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.

Oh get lost.

It makes you look as if you’re more invested in your kids life than your work

There is something wrong if that’s not the case. I worked in a literal life/death department for decades, where everyone was on the ball and pulled their weight but if someone had of said to me ‘you know, I’m more invested in work than my kids and family’ I’d have thought they were one step off the cliff.

Putting things away, I get. Binning someone else's personal notes, off THEIR desk, he might as well have been pissing in it to mark his territory. He's a bastard OP, I'd have totally lost it if someone threw away my personal stuff. Be furious. His motives are not good.

I would complain that he threw out all the paperwork on your desk and claim that some of it was work-related.

He was completely out of line and should be pulled up for his behaviour.

Exactly!

I’ve never worked anywhere that had a ‘clear desk’ policy.

I’d be very cross. This was uncalled for. He could have put OP’s stuff away without destroying it.

"I accept the comments saying it's more professional to keep your desk clear, fair enough"

No, it's not. Some places have a clear desk policy, others don't.
In some places, leaving notes on your desk in case you're ill could actually help your colleagues and in most cases it's just nobody else's business.

Wouldn't it be a shame if someone reported him for illegal firestick use

regarless he had no right to trow your thhings away

id report it

Not normal where I work, people have all kinds of personal items on their desk and it's totally fine. No one would dream of throwing someone else's stuff away, it would be unhears of

He is a twat.
And I would also tell him he was a twat for acting like this...he could have simply put your papers in a drawer and used your desk as he pleased.

Nothing worse in an office then having to sit at someone's cluttered desk. Although he probably should have put it all in a draw rather than bin it.

Did he do it off his own back or did he say to a manager that the desk was messy and then was allowed to clear it?

I think you need to let it be. It is annoying he binned your personal notes but if you pick a fight over this (when presumably your colleague was covering your sickness) then it might result in a tidy desk policy coming in and bad feelings amongst staff.

I used to work in a place with a clear desk policy where the cleaners were instructed to bin anything on the desk that wasn't the landline phone! And they definitely did so on the few occasions anyone was remiss enough to forget to put stuff away...

I think you colleague was a bit OTT, but he probably thought it was rubbish and was trying to have a clean space to work.

For those at the back-
IT ISN'T A SHARED DESK, THERE IS NO CLEAR DESK POLICY AND HE DIDN'T THROW IT AWAY SO HE COULD WORK- HE DID IT BECAUSE HE'S A CUNT (and I don't use that word lightly!) Hope that clears things up 🙂

Crikey, some really miserable and mean replies. No, OP YANBU - its your work space, your desk and so what if you want to have some personal bits and bobs on it. I'm the same, I've been sat at this desk for 27 years, probably spend as much time here as I do at home so of course personal stuff infiltrates through. I've got an old dog eared post it selotapes to my work tray which is a note my now 22 year old DS wrote me when he was about 5. I would be bloody raging if someone threw it away, not that they would.

My old boss years ago went through my emails and "filed" them away, I was annoyed enough about that. Your colleague sounds like a nasty prick. I can understand if you work for a massive corporation that work spaces have to be minimal if people are hot desking but in your regular small office then no harm at all to have personal stuff there.

A bit of a cunt act by old mate. He should have stuck all your stuff in a drawer (or envelope) if it bothered him.

If I was using a desk and I felt 'your stuff' I think I would put it all in a file and put on the desk or in a drawer (with a note). He had no right!

If they were in his way, all he needed to do was to get a folder and bung them into the folder and leave that on the desk. There was absolutely no requirement by him to throw out your notes/documents/whatever.

You said that this particular colleague can be 'a nasty twat' - could he really have done this maliciously do you think or with more than a pinch of nastiness in his actions? Could he have read them and thrown them out knowing that they were probably important to you?

As you also said, the colleague that you sit next to has not had their desk touched, I'd actually approach the team leader (hopefully they aren't one and the same person with this individual) and request that in future, unless there is a severe shortage of desks available, your desk be considered as off limits to colleagues as a "hot desk" as you have returned to find that your belongings have been thrown out without any thought. They weren't even put into a box and shoved under the desk for goodness sake.

YANBU.

I can’t decide if I’d complain, or bin everything personal or his I ever saw from now on.

Thank you for articulating my thoughts, @WoolySnail This is how I feel. It was completely unnecessary. I don't want to put the boot in here, but he leaves trails of mud all through the office, uses the ladies toilet when he feels like it, and has even left graffiti on the bloody toilet roll holder about an ex-colleague's chest. Ha! It gets weirder by the minute! But those are other separate issues.

Those things don’t need to be left all over a desk.

I think Id be making a complaint. He could have just put them in a pile, there was no need to thrown them away given it was hour desk and the sick leave was unexpected. I don’t think he should just ride rough shod over other people’s feelings like that. Complain about him using the womens toilet as well.

This!
I would be bloody furious. If he was only needing to use your desk some of the time to cover your job while you were off with flu then your personal stuff wasn't inconveniencing him. This was pure spite.

I would certainly be raising a grumble that he had taken it on himself to throw away your personal items while you were off. Entitled little shit. Who does he think he is?

And the posters banging on about clear desk policies, just because this is your experience do not assume everywhere is the same.

I have worked in both environments. If there is a clear desk policy you know about it and stick to it. It is unlikely this is the case where OP is if she has been there 14 years and this g as never happened before.

Oh my God @WinkyTinky I’d have to change my former comment to add ‘oh yeah, thinking of things that annoy others, maybe think about not leaving muddy footprints everywhere and stop using the ladies’ loo’.

Grr. Annoyed in your behalf.

Those things didn't need to be thrown away 🤷‍♀️

Its unprofessional to have all personal things across your desk for everyone to see. But he should have just put them in a drawer.