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?

YABU to demand anything.

Why not ask your colleague politely if he would mind moving desk when you return, and explain your reasoning. Hopefully there's another part of the office where he can have his standing desk.

The OP should definitely not message the person using the standing desk

Why on earth not? Start at the basic level and save escalation for if its needed.

If you have more than 6 months off they don’t even have to keep your original role open, you’re entitled to an equivalent role on the same terms and conditions. Since you’ve been allocated a desk I don’t think you’ll have any justification to complain unless you’re doing highly sensitive work and your company agrees that the other position is more appropriate. Generally in front of a window wouldn’t be the place allocated for confidential work though..

@C8H10N4O2

The OP should definitely not message the person using the standing desk

Why on earth not? Start at the basic level and save escalation for if its needed.

Because it's not his issue

It would be extremely unprofessional

Tbh mentioning it at all is pathetic but not going via correct channels is even worse

I mean, my office moved to a new building ten miles down the road with compulsory hot desking when I was on mat leave, but sure, you should totally tell your manager you can't see the nursery any more.

Honestly, I'm a proper feminist with a badge and everything, but this is not discrimination. If there's a reason he shouldn't be able to see your screens then you may have a case for him altering the desk's position, but that's as far as it goes.

Far, FAR more important is the fact your job is a non-job that has been absorbed into your line manager's day. Sorry to be blunt but you realise you're now at risk of redundancy unless you can carve out something of value for the organisation?

Why are people bending over backward to make it reasonable for a woman on mat leave to lose her fixed desk to a man?

Why mention it's a man ? Is the implication it would have been alright if the OPs space had been taken by a woman ?

Why are people bending over backward to make it reasonable for a woman on mat leave to lose her fixed desk to a man?

What a ridiculous statement. It's got nothing to do with mat leave or that he's a man. A lot of companies have moves, you are not contracted to a particular space, just a place of work (sometimes not even that)

I have worked with colleagues have been almost crippled by excruciating back pain, I don't think the gender of the employee has anything to do with it - some people calling sexism on here. I'd have some sympathy with the colleague.

Generally in front of a window wouldn’t be the place allocated for confidential work though..

Depends which floor its on. I remain amazed that so many posters thing a woman on mat leave from a fixed desk office can be shuffled around, independent of an office move, without any consideration of the needs of her role or even a courtesy note to say "had a small shuffle, needed to accommodate a differently configured desk".

This is not a hot desk environment or a general office reshuffle, her desk was not cleared, her mat leave cover was using it until recently.

Are we still so pitifully grateful for basic maternity rights that we just accept second class treatment as the price?

I think since that they didn't feel the need to replace your maternity cover and other people covered the work, I would be more concerned with making myself indispensable now you're back and not concerned with something petty like not having the seat you want.

@BungleandGeorge

If you have more than 6 months off they don’t even have to keep your original role open, you’re entitled to an equivalent role on the same terms and conditions. Since you’ve been allocated a desk I don’t think you’ll have any justification to complain unless you’re doing highly sensitive work and your company agrees that the other position is more appropriate. Generally in front of a window wouldn’t be the place allocated for confidential work though..

She’s had almost a year off according to another thread

Speak to him directly and ask when can you have your desk back. It's worth kicking up a fuss over your desk as you have as much/more right to it than him. If he refuses you can ask him who has approved his move to your desk - and take it up with them.

If we flipped the post

‘A man in the office has come back from 6 months of shared parental leave and is demanding his desk space back - my standing desk has been set up there which I need due to back pain, and he’s been allocated another desk. It would be a hassle to move it, should I just give up and let him have it back?’

Everyone on here would be all ‘it isn’t his space and how dare a man try to push around a woman with a medical condition like this, tell him to get stuffed’

”Why are people bending over backward to make it reasonable for a woman on mat leave to lose her fixed desk to a man?”

She hasn’t lost it. Her desk is now on a slightly different bit of carpet. Perfectly reasonable to put a standing desk at the side of the room rather than in the middle. And a window overlooking the nursery isn’t a contractual entitlement.

