Other People Using My Desk

[MediatorMom]

As I repeat this over and over in my mind, it sounds ridiculous... With that being said, AIBU to be upset, teetering on angry, that someone comes to the office and works at my desk? I am a leadership development educator and coach - so I'm not always in the office. Now, "they" come in and change all of my settings on my computer monitors and chair and never put anything back to my settings and they leave a small mess on my desk - my area does not have cameras. I've left a note on my keyboard saying "Welcome and Hello Guest - If you are here borrowing a desk, please leave everything the same as you found it. Please do not change settings on monitors or chairs. Thank you and have a wonderful day."
My note obviously gets ignored.
So, AIBU?

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I have not voted as l don’t think it’s a straight yes/no answer.

l don’t think someone is being unreasonable to avail themselves of an empty desk in your absence. But, they should leave it as they found it, including setting preferences. Could you pin a note up on these lines?

Ultimately it’s not your desk and unless the chair is specifically setup from an occupational health referral, in which chase it should be labelled, then I don’t get the issue. My last role I had my own office and people used to use it all the time if I wasn’t there.

I would ask management to make your desk unavailable to hot deskers - it's not appropriate if you have confidential files and there are others to work on

How come you can't work out who it is? How many people would have access to your work area?

Do they log into your computer or is it just the monitor? I would leave a note, I would not have anyone else using my desk

Well you "Hello Guest" sign is a bit lame, because you are inviting them to your space and saying it's alright to use it when it is not.. It should be more "Fuck off, this is not a hot desk", Make it clear it's a space where confidential work is done and is out of bounds.

YANBU. Maybe put a sign up that says "don't adjust screens/chairs as they have been specifically set for DSE/Occupational Health reasons - please see HR to be allocated a different hot desk"?

I work part-time at a place where desk space is limited. I genuinely don't mind people using my desk on my non-working day as long as they are respectful.

However, I've had:
People canibalise the IT kit on my desk for themselves because "I don't need it". Had my desk given away at 8 am to a visitor when I started at 9.
Had visitors turn up, plonk their stuff on my desk whilst I'm sitting there (!), and they look confused about why I have the temerity to sit at my own desk.
Had non-office-based staff walk over to my desk, and use my desk phone (that's not in a convenient place for others to use) whilst I'm sitting there without asking, and there are other empty desks around that would be better to use.

It can actually be seen as indirect sex discrimination if your part-time status puts you at a disadvantage with desk allocations. https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2019/01/Hot-Desking.pdf

I have a pot of beautiful novelty pens on my desk, and all of them have run out of ink. The post-it notes are beautiful colours but horrible to write on. All the good stuff is locked away. It's petty, but it makes me happy. 🙂

Op. I feel.like your job probably involves sometimes telling people to step back and see a wider perspective. That's what you need to do here. It's a little thing in the scheme of things.

if, in other ways you enjoy job, like where you work etc, let it go, you will be happier for it.

I get you op. We have allocated desks at work and mine has my fancy self provided keyboard (issued one was terrible) I’d be annoyed if someone just plonked themselves in my space and messed everything up. However I do put my own keyboard away and put the office issue one back on when I’m on A/L.

Surely good etiquette is that if you sit at someone else’s desk you leave it as you find it.

This is theft. Report it to the company. Send an email asking for their return failing which you will be reporting the theft to the police.

Is it a hot desk?

Is your name on the wall?

I can't answer until I know these two things.

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I too was wondering, does the OP have their name on the wall by any chance. I must have missed it 😏

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Of course it's rude to use someone else's desk, alter their settings and leave a mess behind!

Its not unreasonable they use it, it is unreasonable to leave it a mess. Regarding the chair, pop a note on the back of it and they can bring a chair in from another room- its not that uncommon if someone has one adjusted. I cant imagine what they're doing to the monitors that is causing such annoyance.

I mean, assuming it's not a hot desk 😉

If I saw your sign I would be tempted to change the height of your chair every time I went past. 😂

I have my own desk (my name isn't on the wall, it's on the office door...). I'm quite happy for others to use it when I'm not there. I wouldn't care about people changing the settings on my monitor or chair - it surely takes only seconds to change things back. Plus, if they are a different height to you they presumably have to change the chair settings to work comfortably and may not remember exactly how it was before. I once came into the office to find that my chair had been - shock horror! - SWAPPED WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S! Took me a while to get over that... Except it didn't. I just swapped it back and got on with my day.

I'd be annoyed about someone leaving a mess though. What kid of mess are they leaving? If mess means that someone has moved your pencil pot then you are being ridiculous. If they are actually leaving rubbish on your desk then that's not on.

Really, you would use someone’s desk instead of one of the hotdesks? And you call OP’s note childish…

I would ask management to make your desk unavailable to hot deskers - it's not appropriate if you have confidential files and there are others to work on
Confidential files would, or at least should be locked away when not in use. The uninvited guest wouldn't be able to see them.
Sounds like the person or persons are using it because all hot desks are in use.

It could be more than o e person using the computer.

Depends on a couple of things - what is your office like? We have two offices we work from. Everyone does actually have their own desk, however there is an expectation that others will use the desks where they are free and visiting other sites. Do you have a procedure around it? There is a general expectation with my work that you leave the desk as you find it although mistakes happen and that's quite hard to do (chair height is the big thing). Mess is unacceptable. I would not suggest that you leave a note, more likely to annoy people! Think about those kitchen notes. I doubt this just effects you, can you speak to your manager about getting some procedures in place if this is because people use different offices. Just etiquette stuff. that way, if it keeps happening, then your manager can actually take action because people are defying an office policy, rather than an [arsey] polite note from you, as you really dont have the authority to say people cant use things belonging to the organisation. Caveat is if you have a disability that means you have your own chair etc then that is different and people should not use specialist equipment meant for you. If you have had equipment purchased for you by Access to Work, it is actually yours, so no one can use it without your permission.

You're going to need a bigger sign.

When this happened to me, I simply locked away the keyboard, mouse, monitor cable and power supply. It's a five-minute faff, but nobody ever has a spare power supply. I didn't care that they'd used the PC, it was because they'd been eating at my desk and using the keyboard. Absolutely filthy behaviour.

This might be it. I used to work much later than most people, and once I returned to the office to find the cleaner on his break at someone's desk. But he wasn't using the PC, which seems to be the case here.

Unfortunately a lot of office cleaners are very poorly paid contract cleaners, and aren't provided with a proper rest area etc.

If it's your desk management need to stop other people using it. But I suspect it's not just your desk any more...

Unplug everything, put a cloth or cover over and add a note saying ‘out of order’. I would HATE what you’re describing - fair enough use my desk if you have to but respect my settings! And don’t be a messy fucker!