Colleague refusing to hotdesk at work – anyone else face this issue??

[Singleparent78]

Post-pandemic our offices have moved to a hotdesking set up as part of new hybrid working. Most FT staff now WFH 2-3 days/week and now, when they do come in, they no longer have ‘their own’ desk but instead sit at a series of desks which they book in advance – each desk has IT equipment, but staff have all been given laptops that they can bring in.

It’s not ideal but it encourages a good mixing of staff and ultimately saves money - with staff WFH it was possible to reduce the overall office footprint rather than have the same office with half populated desks. A lot of effort went into setting up the new hot desk system to ensure it was well kitted out and comfortable.

One Staff member has been refusing to come in and hot desk. Says it’s a policy that can’t be enforced, that this way of working is not in his contract.

He claims the desks aren’t access compliant – he doesn’t have a disability he just is complaining about the process of setting them up and doesn’t feel the set-up is compliant. He has been WFH for months now, refusing to come in and use the hot desks until he gets his own desk with a number of other requirements on his list.

HR have been useless, just saying I will need to make adjustments ‘to support him’ but my view is as he doesn’t have special requirements, just a general grievance, so needs to follow policy - otherwise what is the point of the policy?

Anyone else have this problem? How did you address it?

So, I’m in the same position as your employee - might even be the same employer by description . We’re hybrid working and have to pre book desks when we go in to the office . I suffer from anxiety but mines not about the office but the journey to work . I have to use the bus for an hours journey and that makes me anxious . My employers have done everything they can to give us a safe working environment . I suffer from a compromised immune system due to drugs I have to take . I can work quite happily and very productively from home but our team managers have said they’d like us to come in for some meetings for team building purposes. If your employee is resisting hr then you have to insist on a meeting to discuss his needs and offer either hr presence or union member or person of his choice to be present . Unless he has a wfh contract he must explain himself . Good luck

It never fails me the civil servants that post about their jobs on mumsnet 😂👀 which office are you based at theres a guy on my team trying the same thing with his line manager. Actually don’t privacy and all that

Are you guys paid or paying something amazing to be going through all of this? Your reasons for not wanting him to wfh seem very weak and you’ve already acknowledged he will probably get his own way so just leave it?

How is it discriminatory. You have a choice hybrid working with hot desk or if you want am assigned desk you need to be in all week. Hot desking has been common for decades for staff that are not in the office full time. It is nothing new.

It's not as easy as just work from home if you want. Employers have a duty of care. Full H&S DSEs would need to be undertaken. I can't work from home I have no space to do it, is my employer going to pay for an extension to build a new room, buy me desk chair etc. No they are not, when they already have a perfectly functional office with all the equipment I need to do my job. It is insane to expect that.

You are assuming this person is just being awkward & that he is essentially the same as you, & should just get on with it.
Hot desking doesn't work for most offices, I'm with your employer on this.
If he's good at his jobs I'd make an adjustment so here can work most of the time at home. Life's too short you're getting locked into a power struggle with this guy. Maybe you could trying talking to him - respectfully, you never know

You think he is been like this to do WFH full time.
Then just tell him that as he wants his own desk you agree and he can just work from the desk and no work from home.
That work from home has to include hot desks.

The point is, there's no reason given here apart from 'I have decided I want him in the office' as to why he can't wfh.
Tell us why?

Hot-desking really only works for employees who rarely need to be in the office.
If you are desk based most of the time, you need either a fixed permanent desk or a WFH arrangement.
You can not have people coming into the office every morning, not knowing where they're going to sit or even whether they're going to have a fucking desk.
Don't be stupid.
Honestly. I'd love to know the roles of everyone who is commenting here.

My last two roles were in premium office spaces. One in Paddington and one in the City of London. £20-25k per year per desk. We had to try to work around it. Pre-covid.
As for the public sector saying that nothing will get them fired? How about you go on the threads about nurses etc.
I've seen doctors sat hunched over on stools against a bloody bench trying to work - essentially they're hooped over trying to type. Dreadful conditions.
Nurses, I've seen sit on their ample arses complaining about being on their feet all day when they wouldn't stand up to scratch their arses.

