Office relocation nightmare

[sincitylover]

Have just relocated to new offices nearby to the old ones. They were far from ideal but we had our own offices.

Many many problems but have no idea what to do about them - I'll try to summarise. There was a 'consultation' in which our sub department asked to be relocated together in a dedicated space but were told that this not possible due to employees of our status (admin/managerial) not being able to be located near the professional staff we work in a close team with. This seems to be an overtly political decision.

So myself and my two staff have been relocated in a large open plan office with other staff on similar levels which does not seem to be fit for purpose - acoustically (if someone else is talking you cannot hear phone conversations) and little natural daylight so working with artificial lighting all day. Its also very noisy with constant traffic through the office (of people)

The rest of our team are now several floors away. The junior member of our team has been placed next door with other lower level staff(not connected with our sub dept) and this is also not conducive to team working.

I have dual reporting to professional and adminstrative line managers.

Alot of my work requires focus and concentration and is confidential all of which cannot be achieved in the new office. My head is mashed and so is that of my colleague. I have started twitching under my eye - my eyes feel dry and gritty.

Professional staff are also very unhappy and feel the building is not fit for purpose.

But its all being heralded as a fantastic new space.

I think I wil go mad if I have to carry on there (although I need a job of course). I sometimes work from home and also can use others quieter offices - although this is not officially sanctioned.

What can we do? Every request is met with fobbing off or stonewalling or spurious arguments.

We are unionised but union quite weak.

As well as the physical environment there is also general obstructive behaviour and increasing control of our smaller department by upper levels of management.

We are successful financially and professionally. Whole organisation is also undergoing multi level reorganisation of adminstrative and managerial staff.

It's becoming almost impossible to carry out my role with all these constraints. I was even wondering today if I would have a case for constructive dismissal.

I also worry that I have a professional responsibility for my own staff's well being which is being jeopardised.

Help!

En masse hse eyechecks/occupational therapy check of suitability of work stations?

yes that sounds a good idea - although one would have hoped that this would have been built in to any new design.

Our desks are also very odd like tables rather than desks.

I just don't understand why the external company hired in to manage considered all of this although I suspect that they had to work with what they had got.

We have also moved in before it has finished - there are still lots of builders and decorators around.

I am amazed that you accepted such an unsatisfactory state of affairs. It is easier to "refuse to move until it is right" than to "demand to move immediately when everyone's just been disrupted once".

You need to talk with the decision-maker, explain why this is not an appropriate set-up and explain what the business cost (ideally in £) will be of their not sorting it out.

Health & Safety and whatever may assist - but at the end of they day you have good business reasons for sitting with your team and a boss wanting to promote your (and therefore their) success should work to maximise that.

Good luck! I know it's never as easy as that [works in a "can't do" organisation emoticon]

I think in the short term you should focus on what can be done to make your situation bearable. A couple of things that come to mind are:

-earplugs/listening to music through headphones at your desk
-instant messaging software so that you can communicate easily/in real time with colleagues who no longer sit near you

I worked in a similar situation in my previous job
Moved from small office of 5 to large open plan of 80 of us ranging from admin to high level management in one space
We hated it initially but it does work if there are some ground rules
First ensure you have correct h&s assessments done eg display screen
Meetings over 5 mins not to be held desk side but taken in one of the breakout areas
Phones set to low volume
Eating at desk ok as long as not "smelly" food - that had to be taken out of work space
I used to wear earphones with low level music on to obscure other office noise
I also had the bulb on the fluorescent light turned off over my desk as I have a medical condition made worse by it - this was after a formal assessment so all official
If everyone sticks to the ground rules it can work