To be upset about being given the worst desk in the office?

[TeaTowelQueen]

Been working for a small firm for 6mths, 16hrs a week doing basic admin. Additional person starting (18yr old apprentice) so had to have a desk shuffle. Told today via email that I will be moved to a small desk, on the end of a block, back to the door and every person in the office will be walking to and fro right behind me for the 4hrs a day I am there.

I really hate it, every time I look at the desk waiting for me I want to cry.

My head knows that I am the lowest in the pecking order (even below both apprentices it appears) and I only work part time. I know the younger ones (I am in my 50s) need more nurturing and that they are the future. I know that I am being unreasonable. But I can't stop feeling just awful about it.

Any coping advice out there?

It's not personal.
It's office logistics.
Worst desk goes to person who is the least number of hours.

Can you change the angle of it? Get a privacy screen?

Having a crap desk isn't fun, try and improve it and hopefully you'll adjust and get used to it.

You probably do the least hours so it’s only logical

Yes, I think it’s fair enough if everyone Else is full time

With respect, you are having and emotional response to a practical and logical decision.

It's in no way personal.

If you have practical and logic issues with it or better solutions, speak to your boss.

If you have emotional issues with it, there's no validity to your cause.

@DoYouReally Of course she has a right to her emotions. Being treated worse because you do the least hours may be logical, but it will still feel like shit.

Sounds reasonable that you have drawn the short straw as you are only there 4 hours a day.

Someone has to sit there.

Honestly...maybe I am just happy to finally have my own desk after hotdesking for 20 years but I also have people walking behind me due to how our desks are placed. Its not bad, I have never even thought about it really.

I don't have the "best desk" in the office. Maybe I have the worst come to think of it (end of a row so have people walking past as well as behind) but I certainly don't take it seriously and want to cry about it.

I think you are making the desk into so much more than it is and allowing it to make you think its how your colleagues see you...worthy of a shit desk, which I'm sure is not the case.

Make the desk nice with a couple of personal items (I have my drink bottle, my mug, a cute stress toy and a pen holder) and stop framing it as "being the lowest in the pecking order" ...thats going to make you feel rubbish!

I didn't say she had no right to her emotions.

What I did say was emotional arguments will get you no where in a workplace.

Entirely different things.

While I sympathise i do agree with this. Sometimes we have to compromise.

I would out head phones in and just roll with it

Reminds me of the time I was asked when I would be vacating my room ( it was the best room in both buildings, with fabulous views over the park, I used to watch herons and swans flying over) as the new person wanted to move in. I said like most people I would be leaving on my last day, which was a Thursday, so the room would be free from Friday morning, or Thursday evening if he wanted to do some unpaid overtime. I had been going to ask where they wanted my professional resources to be moved to since they belonged to them, but in the end I tidied up a bit, cleared out my personal stuff, handed back my lap top and waved goodbye to the herons.

Its not a compromise though. She is going to have the worse desk. She is not getting anything in return. To be a compromise she would be getting something in return.
She basically has no choice.

But this is all emotional. She is being placed in the worst desk. Of course she will be emotional and upset. People are not robots, they have emotions.

My first office job i was put in a desk in the corner right by the door to the loo and coffee machine

It was annoying. Having to listen to the chit chat from people walking back from getting their coffees. The door swinging every 10 minutes from Mr loosalot having his 25th toilet break (he didn't have any issues before anyone says. He just liked skiving in the loo on his phone)

I put headphones in and got on with it. After a while I didn't even notice it anymore.

I clocked 2 office affairs from them coming through the door with their coffees not realising I was at my desk and them arranging meeting at a hotel...! It had some perks haha.

But yeah OP i would try to make the best of it. Unless there are some spare desks it seems they have just tried to manage it best

I was a temporary for a while and got put in all sorts of places! However, I used to move the desk around, use plants, and improve my space as much as possible. In one company, they shoved all of the support staff into a noisy corner, shared with the copier and badly orientated. I spoke to the other three perm staff, came up with a space redesign, got the OK to shift a screen, turn the desks round, put copier on the back of the screen. We all got privacy, no copier noise and heat, no traipsing through our space. Make the desk the best you can, ask for a floor screen to reduce noise / disruption. Own your space, as better than an office where you fight / book a desk!

Just a thought about confidentiality. If you've got your back to the door, is there a chance someone could see something on your screen that they shouldn't?

I would feel awkward having that desk too. We've got a couple of dodgy desks in our office where you're a bit more exposed but someone has to have them.

Unfortunately, as someone only working 4 hours a day, I think it's inevitable that you'll get the worst desk. I'd put yourself in the shoes of a FT worker that got it, while you had a nicer desk elsewhere. They'd likely be thinking "Why does TeaTowelQueen get a nicer desk - she's not even here half the time?"

