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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not give up my good desk as I'm part time

81 replies

pbromum2 · 22/04/2015 08:38

I have one of the better desks in the office as I sit near a window and have plenty of space around me.

I'm 3 days a week, but some of the 5 days have hinted that I should give up this great desk.

Aibu to just ignore them?

OP posts:

JaWellNoFine · 22/04/2015 09:47

Although you are perfectly within your rights to keep the best desk. I think its very selfish of someone who is not in the office all the time to hog the best desks. While you have the opportunity to spend time outside on your off days, they are stuck in an office without even a view. It can be very depressing.

So I suppose it depends on just how self-centered / self righteous you are vs and your ability to actually give a damn..

lottiegarbanzo · 22/04/2015 09:55

Well YANBU to ignore them and they WNBU to approach the manager whose decision it actually is - you don't own the office space, it's not yours to give away!

I remember coming into an organisation as a full-timer while someone else, who was PT, was on mat leave. There was great sensitivity about not being able to swap her desk. So I worked FT on a tiny, crowded desk and had to hot desk for quite a while. This gave me the impression she was a spoiled, pwecious little princess who would resort to manipulative sulks and screaming until she was sick, even in a work situation, to get her own way.

She was. Zero respect for her. Oh and zero career progression.

cashewnutty · 22/04/2015 09:59

model5 It is first come first served. You come in and grab a desk. If you go out (SW so in and out of office) you log off so someone else can use the desk and computer. It seems to work well and it is rare we are all in the office at once.

cashewnutty · 22/04/2015 10:00

We also have our own drawers on wheels which we can move to where we are sitting so we have our stuff to hand.

OnlyLovers · 22/04/2015 10:02

This is all very petty, isn't it? How hard can people be working if they have all this time to get into a lather about who's got the 'best desk'?

And it's not very professional to 'hint' about it. If they have a serious issue with it they need to approach a manager.

MrsKoala · 22/04/2015 10:08

Tell them you are doing them a favour by keeping the desk. This way they can bitch about it while you aren't at work and they are. If you gave one of them the desk the others would be resentful and then start bitching about the unfairness of them getting it instead of themselves.

They would still bitch about you for letting the wrong person have it tho.

God I don't miss offices.

Original poster

pbromum2 · 22/04/2015 10:47

Actually I'm not the princess here. I want to keep a good seat but I'm not refusing to move. I just don't want to and I don't think I'm any less deserving of a good seat for the days im working.

Comparing me to leaving an empty seat while someone was on ml isn't fair, I've said to them they can use my desk on days im not in. Can't hotdesk as we all have our own machines with different set ups.

OP posts:

shewept · 22/04/2015 10:57

I don't see how, if you need that desk because you machine is set up, how other people can use it. If they can hot desk so can you.

Desks drive me insane. Office move rounds and teams moves cause so much drama. Absolute nightmare

Original poster

pbromum2 · 22/04/2015 11:01

Because I'm laptop based, I take my machine home. Someone else laptop based could plug theirs into the monitor and use it. Although I have a special keyboard and mouse so they would need to bring one of those. Its not very practical but is possible.

OP posts:

shewept · 22/04/2015 11:11

I think i am misunderstanding, because to me it sounds like could hot desk. Sorry, i genuinely think its me misunderstanding.

CruCru · 22/04/2015 11:16

Realistically it isn't up to the OP where she sits. If her manager asks her to move then she may do so or may refuse. People hinting should have no impact.

Out of interest, are part timers a bit sidelined at your office? If moving desks means you are less visible or are perceived to have a lower status (I know it sounds ridiculous but offices are like that) then DO NOT MOVE.

QuintShhhhhh · 22/04/2015 11:21

Sounds like YOU could hotdesk, but not the others. Careful, or you will find yourself without a desk.....

Original poster

pbromum2 · 22/04/2015 11:24

Well only someone else with a laptop could use my desk, about half.

I've only recently become part time, I'm the first in the office with a desk based job to do so. Ive already had an informal demotivation, taking away responsibilities since I went part time, so tempted to stand my ground on my seat.

Private sector, had to work for a year then ask to go pt as would be near impossible to get a pt professional non PS pt job IMO.

OP posts:

Icimoi · 22/04/2015 11:25

If having a good desk makes someone more productive or efficient, then it makes no business sense not to put the full timers into the good desks.

PrimalLass · 22/04/2015 11:26

Keep your desk. You are not less important just because you are p/t.

Lucked · 22/04/2015 11:35

Well. I have an office with a window and other people don't and I am not giving it up. Anyone can use it when I am not there.

ilovesooty · 22/04/2015 11:35

OnlyLovers is right.
As for "stand my ground" it simply isn't relevant. If they have an issue with seating they shouldn't hint : they should approach the manager. Then if the manager tells you to move, you move.

PtolemysNeedle · 22/04/2015 11:35

Part timers aren't less important, but nor are they more important, and you were lucky to get one of the best desks in the office in the first place. The colleagues who weren't so lucky aren't less deserving either.

I think you should try and be a bit more flexible and a bit less selfish, see if there are any solutions. Maybe your office would work better if everyone swopped desks every six months or so. That's what they do in DHs office, and it works well because everyone knows they'll get a turn at having the nicest working spaces.

nobodyknowswheremyjonnyhasgone · 22/04/2015 11:40

I would give up my desk for someone working 5 days. Psychologically there's a huge difference between 5 days and 3. One person spends the majority of their time there and the doesn't. I wouldn't see it as me being seen as less valuable, just that 2 additional days of freedom. I'd feel a bit of an arse keeping it tbh.

YawnyMcYawn · 22/04/2015 11:48

Spot on there MrsKoala. I've seen it happen

I like the swap every 6 months solution.

nobodyknowswheremyjonnyhasgone · 22/04/2015 11:55

I used to manage a large office and desks were swapped fairly regularly there too.

It was always the same people who complained though. The same person who was too hot at one desk, was too cold at another, or sat next to someone to spoke to loudly, or they were next to the printer, or too near the noisy coffee machine or in a draught. My God the mechanics of it used to drive me crazy! And the bloody windows, open, closed, blinds must be up, must be down. Some people considered being told to put on/take off a jumper as a personal affront...

Off topic and off to calm down

Viviennemary · 22/04/2015 11:57

Don't give it up until forced. The battle of the desks is not uncommon. You can be sure that whoever takes over your desk will not give it up easily. Hot desking is a non starter if not absolutely necessary.

steff13 · 22/04/2015 12:03

Well only someone else with a laptop could use my desk, about half.

Why is that? Couldn't a desktop just be moved to the desk?

Regardless, I think they should go to management if they want to switch desks.

Financeprincess · 22/04/2015 12:06

During the worst of the 'desk warfare' in my old job, I and the other sane people used to snigger about coming in to find trenches and barbed wire around the desks people were most reluctant to move from.

I thought it was ludicrous. I can't understand why it matters so much to people. Mind you, the people it mattered to most were generally the laziest people who never delivered anything.

We also had a woman who announced that nobody in the massive open plan office was permitted to wear perfume or use scented shower gel etc. because she was allergic to those things. And one who claimed that 'electromagnetic rays' (???) from IT equipment were affecting her, and that special arrangements needed to be made to accommodate her (like what? Going back to quill pens and oil lamps?).

sparkysparkysparky · 22/04/2015 12:10

We have a desk booking system. I have an idea as to which one is "my" desk but I've learned to be relaxed about it as a parttimer. A newbie recently booked "my desk" when I was in and I didnâ??t have the heart to make a thing of it.
I think this is more to do with "going part time anxiety " Which I completely get and sympathise BTW.

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