@TeenTitan007

Speak to him directly and ask when can you have your desk back. It's worth kicking up a fuss over your desk as you have as much/more right to it than him. If he refuses you can ask him who has approved his move to your desk - and take it up with them.

Please don't do this.

The petty of all pettiness. You would look stupid

@PrincessNikla

If OP had been in the office when this change was first suggested then she probably would have been able to stop it. (Or it would not have been considered in the first place?)

Therefore she has been disadvantaged by being on maternity leave?

No, she wouldn’t have been able to object.

Office reorganisation isn’t a democratic act because you end up with huffing and puffing from everyone. On principle the OH issues would be the reason for the positioning of his desk.

The OP can raise concern about confidentiality but that won’t get her moved back to the window. But it’s not the trump card people think it is. Most data is confidential these days.

@godmum56

hilarious

Care to enlighten me? What is so funny?

Gone a year

I’d wanting to be coming back with real focus and drive

Not starting off my return by setting the scene by having a tizz over my desk

If his assessment required a standing desk it may also be that he needs the light behind him when working or that is the most appropriate place for it. Does he wfh on other days as part of this too? His needs may take priority over your need to have a window or view the nursery. As the office manager you should be aware of such assessments and needs. However if you feel that business confidentiality may be compromised by all means raise this. You still have a desk etc, be it not in the same position.

I am utterly bemused by this thread. A desk is a desk. Most offices I worked in had hot desking so you never had a desk of your own. Sometimes you couldn't even get a desk in your allocated office and had to travel to another office (social worker so often travelling anyway. No transport issues). My DH is one level below director at his company and he doesn't have a dedicated desk ether. Just get a grip and take whatever desk you are offered.

Same thing happened to me. It felt crap.

I did get my the desk back eventually. It was the best seat in a crappy office.

I don't think there's anything you can do.

Our office reshuffles every 6 months so everyone gets to use the "nice" cozy window desks, and those stuck out on shit desks by walkways aren't always stuck in a shit desk.

We're encouraged to use hot desking and not get attached to a certain desk, because then some people would always hog the better desk locations.

Where did this chap used to work, in the spot where your desk now sits ?

Did they get rid of your actual desk and replace it with a standing desk so effectively you're being allocated his old desk ?

Do you have office keys and access out of hours, because I'd be very tempted to go in with a friend capable of heavy lifting and basically swap the desks over so that his standing desk is in the spot where he used to be before you went on maternity leave and your desk is back in it's original spot.

After working from home for somewhat longer than my colleagues because they actually preferred being in the office so willingly went along with management's choice to go against the government "work from home if you can" directive, I realised that my work station had become more far more hemmed in by other staff. I'd be sitting face to face across from one particular younger colleague who has a party style social life and who took every opportunity to go out socialising.
Management were insisting that I return to the office and making veiled threats but I was not happy that I'd be that close for risk of contracting covid, transmitting it to vulnerable people I'm in daily contact with. I came in after hours and re-arranged the office furniture which kind of made it clear this was my terms for returning to the office if they were not going to adhere to the government working during covid guidelines. Once the re-arranging was already done, so they didn't have to do anything themselves and putting things back would require down time and effort, they acquiesced and nothing was said to my face. I don't care if they bitched behind my back, they were not complying with government guidance and I wanted to minimise the risk to my family for having to go along with it.

Alternatively you could realise that you have a "back issue which was aggravated by pregnancy/childbirth" and notify them that you too will require a standing desk. To save hassle you can just come back to the one already in the spot where you used to work and the chap squatting there now can move have a new one ordered to be put back in the spot where he used to work.

* I'm a proper feminist with a badge*

Is your”badge” on of those Next jumpers that says “feminist”?

Being able to see nursery is not the reason I wanted the desk back, im not really sure why I mentioned it but to clarify it's right at the other end if the road and can't actually see into it or the garden just the front of the building. Was more of a comfort than anything as I'm feeling anxious about leaving her and know I'm very lucky to have her in such close Proximity.
My back is to the window so not about view more about air and mainly privacy as I deal with HR issues for our team and my bosses inbox which often has confidential items in (I'm an EA).
Every office I've worked in (5+) everyone has always had allocated desk space with specific hot desk spaces in addition. I'm in the UK if it helps!