Hotdesking - is it fair for some but not all of team to be forced to hotdesk?

[Waferbiscuit]

I'm a manager in a wider team of about 40 staff. We introduced hotdesking post-pandemic. The plan was for the entire team to move to a set up where all desks were hotdesks, where no one owned a desk, and where we circulated across desks in different parts of the building.

Fast forward 2 years and only half of the staff are working in this way. The other half refused to give up their desks and offices for a variety of reasons - for health reasons, anxiety, ways of working - e.g. a team have to work together closely, so want desks together, privacy and because 'they don't want to hotdesk.' Our lead manager has stopped bothering trying to push the change to 100% hotdesking because it caused too much grief and pushback so now we have this weird set up where half of us are peripatetic working from squashed-together desks in corner rooms and the other half have their nice dedicated personal desks in much more spacious, civilized offices.

It's worth noting that many of the people who retained their desks and offices are men and many of the roaming hotdeskers are women.

Staff have complained about the unfairness of this but the lead manager isn't bothered.

Could this be seen as discriminatory - that we are imposing a policy that only some have to follow and that it's mostly, women, not men who are affected? Has anyone else had this issue - and how was it addressed/resolved?

What proportion are in the office 5 days a week?

It's not really a policy as it seems you have accepted that it is optional.

If someone has reasonable adjustments then they should be exempt but everyone else should hot desk. That said if your usual or favourite desk is free when you arrive what’s the problem?

So the people who have hung on to their desk, are they in the office everyday? If not I’d be tempted to use their desk. Shove all their stuff over and work from it.

Hotdesking is very stressful to some people, for various reasons. I personally struggle very much with it due to neurodivergence, although I have done it for periods (I now work at home, so best situation for me). I have also managed teams who were hotdesking when I arrived into the role.

To me, two things are important:

• you need a robust desk booking policy. Turning up and finding a desk is not good enough and the desk need to be identified by things like available equipment, for collaboration, for quiet work etc.

• those you need to be exempt from hot desking as a reasonable adjustment need to be identified and given/keep their permanent desks. Anyone else needs to engage in hot desking.That the only bit you're open to discrimination on.

Otherwise, I think hotdesking is awful, so if you don't have a good reason to implement it. Don't.

If it's company policy it should be implemented. If it was just a plan, it has failed.

I'd certainly tell the lead manager that you believe it may be discriminatory because of the way it's mostly women who are adversely affected. It's amazing how that can get action.

However, even if there is action, it's far more likely that hot decking is imposed on everyone than you get your desks back.

Hotdesking is hell on earth. If you have enough desks for everyone, give them a desk. No one needs this element of uncertainty before every shift!

It's like having a free for all on cars in the car park to get home in. Yes, they're all cars so technically it should work. But it's much easier and faster if everyone has the advantage of familiarity and routine.

The issue is that you (not you personally but the company) have implemented a policy which you haven’t enforced. It appears that there are no consequences for anyone who doesn’t follow it.

It can’t be considered discriminatory because there are no consequences for anyone who doesn’t comply - it’s not like there are consequences for women who choose not to follow the policy, but there are no consequences for men who don’t follow it - that would be discriminatory if that was the case.

Sounds kind of pointless. Either enforce it, or scrap it.

Hot-desking is rubbish as lots of people end up with work related injuries and you just feel so transitory when you hot desk. Anyway to answer your question I think it does come across unfair but understandable if for msk/disability if some retain their desk, if it’s not for a reason then no point enforcing it at this point.

Give everyone a desk of their own, this hot dealing is inefficient nonsense.

The problem with hotdesking is that a proportion of people will need a personal desk setup as part of their reasonable adjustments for disability.

However it is definitely not fair if all of those people are men and they are all based in the nice offices.

Especially as you probably have a bunch of peri-menopausal women who don't even realise how much happier their joints would be in with a properly set up desk.

@TonyeKnausgaard couldn’t agree more!

Get rid of hot desking. Nobody likes it.

I'm astounded your company brought it in.

We have hot-desking. Works, because we also have half the time working from home. Would not if we were all in the office five days a week.

It's clearly discriminatory but it's going to be impossible to fight it. If the senior management are not bothered then you won't get anywhere.

What kind of company? Do you have HR? Staff wellbeing/opinion surveys? Occupational health? Annual reviews? Bring it up through those channels. Ultimately though you have to decide whether you want to work for a company that treats women in that way.

Hot desk is an awful concept - usually brought in by a head of department that has their own office. I do not see any point in having a policy where you are coming into work and you don’t now where you will be sitting or where your colleagues may be. It’s too chaotic. No wonder members of staff are picking one desk and claiming it as their own. Can I assume the women who are left to hot desk have child care issues?

The best way to resolve this is too drop the hot desking, place staff in dedicated offices in their teams and allow hybrid working. I have found that my team and colleagues are much happier working this way.

I hate people having their own desks, it’s an excuse to leave pots of pens/family photographs/half dead plants/ dirty mugs etc all over.

Hot desking was banned in my office after Covid due to spread of germs. You had an assigned desk and you sat there and only there. People who didn't have assigned desks is a different story obviously. Your plan seems at odds with what most places were doing.

The plan makes no sense and had no solid reasoning behind it. People struggle to follow a plan they can't understand or get behind.

I'd honestly just give the plan up.

No point getting frustrated, the situation won't change.

Gosh I'd make everyone hotdesk and suck it up. You'll always get some whingers who say they can't cope. I'm surprised you've recently introduced this, almost everywhere I've worked has been doing this for the last 15+ years. Having permanent desks is very inefficient, they way it works well is if the desks are sorted in areas/teams and everyone can move within that. One place had a rule where you can't sit in the same desk twice in a row, that was a bit extreme but everywhere I've worked it's good and it's the norm.

Just do a new desk plan and give everyone their own desk.

We've just moved to new offices and have hot desking because there aren't enough desks for everyone! Today will only be my second day in the office under this policy, I can't get in earlier and my team of two are both new so I'd prefer to spend my office days 1) sat next to them to help with training and 2) for them to be sat next to each other. Instead, it's a free for all - I've had to ask whoever is first in to reserve two desks for the other two!

Hot-desking is a silly idea to start with...

Also you need to accept that some people have very good reasons to need a specific desk, PC and seat if they have health conditions and the work environment is adapted to their needs as a reasonable adjustment.

If you don't respect that you will face claims of discrimination.

It sounds like a poorly thought through blanket policy that is unworkable. Completely management's fault here for failing to plan correctly...

Do you have a desk booking system? I've hot desked my whole working life (nearly 20 years) and there's always been a desk booking system which makes it easier to plan. Unless everyone is in the officer FT, hot desking makes sense because otherwise you'd have loads of empty desks.