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.

I've worked in a engineering office like this before, one of the engineers was very bitter and thought he was irreplaceable until they made most the office redundant then he had a full blown tantrum and launched a book at another colleagues head. Stand up for for yourself or when he's not in throw everything away on his desk, if he thinks he can get away with this stuff trust me it will only escalate

He's a complete prick, I bet he wouldn't have done it if it'd been a male colleague's desk he'd been using, and I'd tell him that while tearing him a new one, cheeky fucker!

I would speak to him regardless of desk sharing

@WinkyTinky - you wrote "Just to add, the reason he sometimes has to use my desk is that there is certain software which is only on my pc. In fact, I had to show him how to use some of it today."

I'd be contacting whoever the main boss is and saying that the software, if it's to be used by multiple people, should be on a 'stand alone' pc on a separate desk rather than on an individual's pc or it gets installed on everyone's pc.

I'd also be recommending to him that he keep notes about how to use the application as you're not going to be able to provide tech support for the application going forwards as you're going to be too busy.

I used to desk share and I would always put my personal items away at the end of the day. If I am sick or on leave then the other person has a clear space.
I personally hate it when people bring in personal items and decorate their desk. Especially when deal sharing.
My last employer banned this as the cleaners at 6pm need to wipe tue deal and keyboards down anf they said nothing is allowed on the desks or they won't clean. So that was amazing. We have little drawers with a key and you pop items in there but most of the time I would take my notes home with me. Especially personal items and papers. I wouldn't dream to leave that there.

I would say leason for future dont bring personal things to work when you desk share. Keep one diary with personal items and dates etc and take it home it the end of the day.

She's said she isn't desk sharing!

I'd be contacting whoever the main boss is and saying that the software, if it's to be used by multiple people, should be on a 'stand alone' pc on a separate desk rather than on an individual's pc or it gets installed on everyone's pc.

Small companies may not have money to waste on extra machines and multi-user software licenses. Or the space for an extra desk.

My last employer banned this as the cleaners at 6pm need to wipe tue deal and keyboards down anf they said nothing is allowed on the desks or they won't clean. So that was amazing.

“Amazing”? You want to get out more.

Buy yourself a page a day diary & put everything you need to remember in that. It's so much tidier that lots of papers lying around & everything is at your fingertips. If you have a particularly busy month take a photo of the pages so you have it on your phone to check anytime if you're away from work.

I feel the urge to take a photo of everyone else's desk now! Especially the desk of a lady who left last month, and the entire office of another lady who left in October. But somehow I'm the messy and disorganised one 😩

So many irrelevant comments on here, OP is NOT desk sharing and there is NO clear desk policy. Even if good practice to clear desktops before holiday, the poor woman was off sick, and presumably doesn't have a crystal ball.

If they are messy still, definitely take photos of their desks. Then if you do happen to accidentally leave some personal information on your desk you can escalate the issue right up the ladder to whoever the manager is (and there has to be a manager who you can bring issues to).

I think this colleague is a misogynist prick who probably read every note and post-it before he binned them.

Just to keep yourself safe, I'd be changing all my passwords on everything if something similar happened to me.

Please make it your New Year Resolution to stand up to this incel. Keep your stuff on your desk if you want to.

Make it a point to tell him not to remove stuff on your desk in future otherwise he will repeat it. Tell him to ask you before moving your stuff, or even changing any settings or deleting files on your computer.

My desk at work is like yours. So is my MD’s and another person’s desk. Two other people have clear desks. We all work well together! No one touches anyone’s else’s stuff if we have to work at that persons desk, which sometimes we have to.

Well in an exciting twist, we have all cleared our desks today as our company has gone under and we have all been made redundant.

I agree with this, sorry. It's your job not your home admin area.

Oh no, I hope you're OK and get all the support you need.
Your redundancy will be covered by the Government, pay in lieu of notice and redundancy pay, but only to the statutory weekly pay rate, unfortunately.

I'm so sorry. I hope you can find something new and more secure.

What a horrible shock, I'm so sorry

Oh no, I'm so sorry. The only silver lining is that you now don't have to work with this idiot. I do hope you can find something else quickly.

I'm so sorry. I hope you find something quickly.

Oh no @WinkyTinky I’m sorry to hear that, what an awful shock.

I'm
Not well so this is the first time I'd seen your post. Firstly I'm so sorry you've been made redundant, it's bad at any time of the year but just after xmas and the start of a new year, wow, that's not a great start (the only way is up though!)

I'm appalled at what he did to your belongings, I would have been furious.
We share training rooms in a building and we only have one tambor unit for four classrooms so it's chock a block. We were all doing some stand alone learning for about 2000 staff so a colleague made meticulous drawings on flip chart sheets that we could all use when delivering that training, (to save us all doing it every class - work smarter not harder kinda thing). There was no room in the unit to store these so they were gently folded and left in one of the rooms, another colleague binned them!

That's my impression too. If the papers were causing issues it would have been so easy to put them in a heap in a drawer.

You should raise this with your line manager in an email (so there is a paper trail).

Take care, this sort of sociopathic colleague will probably try and undermine and sabotage you in other ways at work.

Oh gosh what a shock. Are you going to be ok in the short term? Hope you have people around you to keep you company. I found it very surreal when it happened to me due to the unexpectedness.