to leave my desk in an unusable state to stop someone else using it on my day off?

[katz]

i share a very small office with 5 other people but there are only 5 desks. On my day off someone else will use my desk but i hate it. I have to put away anything i'm working on, tidy it up and leave it completely clear. Part of my angst is a control thing, i don't want to share, its my desk and the only reason for someone has to is because they have taken on too many people. Our office should officially only have 2/3 people in anyway.

LOL

treat yourself to a nice big bag to take your stuff to and from the office,M&S have some loevly leather bags for around £50 in pretty colours.i have one i use when i am lugging round loads of paperwork.

YABU but I can understand where you are coming from. I share with two other dirty mingers colleagues and I hate it. But hey there are worse things to worry about.

This happened to me when I was part time. I would come in and my (evil) manager had let other transient people use my desk so they would be sitting there with all their stuff out when I got in. Once I came in and there were a thousand leaflets, posters, books, boxes literally just dumped on it. Eventually I just declared that I needed a space to work and went to another office.

I can't believe people are calling you 'selfish' when all you want is a place to work where people aren't messing with your stuff. That's the problem you have - other people's 'selfish' attitudes.

YANBU

I feel for you, but am not sure whether YABU or not. I sympathize, as in my last job, I would often be out of the office for 3 or 4 hours a day, and other people would use my desk. Getting back to find the chair all mispositioned was bad enough, but the worst thing was when someone who had particularly bad breath used my desk for an afternoon. He had spent most of the time on the phone, and when I picked up the receiver to use after him, the bit you talk into had been impregnated with his halitosis. It reeked! I had to spray lots of perfume through the holes, but it took ages for the vile odour to disperse. Weeks later, a whiff could be detected when I picked it up to make a call. Repellent.

of course it is your desk.

same as it is her desk when she is at work

you could always leave something smelly in a locked drawer tho....see if that does the trick

bear in mind, she might reciprocate!

YANBU
I'm on maternity leave but feel jealous of my desk still....

ah see the voices of reasons do surface. I know i am being unreasonable, it is only my desk when i'm here (4 days a week) and today it is particularly nice as everyone else is out of the office so i have the whole broom cupboard to myself! i have tidied it all up ready for her to use tomorrow.

I need a bookcase to keep all my work on and sadly a nice bag just wouldn't hold it all, i do have a nice neat line of files on oneside of my desk which she will just have to live with there is no where else for them to go.

thank you all for listening to me moan.

YABU it's only an office desk. Get your priorities right!!!!!

I see this from both sides. I hate hot desking, hate, hate, hate it. Stems from various insecurities which manifest themselves in a rather, shall we say, territorial attitude to my desk. Anyway, I'm lucky enough not to have to do it 90% of the time but may need to on any given day iyswim. And when I do have to move desks nothing annoys me more than having to clean up the crap one someone else's station first.

But I've come up with a solution. At the end of every day everything on my desk goes into one of two large flat boxes. Personal stuff in one, to get locked in the pedestal, and work stuff in the other to transfer to the big cabinets. Then it all just comes out in the morning. When I'm at someone else's desk I just sweep everything into one pile and dump it on the floor next to the desk - not my problem!

I'd be like this.

I have desk isshoos when I am in an office. Used to sit next to a girl who let all her crap spill onto my lovely neat space (I had crap too, but neat, at right angles kind of crap ). Me having to share a desk would probably lead to sobbing and rocking in a corner

YAB completely U to actually do something about it (I did on occasion tidy said messy girl's desk ), but totally understand the sentiment.

Have always wondered why I am incapable of being like it at home

It is your desk on the days you work. And their desk on the days they work!

If you want your own desk all week then work all week ya lazy bint

I work with a woman who puts a plastic bag over her chair on the days she's not working

lol Katz. I don't like sharing either - and knowing what your office size is like (it like mine was at the prison IIRR) it makes it worse, as never anywhere you can leave stuff out the way properly. As a TA I don't get a desk at all now - have managed to acquire a spare drawer in the classroom, lol!

Rant away on here; tis what MN is for sometimes, and so good to get it all out here than in RL. Rant to me tomorrow- am voice of reason (and know that really you will leave all erfect and lovely and clear for the next person)

Leave some souvenirs from Mexico lying about along with some lemsips and kleenex

Sneeze a lot and wear lots of blusher

they will stay away

lol @ how serious some people take the thread though

Good one MP.

i'm far too nice to do anything in RL, i left my desk as clear as humanly possible and she is merrily working at it today whilst i'm home with my beautiful little girl and looking forward to lunch with one of my best friends Think i'd rather she be there than me.

I have no desk at all and am perpetually getting things out of a large bag more suited to going on holiday.

I have no solution to the prob, but I just wanted to say YANBU too.

A desk does sort of become part of you over the years when you're at work. Mine is part of me. I sometimes get a Work Experience type person sit on mine on days I'm not in. Last time that happened not only did they adjust the chair but the little cushion I used to sit on (cos I have a lower back prob) mysteriously went missing and has never been seen since.

It was one of the things I found hardest about changing to working part-time after I had dd. I was positively anal about my working space, being organised and keeping it tidy. My old boss was a psychiatrist and said she was pleased that I wasn't the same at home, otherwise she'd be worried .

In my last job not only did they use my space, but they'd completely rearrange the office without consulting me, change systems, throw my stuff away and file casenotes that I was working on. Oh and then I'd not be given passwords or access to things I needed, not told about meetings .... I bloody hated it.

I still have the problem with others using "my" desk in my current job, but I just spend the first 5 minutes of the day getting it how I need it to be able to start work, and ignore the rest.

It sounds like someone will be using it whether you tidy it or not. At least if you tidy it you can a) see what mess they have created and complain about it b) keep your things in order and hide anything you don't want them to 'borrow'.

I also hate this btw. I used to temp (not the same I know) and although I had been working in the same office for at least 8 months I was never really sure where I would be sitting from day to day. I found it really stressful and such a bad way to treat someone.

Now I have my own desk I really appreciate it, even after almost 9 years