To complain about new hot-desking system

[Likesicecream]

Genuinely want to know how unusual I am here.

At my work we all hot desk, this is a relatively new thing. Currently you book the seat you want on a daily basis for the days you are in the office (min 3 days a week). You can see who has booked the other desks and choose accordingly. Most people stay relatively consistent but there’s some movement depending on who’s in when etc.

They are changing it to an app where you say what days you are going to be in, you can choose people you want to be “near”, and then the app assigns you a desk accordingly.

I hate this idea. I specifically choose desks such that I won’t be next to people who consistently speak very loudly on zoom calls, which is very distracting and also interrupts my own calls. I also avoid people with personal tics that annoy me like chewing with their mouths open - I am extremely sensitive to this, I can’t help it. And finally I choose a seat where I’m not “back to back” with another row of people because everyone’s on zoom calls all day and they don’t blur their backgrounds and I really hate being broadcast all day, if I’m sitting there eating my lunch I don’t want to be broadcast doing it.

I know I’m on the neurotic side with all of these things. I’m just trying to get an idea of how many others would agree?

yabu - this would not bother me
yanbu - this would bother me too

Would someone choose to be near you? Where does your boss sit?

I imagine people will either ignore the “choose people” feature or choose to sit with their teammates (so my teammates might choose me), which makes sense, I don’t mind this feature but I hate having no control over my actual location!

I wouldn't prefer this to your current system. The App seems to assume that your number 1 preference is to be next to a specific person when actually it's the opposite. I'd find this challenging as until I knew where others could potentially be sitting I'd struggle to choose. My own preferences would include things like a preference for my back towards a wall and a good view of the whole room, or maybe to be close to the fan/window/air con...
What do your colleagues think of the system? How does it benefit the company?
I'd not be making any decisions yet. There's a chance it might prove to not work and you revert to the old system.

How busy is the office? Could you just move to a preferred location (which hasn’t been booked) once you arrive?

DH’s office only release unoccupied desks from 10am, so he’s had to play musical desks a few times on busy days when he has been disorganised.

YANBU, though. That would irritate me too, especially if the current system is already working.

No I wouldn't like this, and would absolutely prefer your existing system. I'm not too fussed who I sit near as I just put my air pods in anyway. But I like to be right by an air con vent or window as I'm always really warm.

Maybe with the current system some people are always getting left with the bad spaces? Maybe more random is fairer?

This seems absolutely designed to plummet staff morale.

We have people who want to sit near a window or far away from one. It really isn't taking into account any of the nuances at all.

This would give me the absolute rage. It was suggested in my workplace and I pointed out that taking away people's choice in this way was ridiculous and pointless and would demoralise staff when hotdesking is already difficult. So they didn't do it. We also have a no-Teams-calls area. A godsend.

IME some people genuinely don't care where they sit, and those that do get in early and book desks to suit their needs.

^ was to @BungleandGeorge

I can see why you don't like it OP and prefer the current system, which is what we have, although some people have booked the same desks weeks in advance, so I can see some other people might not be happy. So I can see why the app might be introduced. I have a fixed desk because it is important people can't see my screens - and I am very glad about that.

Welcome to the 21st century
..awful stuff.

Your previous system does sound simpler and more sensible, I must say. For a start, say you told the system you wanted to be near a specific group of people (in your case, ones you know are quiet and non-annoying!) but they all told the system they wanted to sit near completely different people?!

It's a work environment, not booking a cinema or plane seat.

YANBU it's awful.
I hate sitting in the middle of a bank of desks. I have a preferred direction to face. I'd hate not being able to avoid certain people too.

How did you deal with this before...? When you didn't hot desk? Was your fixed desk always to your liking.

I have a fixed desk too. Bloody glad I do too.

I wouldn't like that, I like to sit by myself if I can

I get on it right away and book the same seat every 4 out of 5 days for the next 4 weeks when they are released.

Sounds bad op sorry. Not sure i could cope with sharing an office let alone hot desking!

I work with a similar system and I've never thought about it tbh, I just go in, sit down and get on with it.

Have you always hot desked?

I would give feedback, such as, I like that I can choose which work colleagues I might like be near but there are preferences that are not taken into account with this including prefering to be in a quiet area, near a window, etc.

However.. I don't know how you could say, I would like to set as my preference to be away from X Y and Z... can you think of a set of criteria that might work?

This is never going to be perfect unfortunately. I wonder why they decided they needed an app and who decided the app criteria...

They started hot desking where I worked, it lasted a month, the managers got fed up of refereeing fights over who sat where.

Ask for a reasonable adjustment to accommodate your disability. Legally you don’t need to have a diagnosis to be eligible to request reasonable adjustments to meet your needs. Tell them you have anxiety and it’s too stressful for you to not know where you’ll be sitting. Request a permanent desk. By law they have to consider your request and if they say no they need a really good reason. Bloody stupid situation, they deserve someone to put their foot down and say no.