy away someone else's shit and, usually, dust!
Hotdesking doesn't work at our place!

EBearhug · 06/12/2014 14:53

Part of my job involves doing desk assessments for staff with medical issues etc.

I think roles which deal with confidential material do need special consideration - if they must use hotdesks, they should at least have it within a restricted area, rather than where everyone else can overlook their shoulders.

We do have various quiet rooms and meeting rooms available, so confidential meetings aren't really an issue.

VodkaJelly · 06/12/2014 15:20

We dont have hot desks at work but there are spare desks available for visitors/staff coming over for meetings etc. Do they use these spare desks? No, they just use ones of people who are not in that day. And it pisses me off BIG TIME.

I work in the office 4 days a week. Without fail, I go into the office on Monday and somebody has been at my desk. My chair has changed settings, my docking station has been pushed to the back of the desk, my mug and other bits pushed out of the way, my wirless headset has been unplugged, my monitor has been moved and highered/lowered etc. Drives me bonkers. Just use the bloody empty desks, twats.

VodkaJelly · 06/12/2014 15:21

Oh and my personal bug bear, empty sweet wrappers and a dirty mug left on my desk. Thanks, Just clear up after you shall I?

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