Hot-desking in the office from hell...

[Somerville]

I am very lucky to work mostly from home (freelancer), but a decent client wanted me in their office all week.
Good God, I have new respect for office workers.
Especially in open plan offices with hot desking. Which seems to mean that all the long-term staff have bagsied a desk, and freelancers have to squeeze in to whichever workspace is empty due to its regular occupier being off site.

Today I was lent the desk of a man who is either a secret eater, or just doesn't give a fuck. I have never seen so many crumbs in a desk drawer. - not envy.

Also, I can't work out their etiquette for the tea-round, and definitely drank more than I made, so I think they all hate me.
I'm not asking if I'm being unreasonable, because I'm not! Companies encouraging noise and mess on the basis that it encourages collaborative working is just miserable. Ugh.

DH has gone out possibly fleeing my whinging so I have to moan on here again. If Crumb-Man is off work again tomorrow, I'm going to cry. I can't bear the state of his desk, and I'm far from fussy.
I'm going to take headphones to try to block out the worst of the loud chatter, and try to work out how the fuck the tea and coffee system works.
I get loads more done in a day at home than that office.

At least yours isn't permanent. I have been working for 9 months now in a 2-person office and the woman I share with clearly doesn't like me for a reason. It's exhausting. Makes me miss open plan after all my years of moaning about it...!!

It’s totally acceptable to bring wipes/spray and wipe the desk/keyboard. Don’t open the drawers, and just ask about the tea

The fact that it isn't permanent is my only comfort right now!

Two person office with someone who doesn't seem to like you must be a nightmare, you poor thing.

Open plan offices are vile. As is hot desking. I always found I was less productive in an open plan office; constant interruptions, constant noise, constant mess. Hated it!! Much prefer my little home office!!

OP- I feel your pain!

Sign of our age apparently - the millennials are all very happy to plug in wherever there's a spare desk!

We have hot desking, at work, and it's fine get in early and get which ever seat you want.

I spent years working in offices - it was soul destroying. So glad to be out of it now.

Ooh, wipes and spray! Will pack some now.

The system I was told for tea ("quooker tap - we all help ourselves as and when") didn't match up to what was actually going on. I did enquire again, and just got a shrug. I'm at least a decade older than everyone other than the boss. Maybe they think I'll make old-lady tea, being the wrong side of 40.
Someone wanted to join in on a 'which Beatle are you' quiz online and I told them I was too busy working. That didn't go down well either.
I've forgotten how to do office bonding!

Millennial here - I'd happily bring back cubicles, to be honest. I freelance too and absolutely hate it when I have to go into an open plan office. The only way I cope is by plugging in my headphones.

I think I just value my own space though, I am quite social, but the incessant noise and other peoples crap can tip me over the edge 😆

Hot desking is an awful idea for any place where most staff are in there most of the time. If you go to a place once a month or perhaps once a week, then OK perhaps.

In theory we have this at work (called neighbourhood working), though in reality as we have unfilled vacancies it is never an issue. I have insisted on a window seat (on the grounds of needing light) and there are some who are uncomfortable being near a window, so it has worked out OK.

In my experience genuine hot desking is great. Where each person has a locker and then there are just rows of desks with screens and nothing else and they are clean, and no one sits in the same place twice, it’s fab.

Your situation doesn’t sound like hot desking though. It sounds like they need a reminder of cleaning up after themselves.

I can cope with open plan (never really known anything else though) but I find hot feeling very stressful. I find not knowing what I’m doing very stressful in general though (I do have diagnosed anxiety).

I’m technically a millennial too (I’m 32).

I once worked in a team that decided every two weeks we would have a desk move. For no business reason at all. Just because. I get that hot desking is a solution to lack of space, and that desk moves are needed sometimes like when teams change or people have left so there’s gaps, or when bits of the office are getting refurbished. But every two weeks. For no reason whatsoever. Was fucking ridiculous. Tbh the management in that team were shit generally, the seating policy was just another in a long list of things that made me hate them.

Ooh I'd love a window seat, but they look to be taken by the Most Popular People in this office.

