Sharing an Office: Not allowed to use wardrobe

[itchyfanny]

Work in an office job. I’m currently rotating around different teams on a three year programme. 8ish months in each team.

I share an office with a direct manager. Two desks, two computers e t c. There is one wardrobe.

We are expected to have a fresh jacket and blouse etc ready in case a client comes in.

However, I’m not allowed to use the wardrobe. Even just to hang my jacket. I’ve been told it’s my current managers private one, so I have to hang things on the back of my desk chair. This isn’t very good for the structure of a jacket, and a shirt I just don’t have.

We are expected to have a fresh jacket and blouse etc ready in case a client comes in.

is no one else picking up on this part being totally ridiculous? Unless you go to work with last night’s dinner down your front, why would you even need to do this!

For health and safety, if your coat/jacket fell off the back of your chair it is likely that the wheels of your chair would get caught in the clothes and your chair would stop working properly or you could fall backwards in the chair and have an accident.
Where I work we are instructed that we cannot have anything on the back of our chairs for this very reason so everything gets hung up on a coat stand or in the closet nearest to our desk.
If anyone is found to have something hanging on the back of their chair, anyone passing buy has the right to advise them to remove it and hang it somewhere more appropriate and they will log into our security tracker and enter a safety ticket so that it can be tracked.

Do you have a health & safety person where you work? Could you raise it through them?

I have to say I thought the OP's situation was pretty ridiculous but this tops it for absurdity. This really is "health and safety gone mad". Can grown adults not be left to their own devices to manages a wheely chair? Ffs.

You think it's madness until you've seen someone really hurt themselves this way.....

Anyway, to answer the question OP I would hang my stuff up in there every single day.

Go back to whoever told you this bonkers rule and ask them where they would like you to hang them.

Buy a massive fuck off ugly wardrobe from IKEA and put it next to your desk

Padlock on it

I'd want clarification from higher up than the woman you share with that the wardrobe is exclusively allocated to her. Then if that's been officially agreed I'd then ask for a specific solution for you to hang your required work clothing.

This??!! Why is this even a thing? Just wear nice, clean clothes and surely just refuse to get changed. Surely this can’t be enforced? No one can order you to get undressed at work!

Two of my kids do this in their jobs. I don't think it's unusual. They wear casual clothes to work but switch into a blouse or shirt and smarter shoes for example if they are meeting clients.

I'd take a jacker and blouse on a hanger and then find ridiculous places to hang it each day in the room

Off the roller blinds, from the door frame so they have to skirt round it, on a picture frame, off the back of their chair, on the front of the wardrobe, on anything in the room that vaguely protrudes.

@eurochick - I don't make the rules, my employers do 😆
If there was an accident whereby the wheels on someone's office chair got caught in their coat/jacket and caused their chair to fall backwards with someone in the chair and they hurt their head, if they hadn't put the rule in place, they would be liable. It's really not H&S gone mad I don't think.

This^
So you get dressed in the morning in clean suitable work attire. Travel to work and 2 hours later a client comes in so you have to change into something fresh. Do you then change back into first set if clothes? What happens if another client comes in in the afternoon???

They are threatened by you and are trying to hold on to and assert any tiny little bit of power they have. I would raise it with HR that you don't have access to a hanging space for your blouse and jacket as you've been advised the only cupboard is for the sole use of the senior colleague and as such you're concerned that you are unable to comply with the policy as your clothes are getting crumpled. They'll no doubt roll their eyes but should step in and resolve.

FWIW - I worked in a large blue chip that was filled with this sort of nonsense - even to people being arsey about the sort of chair people had as it represented status.

We are expected to have a fresh jacket and blouse etc ready in case a client comes in

Your office sounds nuts - unless you're all slobbing around in trackpants, Iron Maiden tees and your gardening crocs the rest of the time. I've worked in offices for decades and never had a rule like this.

Does this place insist women wear makeup, pussy cat bow blouses and court shoes, as well?

Can you ask HR for clarification where you should keep your smart attire for meeting clients as you have been told you are not allowed to use the wardrobe in your office. Can they direct you to a wardrobe you can use.

I’ve never worked anywhere where we’re expected to put our coats on the floor! Just ask where you are expected to hang your jacket and blouse if you aren’t allowed to use the wardrobe.

Are people in your office famous for spilling food and drink down themselves?

Are you in the 1980s? What tosh. Your manager is a dick

You've just reminded me of my foray into the corporate world in London over 30 years ago. My manager and I had separate offices, but she got her knickers in a twist because I had a bigger (rented!) plant in my office than she had in hers!!

I may also have murdered an earlier plant in open plan by sharing the remnants of my Cambridge Diet with it....

Bonkers. I think I'd just wear office attire all the time!

FWIW - I worked in a large blue chip that was filled with this sort of nonsense - even to people being arsey about the sort of chair people had as it represented status

I seem to recall one place I worked that was the same - some nonsense about whether you were senior enough to have a chair with arms or were a lowly peon who had to make do with a typist's chair. Then there were the issues over 'the limit on HER company credit card is £ 1,000 more than mine and we're in the same department, IT'S NOT FAIR!!'

The stuff supposedly adult people get aerated over...

@itchyfanny Maybe she got wind of your username!! 😂😂😂

I'm going to hazard a guess there's something else being stored in that wardrobe. I got told off when I first started at a company for going into a filing cabinet to file something as I'd seen my manager using it. Apparently part of the cabinet contained staff files and the like.
Otherwise they're just being silly.
I would go with what the others have said and say you will be unable to go with the policy if you are not provided with somewhere to store the extra work wear.

trackpants, Iron Maiden tees and your gardening crocs

You've just described my current outfit to a T 😂

Buy a coat stand, especially if there is no room for it, and put it in the most inconvenient place.

Sod that - don’t take any extra clothes in and if they say why haven’t you got spare clothes say because manager says I’m not allowed to use her wardrobe!