Desk taken at work while on maternity

[Flopsy145]

I'm coming to the end of my maternity leave and have found out that a man in my team has moved into my desk while I've been off and replaced it with a standing desk. I love my desk, it has a window and privacy which I need more than him in the role I'm in, and I can see my daughter's nursery.
He's on more money than me, and didn't even ask to have my desk, which still has a locked cupboard of mine next to it which I need.
The desk I've been moved to is pretty shit.
AIBU to demand my desk back?

Is it your desk or the companies?

You would wonder wouldn't you. I've never thought of anything in an office as being "mine" - after all, I don't take it with me when I leave!

Actually, reading some of the mad replies on here makes me realise exactly why it is I don't want another office job.

Not necessarily true. Surely the assumption is that the location where OP's desk was is the most logical location for a standing desk, so there's not someone standing randomly in the middle of the offie

Have you never seen standing desks in offices?

That is exactly how banks of standing desks work. Some people sit, some stand. They are the same size and format as every other desk. In our own open offices they are arranged so that whether sitting or standing you don't directly overlook another person's screen.

But we do take a need for confidentiality seriously, unlike Mr StandingDesk who now has direct sight of HR and other confidential correspondence and the person dealing with them cannot take calls with a degree of privacy.

OP: I would assume you go back to your desk, if its an issue then raise it with your director in the context of the confidential nature of your job and if you both agree - reshuffle the whole damned office. You are plainly in touch regularly so that lack of even a courtesy note speaks volumes.

Honestly the poverty of expectations for women on this site sometimes really depresses me.

@C8H10N4O2 there's no a bank of standing desks. It sounds like there's one standing desk.

@CoronaKidd

Is there a diagram?? 👀

I can’t believe we got to page fourteen before this was asked :o

I think I’d approach it from a confidentiality angle - make sure everything is done to ensure your new desk is secure. That’s more important than the actual position of the desk surely. I don’t see how employers can keep everything the same while someone is on ML for up to a year - especially in a big company where many could be off, overlapping ML periods etc - there may always be someone off!

[quote girlmom21]@C8H10N4O2 there's no a bank of standing desks. It sounds like there's one standing desk. [/quote]
I didn't say otherwise. I was simply saying how banks of them work and that they fit into standard desk configurations these days (unless you are in a very antiquated office).

My bigger point is the low expectations for women expressed on this thread and so many others ranging from penis portions to tactical incompetence in domestic duties and even access to women only loos. I find it profoundly depressing that in 2020s every shitty experience a woman posts about gets about 50% "you're lucky" and "be grateful". Such low expectations for women.

Update - all sorted and back at our original desks until a complete office reshuffle! I asked him directly and was totally fine. Thanks all!

Also to confirm, it hadn't been a decision made by him but by the people installing the desk! And it is being moved to another corner that he was equally happy with and desk Infront of me becoming a hot desk. Was all very civil and easily solved 🙂 but I'm happy to have started a good healthy debate on women's rights in the workplace anyway!

What has wanting your window space back got to do with womens rights?

@Flopsy145

Also to confirm, it hadn't been a decision made by him but by the people installing the desk! And it is being moved to another corner that he was equally happy with and desk Infront of me becoming a hot desk. Was all very civil and easily solved 🙂 but I'm happy to have started a good healthy debate on women's rights in the workplace anyway!

So all a big unnecessary drama

@TrashyPanda

What has wanting your window space back got to do with womens rights?

You couldn’t make it up absolutely bonkers

@TrashyPanda oh no nothing I didn't mean that, it's more just what parts of the thread have evolved into

And there was half the thread thinking he was an entitled obnoxious man desperate to steal a woman’s rightful spot at any cost…

Glad it’s all sorted OP.

Yep pretty much @thickthighs73

@Cheekypeach

And there was half the thread thinking he was an entitled obnoxious man desperate to steal a woman’s rightful spot at any cost…

Glad it’s all sorted OP.

You say half, it was more 48:52 ...

So after all that, him being a man and on more money etc, he was ok doing it. Why do people not just sort this shit out first and be grown ups rather than ask MN world.

@itsjustnotok

So after all that, him being a man and on more money etc, he was ok doing it. Why do people not just sort this shit out first and be grown ups rather than ask MN world.

Exactly my thinking

@SquirrelG

Actually, reading some of the mad replies on here makes me realise exactly why it is I don't want another office job.

As I said up thread, just another reason to love working from home. No fucker can “steal” “my” desk or palm me off with a broken chair, stapler that doesn’t work, etc

@itsjustnotok

So after all that, him being a man and on more money etc, he was ok doing it. Why do people not just sort this shit out first and be grown ups rather than ask MN world.

Exactly this. So much drama for nothing. But at least people got to bash the man on the basis of him being a man.

@itsjustnotok

So after all that, him being a man and on more money etc, he was ok doing it. Why do people not just sort this shit out first and be grown ups rather than ask MN world.

@itsjustnotok - quite - the OP is supposed to be an experienced EA as well as a mother - yet she's too scared to or not as assertive as she thinks she is to ask a man to move from her desk.

[quote Flopsy145]@TrashyPanda oh no nothing I didn't mean that, it's more just what parts of the thread have evolved into[/quote]
@Flopsy145 - let's hope you never move into the corporate world because trust me quite a few corporate companies wouldn't entertain this... .

Nothing like getting your desk back.

You don’t own the desk and yes he is a CF. I would do as you say and drop a line about him moving his desk back , whilst also noting your need for privacy and it kit being appropriate for the business to have your desk overlooked, window desks are always converted but you need a business reason to have it - overlooking the nursery won’t cut it

Can't steal my hole punch or stapler I got my name tippexed on the bottom.

And don't try sit on my chair and adjust it either.

How maddening. But it's the fact that he towers over you, denying you any working privacy that would bother me. He must also be blocking the window too if he's standing up. I'd focus on that part, rather than desk ownership.