Colleague has thrown everything away that was on my desk

[WinkyTinky]

Back to work after Christmas and a few weeks off sick, to find that one of my colleagues who sometimes works at my desk has thrown away all of my papers. It was mostly handwritten notes about kids' appointments, my holiday plans, lists of things to remember about school, school calendars, and my eldest son's GCSE timetable. It was all personal sentimental stuff that I liked to have on my desk to see and remind me. I asked where it all was and he said that he has "got rid of all the crap." I'm really disappointed and a bit furious actually, but he thinks it's all perfectly fine. I know I'm a ridiculous softy about a lot of things, but this was MY stuff.

Sorry - but it is misappropriation of property (taking it without consent) and destruction of property (throwing it away). It does not matter that the colleague felt they had no value: the items did not belong to them, were contained in the OP’s designated and allocated workspace. It also does not matter if OP has historically been relaxed/negligent about leaving money or valuables in that space. Although the company policy likely states they do not take any legal responsibility for the theft or destruction of any personal items left on the premises, they are nonetheless liable for the conduct of their employees.

OP needs to take this up with HR as it absolutely should result in a disciplinary action.

Jesus, grow up.

I had a colleague do similar to me. I had a little bag with lip balm, hand cream, mirror, pens and face wipes that I kept at work. One of our managers told her to throw it away, so she did! Instead of you know, hiding it. Couldn't believe it. The manger left after only a year. Not their job to throw away personal possessions though.

I worked in a place with 100% hotdesking for a while (apart from a handful of dedicated private offices). We were given lockers to keep work and personal items in, and it was second nature to clear the desk at the end of every day. If someone repeatedly failed to do this, it would've been escalated to management. AFAIK, no one would have thrown someone else's work or personal items unless they legitimately believed it was rubbish, and if it had been pointed out to them that they had thrown away something of value they would likely have been apologetic.

But all of that's irrelevant if the OP's office doesn't have such a policy. Her colleague should not have been touching anyone else's stuff except to move it out of the way. If she was supposed to leave the desk clear and did not, presumably there's a manager paid to navigate these kinds of issues.

Yes, but you (or whoever) said it was a criminal offence, wich means it should be taken the police and I just don't see the police being interested so I would drop all the talk about it being 'criminal'.

But the OP said there's no management and no HR to complain to.

He behaves how he does as non of you so far have had the guts to pull him up. There is no way I'd just let this lie, I'd ask him just who the fuck he thought he was to throw things away from someone else's desk & make very clear to him it wasn't to happen again, in fact I'd tell him to not ever sit his fucking arse at the desk again.
Fucking men like this boil my piss.

Colleague does not sound great BUT yabu keeping so many personal and kids related papers on your desk. Work desk is for work papers. One photo maybe ok, but not personal and family reminders and papers.

You shouldn't litter your desk with personal items and your colleague shouldn't have thrown those items out when your back was turned. If he'd collected them all up in a plastic bag for safekeeping I would have agreed with his actions. Let this be a lesson to you.

Maybe I shouldn't be so forgetful, but if I don't have things written down and in my view, I do forget stuff. Yes I'm at work, but I need to keep track of home stuff, and it's not strewn all over. As for my son's GCSE timetable, yes that was the summer just gone, and I was mentally with him for every one of those exams as he has had a difficult time over the past couple of years. I kept the timetable on my desk as a keepsake, but as it was published on Class Charts and he's left school now, I can't get that back. People might think I'm over-sentimental, but that's me.

Sounds like the colleague was being a pass agg twat and letting her know he feels she should spend all her work time working and not thinking about her kids/food planning etc. Not sure what you can do though apart from have a sharp word with him. Which I would do.

Is that how you behave?

He doesn't like you and has done this to be a twat. Whilst I don't agree with some of the stuff you had on your desk, you have clearly stated that it's your desk and not a hot desk.

Why is there no HR or anything like that? Is it a very small family business? I can't really imagine circumstances where someone could do this and there be no come back from it.

If you're not hotdesking it's just nasty to throw someone else's stuff away - but if your pedestal was locked he couldn't stuff it all in the drawers, I guess
It's probably listed in your staff handbook somewhere whether or not there's a clean desk policy (many of my clients have one)

@WinkyTinky

Some responses to threads are batshit.

It was your stuff. If he had to touch it he should have collected it together and put it to one side for you.

He's an absolute pig.

I am struggling to see why you'd want or need a copy of your son's GCSE timetable after the event(s) - and more to the point why you'd need it in work? Also if it's something that is so sentimental, you need to think about having a better place to keep it surely? Because anything could have happened to it - might have been knocked on the floor and/or binned by a cleaner by accident?

I cant work on a cluttered desk. That sounds like a lot of scrap paper to leave out on a shared desk it should've been put away

If it was your assigned desk your colleague is a c*nt.

If you hot desk then it is fine for him to clear it.

Jesus Christ, the posters falling over themselves to defend him.

This is not ok. That’s the end of it. Take it over his head.

Ooooh what ya gonna do, take me into custardy?

No

Although I would not have junked your personal papers, I would certainly have shoved them in any old order into an envelope and left them in a drawer, and done it without any sort of apology. You shouldn't leave personal stuff all over your work desk and also I'd strongly suspect that you weren't concentrating on your job for a good part of the working day!

Honestly OP, if that timetable meant so much to you, why on earth didn't you take it home and keep it safe? Your desk at work is not your personal filing space!

It wasn’t his place but I would put it all in a diary as it’s not relevant to your job.

Quite. What a dick.