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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:
DogInATent · 25/01/2022 09:11

It's your employer's desk, not yours. It would be very unusual for it to be part of your terms and conditions. It's not realistic to expect it to be reserved for a year during your absence.

That it has a window from which you could see your daughter's nursery is possibly a much better reason for not giving you back that desk than it is in favour of it.

Toanewstart22 · 25/01/2022 09:11

@ThinkingtheUnthinkable

Your suggesting the op make up a birth back issue in order to get what she wants. To lie about a heelth issue? Is that what you’d say to your children to do?

knittingaddict · 25/01/2022 09:11

@Snowiscold

I don’t think you’ve got a case here, but you can ask by all means. If he’s got a standing desk, then surely you can have your desk back - just not in the same position.
I get the feeling that the actual physical desk is not the issue. It's where it is, which op can't own, no matter how disappointing that is.
MajorCarolDanvers · 25/01/2022 09:12

Being in the UK makes not difference. You have no legal right to a particular desk. Sorry.

girlmom21 · 25/01/2022 09:12

If your back is to the window and his back is to the window how is he standing over you?

Toanewstart22 · 25/01/2022 09:12

@Flopsy145

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!
Yes And times have changes during the last year due to the pandemic!!
YellowLemonz · 25/01/2022 09:13

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

We did, names on desks etc but then Covid happened.
We now sit where we can.

girlmom21 · 25/01/2022 09:13

This is going to blow your mind.
My desk was taken before I went on maternity leave by my replacement.

It's probably ok though because she's a woman...

madisonbridges · 25/01/2022 09:14

@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.
It was an empty desk. Do you honestly think that a desk next to a window is going to remain empty for a year? In my office people would move onto a window desk for a day. After a year, they're never going to get it back.

As for people saying discrimination, not having a window desk is not discrimination. If it were, tribunals would have to do night sittings there'd be so many cases. Bonkers.

Mymycherrypie · 25/01/2022 09:14

Several employers hot desk for this reason. No petty squabbles about this is mine, no it’s mine, no it’s minnnnnne!

Toanewstart22 · 25/01/2022 09:14

@girlmom21

This is going to blow your mind. My desk was taken before I went on maternity leave by my replacement.

It's probably ok though because she's a woman...

Makes total sense
ThinkingtheUnthinkable · 25/01/2022 09:15

@ApolloandDaphne

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.
When you work in the same building 8 hours a day, not having daylight in the office can make a big difference to your mood. Not everyone gets to travel to other locations etc.

I once passed up the option of having my own office with a teeny window which provided so very little daylight as it was overshadowed by other parts of the building, in favour of being in an open plan main office flooded with natural light from large windows but opting for a partitioned off cubicle.

Having one's own office was a big deal in that organisation and I was considered strange but opening the massive blinds on a dull day to let more daylight in was a joy and well worth it.

Original poster
Flopsy145 · 25/01/2022 09:15

@MaChienEstUnDick

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?

My job isn't at risk, my director is desperate to have me back as we work very well together and my main maternity cover found a permanent job, an agency worker then last 2 weeks and given that I had only 2/3 months left of leave we all agreed my LM taking over (she is an EA for another director) was the easiest option as they've worked together before and my boss trusts her. I'm in public sector so it takes a minimum of 3 months to recruit so wouldn't have worked.
OP posts:
MaChienEstUnDick · 25/01/2022 09:16

@Toanewstart22

* I'm a proper feminist with a badge*

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

Yep, sewn by thread made from male tears too.
Toanewstart22 · 25/01/2022 09:16

Are you back in the office 5 days a week?

girlmom21 · 25/01/2022 09:17

we all agreed my LM taking over (she is an EA for another director) was the easiest option

So you're not the closest thing to an office manager?

Original poster
Flopsy145 · 25/01/2022 09:18

@girlmom21 so my old desk space backed onto a window with a wall to the left and his desk was in front of mine at a right angle backing onto a wall if that makes sense. From my position I could see his screen and another's, neither of them work on confidential issues and I do

OP posts:
knittingaddict · 25/01/2022 09:19

I worked as administrator in a hospital. When I started I had a desk in a nice roomy office with about 3 other people. A couple of years later two of us were moved to a literal broom cupboard that they had cleared out to create more space. There was a tiny window, but the space was tiny. There were two of us back to back and I couldn't get my trolley in the room and had to scan files in the corridor.

Things change and you can't expect things to be set in aspic while you're not there for a year.

Pky45 · 25/01/2022 09:19

@C8H10N4O2

Honestly it is completely irrelevant that other people hot desk. The OP doesn't hot desk, they have fixed desks to the extent she was not required to clear it when going on leave. Her mat leave cover used it until relatively recently.

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

OP mail him to tell him when you will be back and needing your desk. If he has been put there for something to do with need then he can say say. You then need to take up the privacy issue on the basis that your role requires a degree of confidentiality.

Incidentally in general I use 3M gold screens on every screen I use as I move between desks and locations all the time. They are easily the best privacy filters I've ever had.

This is completely wrong, people do not “own”, office space, or desks.
Original poster
Flopsy145 · 25/01/2022 09:19

@girlmom21 given the roles of everyone else I am, I would do all the office restock, sort out equipment, get new starters set up, arrange with people if something needed to come and be fixed/delivered. So no not an office manager, but the closest thing to one compared to other roles

OP posts:
girlmom21 · 25/01/2022 09:20

[quote Flopsy145]@girlmom21 so my old desk space backed onto a window with a wall to the left and his desk was in front of mine at a right angle backing onto a wall if that makes sense. From my position I could see his screen and another's, neither of them work on confidential issues and I do[/quote]
Get privacy screens and he won't be able to see anything. If you're uncomfortable with him standing over you, though, that is something to raise. I wouldn't like that.

MaChienEstUnDick · 25/01/2022 09:20

[quote Flopsy145]@girlmom21 so my old desk space backed onto a window with a wall to the left and his desk was in front of mine at a right angle backing onto a wall if that makes sense. From my position I could see his screen and another's, neither of them work on confidential issues and I do[/quote]
The confidentiality angle is the only one you can play. I'm still not convinced your job is as safe as you think it is, public sector or not, but of course I hope you're right.

In the name of all that is holy though, please don't follow the advice on this thread to fake a medical condition or come in under cover of darkness and rearrange the furniture.

saveforthat · 25/01/2022 09:21

I think it's very much the culture nowadays not to have fixed desks. It's much more efficient for offices that are rarely full as they don't need to rent enough space.

Original poster
Flopsy145 · 25/01/2022 09:22

@Toanewstart22 3 with 2 at home, and the 3 days are set as that's when my daughter will be in nursery. He can come in when he wants and will do an hour at the desk then 4 out and about etc, and if he is going to do all day at his desk he will most likely do it from home. We have a hybrid arrangement in our team specifically

OP posts:
Cheekypeach · 25/01/2022 09:23

1 day a week? Blimey OP hardly worth kicking up such a fuss about