Sorry, but, if you have unhappy employees, it's fucking wasting money. It costs about 50k just to fucking hire and train an employee.

The OP is not his manager, she's a random person in the company. HR won't engage with her, so I'm presuming she's not the CEO.
Honestly, I'm just so fucking annoyed with the world today. Please excuse me.

As a patient with significant training in 'desk' injuries, I worry for doctors who are sitting even for an hour a day on a high stool, hunched over. It's fucking insanity.

He sound quite anxious about the whole situation to me (based on my own experience of situational anxiety - I get stressed out and find reasons why I can't do something)

In all honesty regardless of whether he’s just trying it on so he can stay at home, hot-desking really has no place in a post pandemic world. Pre pandemic, hot-desking was so unsanitary and the easiest way to spread germs and I can’t believe companies adopted it back then. But now? When we’ve all had to social distance, lockdown and not touch what others had touched, so it blows my mind that your company is putting this in place. Additionally, people need chairs and screens set to suit so it would be incredibly stressful to come into work and then have to sort everything out so you can sit comfortably and read your screen properly. If I were you I’d get rid of the hot-desking thing.

If HR doesn’t have a problem with this person’s stance, why is it a problem? This should be a HR issue in my opinion.

Suggest you speak with HR and agree that he has a fixed desk due which are related to reasonable adjustments and you accomodate his probably quite small requirements. Usually occ health can map the individual to a set of requirements to make it independant. Easy enough to do, then just take that desk off the hot-desking booking system. It’s what you would do when you have an individual with a need for genuine reasonsable adjustments anyway.

Then, when he doesn’t come in, it’s a disciplinary prociedure issue. Easy. And as long as you’ve followed your own procedures, tribunals won’t be that interested.

The OP has a problem lol.

Has he been employed over 2 years? If not then if there's no disability you could just sack him. If he has, I'd instruct him to return and discipline him if he doesn't. If he still refuses give him a final written warning. If he still refuses sack him. I know this sounds harsh but this is legally permissible. You and he need to know this any any decent HR team would have advised you of this. It's not all about him.

Forgot to say, the reason for the disciplinary action would be 'failure to follow a reasonable management instruction' '

Across our head office of probably 500 plus people, we also have 1 person like this.
i honestly don’t see the issue in setting them up their own desk. In our case, it’s an older gentleman who’s had the same desk for decades. It’s annoying for teams trying to make the future happen, but seriously - just give him his desk

Does this affect you in any way?

We've noticed a rise in people with bad backs etc since we brought in hot desking.

Does this thread affect you in any way?

It sounds as though you are at the stage where you need to ask him to put his full objections to returning to the office in writing as a grievance. A grievance can be raised against a policy, it doesn't have to be against a person.

Once you run it through the grievance process, HR can't refuse to support you with the investigation and outcome of it.

He can't just refuse to come in on principle that someone else in an imaginary wheelchair can't use the desk. It has to be about his own circumstances and this forces him to put his cards on the table and allow you to address each point.

If he refuses to put a grievance in, you simply give him a date to return and then start disciplinary action if he doesn't come in on that date. I'd give him 1 weeks notice to return and then agree to pause the return while you hear his grievance, if he puts one in.

Good luck.

I've noticed my back being affected by desk usage as I'm not as active as I used to be. There is genuine back pain and injuries caused by poorly designed desk set-ups. I don't work so it's no employer's fault now, but try to keep your sarcasm to the young and fit who can chuckle about the 40 year olds with kids. This is not the place and it's an idiotic comment.
Have you ever seen the weird doll chucky in a horror film? I was in my early 20's and I was working for 3 days solid on a project that needed to be out. I was hunched over, tensed. My shoulders and neck finally just froze and I'm laughing now but the pain was real, but when I had to turn around to talk to someone, I literally, turned my whole body around like the fucking freaky doll. PMSL. It was before your time though I suspect.