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?

Yeah, I wouldn't work anywhere with hot desking. I like having a few personal items around me and working at the same desk.

IIRC there are studies that show the ability to personalise your workspace is good for productivity and worker wellbeing. There used to be a lot of discussion about this when mobile computing, remote working and the like started to be a thing.

Set up an in-person meeting with him, HR, and whoever your own senior manager is. Set out clearly the reasons why he needs to come into the office as per his contract, the impact on others, and the way it’s affecting his own performance. Explain all the mitigating factors mentioned above and make it clear that the current situation will not be allowed to continue.

Make sure the senior person is backing you.

Ask him for suggestions of reasonable adjustments that could be made.

Point out that you are not obliged to make such adjustments except in the case of disability and that his contract requires him to be in the office. A hotdesk is a reasonable work provision, even if it’s not what he is used to.

Be prepared to discuss and implement disciplinary measures if needed.

@PinkFrogss

Why?

that's just punitive for no gain. If they can do that, they can do it whether he works in the office 2 days or five.

@Singleparent78

what's your role in the company? Why is this your problem?

your next moves really does depend on those things.

It’s just struck me why our office looks so nice now, no one has their own desk so those people that used to have mugs, teabags, photos, pen holders, cuddly toys etc etc are no more!

@bridgetreilly Point out that you are not obliged to make such adjustments except in the case of disability
You're incorrect. You're obliged to ensure that a person's working space is safe and that includes screen height, desk height, chair height, noise etc etc etc etc

Well I would say wfh isn't in his contract either so he's in breach of contract by refusing to come in. Does his contract specifically say he'll have his own desk? If not then I suggest you go down a disciplinary route.

Probably not relevant to your colleague but hot desks are a nightmare for those of us with life threatening allergies. I raised with my former employer and they did nothing about it for.me, said they had reserved a desk for me and I went in one day to.find someone at my supposedly reserved desk (which had no signage or anything to say not to sit there) eating a snickers bar (my allergy is peanuts). I refused to go back to the office after that.

Like others have said, give him the choice of a desk and full time in the office

Sounds like he's cherry-picking things he doesn't like! Tell him that staff weren't consulted about his home office set-up and that his home office isn't disability compliant or checked by your disability officer, yet he has no problem working there, so why can't he work at the office?!

If he's not disabled, why does he care if the office has been checked by the disability officer? Bonkers.

He sounds like he's got used to WFH and just CBA coming back to the office.

HR needs to come up with a policy quick smart for this!

Be very careful to run any emails/actions you propose taking by HR and get their sign off.

if you don’t you might find yourself facing a grievance and HR supporting the awkward employee.

Lighting, heating, sunlight, screen glare, temperature etc are all things that are valid concerns. For e.g. some people will have keyboards which accommodate a lot of typing or whatever. Hot-desking is not ideal unless you ensure that an assessment of his needs is done every morning and he could potentially hold you to that.

You don’t work somewhere starting with H do you OP?

So get him to be specific - which aspects of set up have not been done correctly?

We were hotdesking pre covid but there were some fixed desks due to DSE requirements. If he won't have a dse or occupational health assessment how does he expect you to be able to make tje necessary adjustments?

You need to get clear with HR support what the process is if he continues to refuse to come into work.

If he puts in a flexible working request to wfh you're obliged to consider it - what would be the response?

Are you serious. How do you function in the real world.

some people are so entitled!

Do cleaners come everyday to clean the desks, keyboards and screens etc. ok, I am a bit of a lean freak, but have you ever looked at what gets done between keys of keyboard in average office desk? Or looked at the spray marks on a screen when sun is shiny across it. Or think about that phone or headset someone has breathed all over the day before
bloody hell..it’s scary 🤢😱
and not great in a time of covid

what do people do who hot desk? Ignore? Or go in armed with cleaning stuff to sanitise stuff. …why should they have to clean up after someone else with questionable hygiene habits after using the loo, hayfever or constant munchies while working 🤷🏼‍♀️

Apologies for scan reading, but it sounds to me as if you have a senior employee who doesn't want the additional costs (dog-sitter for 3 dogs and a commute) of working in the office. That is the crux of the matter.

The desk issue is to distract you and tie the HR dept up in knots because they haven't sorted it out.

We also had a very tall man at our office and he could not hot-desk as he genuinely required a tall desk.
People get all sorts of injuries even from sitting at a desk. They're actual genuine injuries such as back pain, repetitive strain injury, stress etc.

Well if he is going so picky has his horne working environment been checked? I doubt it

But he's not doing that and presumably hasn't been for ages, so this sounds like either actually he doesn't need to do this and the policy is actually because someone thinks it feels "nicer" and could probably just be made voluntary and reduce everyones commuting time, or he does need to do this and there have been repercussions from him not in which case its just a performance disciplinary issue?

It will have been done in my experience. He will have had to fill out a form online usually and sign it.

Tell him he needs to come in 5 days a week. WFH not in the contract so back to how it was before.
He comes in or start performance management with HR.

Hot desking is very stressful. Changing height of desks, chairs, different keyboards, windows, blinds. The amount of time wasted fixing them even before you can start working.

I agree. I'm a short ass and I occasionally had to sit at head honcho's desk to work on some programmes which were only on his pc. He was over a foot taller than me. One day he came back to his desk and I of course had the chair down to the bottom height and you know that sensation where you think you're falling? All I could see was his arms flailing into the air as when he tried to sit down, the chair wasn't there! We did laugh though.

Personally I would say fine you can have your own desk as long as you no longer work from home

There are people who are genuinely stressed about things like this. You need to accommodate them. It's as simple as that. Particularly when your complainer is the Head of fucking H&S!