I can't get in early because of childcare issue. In fact I'm working condensed hours, through lunch break, so arrive later than everyone else and probably look like a lazy cow.

They were playing music in this office most of the day. I don't remember that from before. Is that a millennial thing too? I feel oooolllldd.

Hot desking is always mooted as an excellent idea by senior management who have their own offices, desks and phones ime.

Thanks for sympathy BTW, for my first world problem.

Speaking entirely seriously for a moment, I think this kind of office environment must be very fun for some extroverts, but introverts who are expected to work in it every day must find it hard. It's a company of 'creatives' but I am going to be far less creative than with a bit of piece and quiet at home, and probably less productive too.

I’m a Freelancer too and luckily for both me and my clients I rarely have to spend time in client offices but last time I did it was both bizarre and awful.
They kept speaking to each other ( and me) about non working matters, someone offered to show me their wedding photos - Wtaf?
They arrived at 8.55 for a 9 am start but then made a drink
They took something called a lunch break and I wasn’t allowed to ask them work questions during this period
Some went outside to smoke during actual working hours
Someone asked what I was doing at the weekend, managed to not reply “none of your business “
They left at a specific time even if they had tasks outstanding
Found it all very baffling

I wouldn't worry about the tea. People get into rounds in our office. If they included you at all, as a newcomer, I'd consider that friendly. But it's like rounds in the pub, you can't offer to eveyone every time if there are loads of you

Hot desking needs strict rules if it is to work properly, such as not always using the same desk all the time; no personal effects on the desk; clear and clean desk policy at the end of the day; and fully mobile phones (ie lines that you log into when you sit down at a desk)

Most places it has been introduced simply to save money, even though it's dressed as "fostering collaboration" or "flexible working". In offices with large numbers of part-timers or people who spend more time at meetings than at their desks it can work well. But in most places it's simply hell

Most of my department has hot desking. Fortunately I work mostly at home or around the company so I am spared the horror of scrabbling for a desk. I hate it. It was particularly annoying when I managed a team and struggled to get a desk with them to guage how things were going.

I hate being in the office. I'm at home most of the time and bloody hell it's amazing how less productive I am being in the office - what takes me all day in there can usually be knocked off in 4-5 hours at home. Too much noise, too many interruptions and distractions and almost always too hot. I'm always glad to get back to my lovely home office and I thank my lucky stars I have a boss who supports flexible home working, as it is so much better for trying to have a decent work/life balance.

La Pamapa is correct. I have been home working with occasional hot desking for almost twenty years. My company, large well known corporate, was at the forefront of flexible working. However to hot desk effectively there has to be an absolute clear desk policy, so any personal items are stored in large filing drawers or individual lockable pedestals when not in use. No waste bins, no phones, no crumbs! Just a clean, clear desk, fully adjustable chair and screen.

Hopping - That sounds very much like my day. The bloke who brought his laptop over to me got me slightly interested - maybe he wanted to collaborate on something for the project I was there for, I stupidly thought. But no... "I just got Ringo! Do you want to find out which Beatle you are?" I'm still not sure if it was a joke. or what.

I love working from home. Low childcare costs for my baby. No disaster when older kids are off school ill. DH mostly works from home too, so I have a tea slave buddy.
I'm raising my rates for going in to a proper office, in future.

Open plan is a nightmare, I am used to working in offices of up to 4 people without an issue, then I joined a company where there were 3 teams of 4 in one large office, but that worked as the teams were separate, you all had your own desks and the room was broken up. Plus I was the youngest person and I had left 40 well behind, so no music or 'team bonding'

Now I work in a team of 16 mainly millennials half of whom plug themselves in, the other half play music that is not to my taste across the space. I have started to resort to headphones, but they don't work with my role, and the MD doesn't like me wearing them. I agree but by the afternoon I have headache and have not got much done.

I did get it arranged so we all have fixed desks ad the only hot desks are for people who just come in from time to time.

I always start my day cleaning the desk I have booked for the day. My top tip, give the keyboard a gentle shake before you clean, otherwise you all over again.