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?

@Galoop Great it works for your company but it’s not for everyone. I have to hotdesk and my company dragged out my DSE and I now have rotator cuff syndrome.

Also it’s good for morale to have some personal bits. Who wants to be an anonymous drone.

Also it’s not just physical reasons. Some people need to face doors etc.

Hot desking absolutely sucks, never met anyone who likes it. What's the reason for it? If it's a shortage of desks then why not look over the estate and work out how to organise it by when people are in office. If it's for the culture (eurgh) make some collaboration areas should people wish to mix with other teams.

Honestly everyone hates when rubbish like this is pushed 'just because' management want it; it's not discriminatory either that only men are willing to advocate for themselves and push back against this shite.

My office did this. Those who turn up to the office most days got a desk. Those who turn up when they feel like it and don't even do the minimum office days didn't. Seems fair to me.

@Galoop glad it works for you but in a lot of offices you have a least one person who needs a special chair for their back, another who needs a fancy mouse and another a mini- keyboard.

So that's hotdesking out before you start unless you want them off sick over and over.

Literally everywhere I've worked for the past 15+ years. (Except one place that was stuck in the past with very old fashioned management and staff, but then we moved location to new, swanky offices and hotdesking, some of the staff were up in arms, mostly my male manager, but they got over it in a couple of weeks when they saw it really wasn't a big deal). Permanent desks are especially ridiculous if you have people WFH.

You do need to have high quality desks, chairs and monitors. So desks that have automatic adjustment etc. There's even more reason for it as everyone has a laptop now too

This happened at my office. Not the man woman split but teams that refused to hot desk and then those of us who were forced to, because our team grew and there wasn’t enough space where we originally sat pre Covid. It was really annoying and unfair, and frustrating as the only point of coming to the office was to see your team and we would then end up scattered everywhere because the neighbouring team didn’t give up their desks.

My team resorted to sitting where the non hot deskers sat if we got in before them. They knew they couldn’t complain so then sat elsewhere. Issue was the desks were covered in their stuff so then we complained during our quarterly company meetings that we are either hot desking or not and if so, the clear desk policy needs to be enforced. So after while, they told everyone by X date they will be stricter about the clear desk policy and lo and behold they were.

That only worked with the support of senior management though. But is there a facilities person that you can work with to enforce a clean desk policy?

I think hot desking is one of those things that sounds like it may work on paper but it's just another excuse to dehumanise work and try to treat us as machines who don't care about their environment.

Also it's a recipe for multiple cases of RSI and bad backs as everyone likes a different set up even without particular health needs. And I love having photos and plants around me and all my stuff. Over my dead body would I ever go back to open plan let alone hot desking.

@Galoop It’s not ridiculous. Many people prefer it as evidenced on this thread. I’m glad it works for your team.

Hot desking is shit but i have sort of accepted it as the trade off for being able to WFH most of the time.

If people want fixed desks in the OP’s situation, i’d put those in the cramped offices and make the hot desking areas much more attractive though

God I hate hot-desking.

No idea who thought it was a good idea- causes so much grief.

@Blink282 So you’d bully them?

I remember 20 years ago it was absolutely drummed into us to set up your chair and screen etc individually for you to avoid long term health issues like bad backs, eye problems and RSI. I've taken great care to do so at home and in my office. The only time I have ever had back pain it was caused by getting the shit chair at work as a newbie.

Yes people don’t like it but opinions on hot dealing doesn’t help OP, where it’s the women who are now left without a desk because of a poorly implemented policy.

Our policy is people who are in 5 days a week have a desk, managers act as an anchor point for staff so have a desk, the rest hot desk but reality is everyone sits in the same spot when they come in to the office. We're creatures of habit!

Our office is hybrid working and going into the office means booking a desk in advance. Desks are always clear and chairs and screens are adjustable. There are adjustable standing desks as well if people prefer those.

The hot desking doesn’t bother me one bit. I hate the territorial ‘my desk’ thing and people sitting chatting to their mates in little groups. But I have to say the office doesn’t feel the same as pre covid. The teams I work with are scattered around the office or in other offices or at home so going in the office is just to literally be there. I go in because working at home constantly would do my head in. We’ve talked about zoning areas so teams who work together are near each other which sounds like a compromise but it’s not happened yet. I couldn’t give a stuff about having my own desk though.

Loathe hotdesking. Desks are always filthy, equipment is always broken or missing because no one cares about reporting it, and the docking station is never for the laptop I've been given.

You can tell it's a shit policy as managers NEVER have to follow it - their privilege is an allocated desk or office, even if they only come into work a couple of days a week.

@MrsBrightsidde You gave your opinion also. Bit confused. Never mind not sure I’m reading your post right.

Agree you need a new desk plan. Move them all round 90 degrees and assign everyone a desk. The office needs to look different to make the change so everyone moves.

@crumpet The office is a mixture of FT and PT staff. In principle for those FT, we are asked to be in 3 days/week and WFH 2 days/week. Some staff come in more as they prefer to be in.

I hate hot desking. It feels horrible. You can't keep anything on/in your desk, nor decorate your desk e.g. plant, calendar and photos. It really does kill morale.

we have a hybrid hot desk policy.

each team has an area with flexible desks, a wardrobe with lockable compartments for personal stuff.
enough desks so each can sit comfortably and within dse guidelines and if needed personalised desk/chair settings.

Thanks for everyone's comments. To be clear, I work in an old building (not a new office) where staff in the team are dispersed in various rooms and offices. The team has grown to the point that there weren't aren't enough desks/offices for everyone without doing a big configuration, hence the desire to introduce hotdesking.

But many those established people and teams who have their own offices/desks haven't been asked to hotdesk or did and refused. And their office areas haven't been reconfigured so they retain their old desks and airy spaces. That means about 50% of the team who are newer or willing have moved to hotdesking. We have no choice as we don't have fixed desks or offices.

But it's grating that some staff have their own desks and big huge offices that are not being optimised in their use while we are squashed into a cramped room with 8 desks side by side. It's not the end of the world but is causing a chasm in our team between the haves and have nots.

So I'm trying to understand if it's discriminatory to force some but not all staff to hotdesk. While I appreciate there is no penalty if you don't hotdesk, those that don't have a fixed desk have no choice.