Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Desk taken at work while on maternity

459 replies

Flopsy145 · 25/01/2022 04:23

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?

OP posts:
DappledThings · 26/01/2022 11:24

@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!
All I've seen is an excellent lesson on how easily things can be solved by not assuming anyone has behaved with malicious intent and just chatting to them like a normal person.

This has been Everest out of the smallest molehill. And it still has nothing to do with women's rights.

DGRossetti · 26/01/2022 11:37

@Thevoiceofreason2021

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
I think the OP cancelled the cheque.
tigger1001 · 26/01/2022 12:33

@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!
Jesus. All that drama over nothing which could have been very easily resolved by actually being a grown up and speaking to your work.

This has nothing to do with woman's rights. Some posters read way more into than was there.

lsjdkviwworin · 26/01/2022 12:35

@DappledThings is spot on

Eleganz · 26/01/2022 12:57

OP, given that this issue was easily resolved and was not anything to do with the person who needed to standing desk, perhaps it is time to look at some of the unconscious bias you may have around some people in your workplace.

It seemed from your first post that you were quite ready to believe that this was a deliberate attempt by a higher paid man to deliberately push you out at work and dominate your working space. How might that affect your interactions with him or other similar people in your work?

Also, I'd strongly suggest you get over this idea that you have any privacy at all in an open plan office! You can be overlooked and overheard in lots of ways.

Original poster
Flopsy145 · 26/01/2022 13:54

Except I did? I posted at 4am mid feed to just see what the general consensus was, logged on in the morning and asked him and all sorted.. so no not scared in the slightest and was assertive in a polite way.
Sometimes at that time you can be assumed with irrational sleep deprived feelings, so I posted in order to assess whether that was the case or if I was being reasonable and the results were pretty 50/50, but nonetheless I asked him and got the result I wanted. Had he said no I wouldn't have kicked up a fuss I would have just moved on.

OP posts:
Original poster
Flopsy145 · 26/01/2022 13:56

The above was a reply to @Gonnagetgoing

OP posts:
Toanewstart22 · 26/01/2022 14:04

@Flopsy145

Except I did? I posted at 4am mid feed to just see what the general consensus was, logged on in the morning and asked him and all sorted.. so no not scared in the slightest and was assertive in a polite way. Sometimes at that time you can be assumed with irrational sleep deprived feelings, so I posted in order to assess whether that was the case or if I was being reasonable and the results were pretty 50/50, but nonetheless I asked him and got the result I wanted. Had he said no I wouldn't have kicked up a fuss I would have just moved on.
Read your op Doesn’t indicate that you were quite so chilled and laissez faire about it all!
Original poster
Flopsy145 · 26/01/2022 14:10

@Toanewstart22 oh no I agree, at the time of posting I was quite riled up, hence posting, but I had since calmed down and totally agree I made a mountain out of a molehill which I have totally excepted. Lesson learnt, don't post on MN mid rage!

OP posts:
Original poster
Flopsy145 · 26/01/2022 14:20

*accepted

OP posts:
JacquelineCarlyle · 26/01/2022 16:44

So glad you got it sorted Op.

SamSoSer · 26/01/2022 17:27

Things were rearranged to fit business needs while you weren’t in the office.You know that the desk doesn’t actually belong to you?
Being able to see the nursery isn’t a reason why this man can’t have pleasant surroundings too.

Alip1965 · 26/01/2022 17:36

Its not your desk, it's your company's desk. Suck it up buttercup Smile x

squishee · 26/01/2022 17:37

Glad it's sorted.
I can sympathise. I returned to work after being off for a while after losing a parent... Only to find that someone else had taken my desk. So that was charming.

HowhardcanitB · 26/01/2022 17:44

It doesn’t hurt to ask! Good luck

Mirw · 26/01/2022 17:46

You can ask but the answer will probably be "no" as in it is not your desk but our desk and we can put whoever we like in the space. And there is nothing much you can do about it, except get over your huffy puffy attitude. Or get another job...

Anabella23 · 26/01/2022 17:49

you work in a company, you work for them - get over it. Its your desk position changed as you dont own it and you still got a job. You are being absolutely unreasonable and so petty. Be grateful you got a job to go back to , unlike many other people who have been off on maternity. I cannot believe people think it is not ok, hotdesking best not be introduced at your place of work.

Bobbins36 · 26/01/2022 17:49

YABU you’ve been away, workplaces move, adapt, change. You have a job and presumably a desk to work at and I’m sure you can retrieve whatever was in the locked cupboard.
You have zero right to a view to your daughters nursery FFS.

GrannyMack63 · 26/01/2022 17:58

As a manager of a team who work in an office I would be concerned if I found one of my team on sentry duty watching their child's nursery. I take it you have chosen to send your child there and done due diligence on their performance history so have no reason to worry about how your child will be looked after.

You haven't gone back to work yet so can't really gauge how well the change of location will work for you. It may be that once you are back the other chap realises there needs to another re-jig as he doesn't feel comfortable with the new layout and you being in close proximity.

You will have a return to work meeting with your manager. Don't go in all guns blazing, have a chat and give them the opportunity to give you an update on the changes while you were away.

Sickoffamilydrama · 26/01/2022 18:03

Here's a story to enrage everyone, I was basically demoted whilst I was pregnant & my desk moved.

I worked in an old house with a couple of rooms downstairs and the main office upstairs.
I was pregnant and worked in as a funeral director (my job at the time was to arrange the funerals but I wasn't conducting them), I slipped down the stairs at home (thanks to DD messing around) and couldn't walk for a few days, so was off sick for a few days.

When I came back my desk had been completely cleared everything shoved in a box (including photos). A desk had been put in the reception/ hall way downstairs area and it had been decided I would now be the receptionist, I wasn't to do any arranging anymore, so basically I spent the rest of my time there sat not doing much whilst they paid me trained FD wages to answer the phone and then direct it to one of my colleagues.

I didn't fight the demotion as I was already going to leave after maternity leave had finished, plus the place was very toxic to employees (not the bereaved/deceased) anyway & I knew it was pointless.

Bobbins36 · 26/01/2022 18:03

@Toanewstart22

* And in my organisation it's very hard to fire someone unless they seriously fuck up repeatedly. *

Public sector you say?
This pisses me off so much

100% this. Public sector taking the p*ss. As per.
applesapplesapples · 26/01/2022 18:05

There’s some silly nonsense posted here.

Beastieboys · 26/01/2022 18:07

Really bellina!!
I was off high risk covid they emptied my locker and handbag locker, disposed of my work shoes and papers and gave it to a consultant who's been there 5 minutes and is only in the department a couple of times a week...... And I've been there 30 yrs!!

TheRemotePart · 26/01/2022 18:12

Glad you got it back OP
No doubt after my Mat Leave, someone will have claimed my handy locker of 7 years and the contents will be no where to be found …

Jeannie88 · 26/01/2022 18:19

I can empathise. While on maternity leave my classroom, which I had spent years making look wonderful and bought my own extra storage, funky hanging things etc, was completely taken apart by the male supply teacher. All my colourful fluffy stuff, decorations, pink mirror, hanging baskets of toys I used...gone and dumped in a heap in a cupboard! Was fuming but as we were were moving buildings I didn't show my full wrath. Back to you, yes it does seem unfair and he should offer it back to you? X