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.

Am I missing something here? Why is everyone going on at the op for having her son’s GCSE timetable on her desk and not that this man is using the women’s toilets and has written about a co workers chest on the toilet roll holder?

Even if the op’s desk was a state he should have just piled everything up, not thrown things away even if it was old or personal.

Yes, a weird number of posters seem to think it’s about keeping everything “nice and neat and tidy” 😄

A clear desk policy does not mean having literally nothing on it! It’s about making sure sensitive material isn’t left on display and that valuables are secured - for example, a laptop being locked in a cupboard or into a docking station. And I’ve never known it to involve people sweeping the contents of a colleague’s desktop into the bin without so much as a by your leave.

The colleague sounds like a dick OP and I would be pissed off too. Using the woman's toilets when he wants? ughh he is disgusting.

Well, lesson learned: if you don't want someone to bin your crap, keep it at home, if you need to keep it at all.

So what if you are keeping stuff that others dont think you should - it's your stuff!

You could have anything on your desk, and still no-one has the right to touch your stuff!

Dont explain to posters WHY you have any of the stuff you had @WinkyTinky - all that does is give people a reason to excuse this nutter of a man who is quite frankly a bully.

It's not a shared desk

So because a man decides it's crap - he gets to arbitrarily decide it needs binning???? What???

I despair

To be fair, men or women, plenty on here see the things specified as crap that didn't need keeping on a workplace desk in the first place.

He probs thought it was old crap and it sounds like it was from the way OP describes it.

It’s ridiculous to suggest you shouldn’t keep anything on a desk allocated to you just in case someone else arbitrarily decides to bin it. Whether you, the OP’s colleague or anyone else thinks it’s “crap” is another matter.

He shouldn't be touching your stuff. It makes no difference what it was, or whether or not it's "professional" to keep personal notes on your desk, the point is they are yours, and not his. He has no right to bin them If he really needed the space clear to work, he could have put them in a drawer, or in a pile somewhere else. That is some highhanded move to be pulling on you, and I hope you are making a big fuss. Don't fume silently, he's got no business touching your possessions. They were on your desk, and his behaviour was disrespectful.
You know where you stand with him now. Is it something you'd bring up with management? There needs to be a clear policy about moving people's things, especially if there is potential desk sharing.

See the original post, "One of my colleagues who sometimes works at my desk." If that isn't a shared desk, I don't know what is. Should he have thrown stuff that wasn't his out? Absolutely not. Neither, in my view, should it have been left around where it would get in his way. Who wants details of their colleagues' holiday plans, kids' exams, etc. in their work area?

He probs thought it was old crap and it sounds like it was from the way OP describes it.

Doesn't excuse him binning another person's stuff.

A keepsake. Right. You clearly just had a load of crap on your desk that needed to be removed and now have a bee in your bonnet.

I think it does if it’s a load of crap 👍 an office isn’t the OPs personal storage area.

Well, you coworker is an asshole. Next time throw some of his stuff away.

But looking at the bigger picture, the place sounds quite disorganized. Even though you like the job, I would not be sticking around for the fallout if(when?) it all does go up in flames.

As for notes, I use Microsoft OneNote. I have it on my phone as well as my PC. It syncs the notes across devices, so I never lose anything.

"See the original post, "One of my colleagues who sometimes works at my desk." If that isn't a shared desk, I don't know what is. "

A shared desk is one that is officially allocated to more than one person e.g. in a hot desking situation or a job share. Someone else occasionally using a desk does not in itself make it a shared desk. I have my own desk. If someone else needed to use it temporarily, it would still be my desk.

"Who wants details of their colleagues' holiday plans, kids' exams, etc. in their work area?"

If it bothers you, move it to the side. No need to bin them!

Her office clearly has a different culture to ones you are familiar with. And even in an office where personal stuff isn't allowed, a colleague binning it without any discussion is unacceptable.

Unless there's a rule against it, people are allowed to bring personal things to the office. In my cupboard, there is a shelf full of my colleagues' clothes. Should I throw them away because it's 'personal storage'.

Yes, should nobody have a coat because if you leave it on a hook a colleague might throw it away?

So what? Strictly speaking I don't "need" a plant on my desk or a pot of hand creme or some puffin coasters or family photos but anyone who came along and decided they were a load of unimportant crap would get short shrift from me.

The fundamental rule is that if you borrow someone else's desk for a short time, if you have to move anything at all you put it back exactly as you found it.

Doesn’t your work have a clear desk policy? I’d hate to see a desk with ancient hand written notes left on it for years on end. How do the cleaners clean your desk with paper left on it? I don’t blame him at all. Why on earth do you have a GCSE timetable out on your desk? Exams were either 7 months ago or in 5 months time so it’s completely unnecessary.