When I was a junior, I had my own desk (and office!) at a client's office. Similarly to a PP it overlooked a prestigious street in London and I had a great view. They brought in a new permanent member of staff and I was shifted to what was effectively a corridor. I still work with the client now and the guy that took "my" office is now the boss. I regularly tease him how I've still not forgiven him for stealing my desk.

Similar happened to me, we moved office on the last few days of my maternity leave. I went in to have a nosey at the new office and they had tried giving me the worst desk. I was technically, (only due to tenure) the most senior so boss agreed I could have my pick of the desks. Came in on first day after maternity leave, settled down at the “best” desk and quickly discovered I was literally head to arse with whoever was taking a shit on the other side of the plasterboard wall 😩 so I guess my point is be careful what you wish for 😁

You need to pimp it up. House plants, trellis, dish of sweets etc.

I understand OP but I think it's more about you being part time than how they see you as priority or not.

I had a few jobs where contractors were treated liked the bottom of the totem pole compared to full time employees. Our desks were put up against support beams or off in corners, or in the aisles, or we would sit at a long table while everyone else had extra large L shaped desks with privacy screens. It was horrible and it felt very demeaning.

youre lucky to have a desk with your name on it. We hot desk and it’s a scramble every morning.
You’re hardly going be given the best desk if you’re only in the office part time - and it’s just a desk, that you use to work from.

So what happens to the new person who as an apprentice will be recieving training and mentoring. Should they be plonked at the only currently empty desk or should they be placed where they have best access to the person/s that will be training them. It might feel personal but it is practical to give the new person requiring supervision a desk next to the person that will provide that supervision.

I once worked with someone who, after the first week, turned her desk so her back was facing everyone else and stuck mirror tiles to the wall so she could watch us. Actual mirror tiles that she brought in so she could observe us. She didn't last long.

As a veteran of about 20 office moves, I can tell you crying, people actually losing it, stand up rows and the like are perfectly normal. Human beings are incredibly territorial.

OP, I would get headphones, a screen at the side if you can so people aren't brushing past you, and as someone suggested, a large plant to sit behind you. Try not to take it personally: as a part timer, you are in the office less.

I’m going through something similar. I’m the only manager at my level who needs to share an office which is beyond inconvenient. I had the opportunity to move to my own office but the pt manager who is in once a week refuses to move office. You are only very part time so you need to suck it up

BurntBroccoli · Today 16:11

Icanttakethisanymore · Today 15:58
every time I look at the desk waiting for me I want to cry.

I'd seek help - this doesn't sound normal at all.

It’s not unusual to be stressed at people walking up behind you without you being able to see them. Basic human survival thing - no animal would willingly position themselves like that. The human brain is still actually quite primitive in some respects.

This.

I hate being seated with my back to the room, or with people going past me with my back towards them. A primitive instinct, for sure.

I was doing a year's long-term supply in a posh school...my desk was tiny, squashed into the corner by the door, beside the rubbish bin. Not only did people push past and bump me, but they threw their food scraps into the bin over my shoulder. There was a constant draught. I was first in in the morning, and last out at night.

(I also got the shitty classes, -yes there are some, even in posh schools, and was bullied by the HOD - he clutched at his position as "most popular/funniest/coolest teacher", and didn't like it when someone new and temporary won the kid's affections.)

Bottom of the pecking order...worst of everything is your lot, sadly.

Yes, does seem to be a lot of peeps clueless about the work environment (especially in an office where generally you’re stuck in the same spot) and it’s impact on your health and well-being.

@TeaTowelQueen YANBU at all. Your particular grade or hours worked shouldn’t mean it’s okay to treat you any less than other workers. Not ideal but I can only imagine that they want the apprentice to be more integrated and part of the team since they as you said are the future and management want everything to be as good as possible for them.

I’ve had some pretty awful desks in my time (including right next to an entrance point where the public were constantly coming and going and in the winter I’d be sat there in my coat! After a year of that I got moved elsewhere in the same office and could have cried when I saw my new desk was positioned directly in front of the customer waiting area and they would just stare at me - v off putting! Or worse if appointments were running late with the respective colleague they’d kick off to me and say ‘well you’re not doing anything’! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Also because of that position I was the first person they’d see so ending up also as unpaid reception fielding all their queries/passing messages to the relevant colleagues. Btw desk allocation was very much by design, there was a very established clique within the office and every time we changed teams and got moved around, I’d request my preferred desk but rarely got it.

So I have no direct coping strategies but maybe you’ll read the above and think it could be worse! Anyway, here’s hoping it’s not too awful ♥️

Just suck it up, you're there many hours less than everyone else.

I too had the worst desk, next to the toilet door, despite being the person who spent more hours in the office than anyone else. The reason being that when we moved into the new office I was away for the day. It is what it is I just sucked it up, someone had to sit there.