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?

Where my son works, they are 100% paperless, so there are no piles of paperwork, no people with desk drawers full of pens etc, in fact he says all the desks are drawer-less, basically just tables. No lockers either, so people don't take random clutter in - he says the whole building is very minimalistic, and the only personal items are the mugs, rucksacks and coats/jackets. Must be heaven to clean with no clutter for the cleaners to move to dust etc! They don't even have desktop PCs as they are allocated their own laptop which they have to take in with them.

It's also 100% hot desking, even the managers, who have to book desks just like the staff. The "top" managers, i.e. Board level have their own dedicated "hot desking" area close to the Boardrooms on the top floor, but in theory, still have to book as there wouldn't be enough desks if they all turned up at the same time so some would have to book on a different floor or book out a separate meeting room. There are lots of "break out" areas, small meeting rooms, chilling out rooms, quiet rooms, etc on each floor for meetings, quiet time, studying, etc.

It's a 60:40 set up, so staff must be in the office 3 days per week (or pro rata for part timers), including management. They MUST also not be in the office for the other 2 days and must WFH, again including management. The number of desks/rooms is based on that 60:40 so to some extent, desk availability can dictate when staff go in and when they stay at home, i.e. pointless going in on a day they can't book a desk!

Every table has an adjustable chair and monitor, with standard keyboard and mouse. They have their own laptop which is basically all they take into the office with them, other than their own glass/mug for drinks. Special keyboards and mouses are spread around the offices, so people needing them can just swap as they need.

Son says that no-one, at any level, can permanently book a desk or room, even Board members can't do it - desks/rooms can only be booked a certain number of days in advance so the sooner you book (at any level), the better the odds of getting the desk/room you want - leave it late and you will end up with whatever is left. Sounds a pretty fair and sensible set up.

Sounds like your management are being useless. Hot desking is normal, there is no way I could go back to company with seating plans and people being territorial about desks and offices.

They need to implement storage (lockers, cubby holes etc) for people’s keyboards, mice, chargers and strictly enforce a strict clear desk / clear office policy. Chairs and monitors should all be fully adjustable so doesn’t matter wear you sit. It takes seconds to adjust a chair and a monitors. The only exception should be people that need special equipment for medical / disability reasons, eg much larger monitor for visual issues. Even a special chair, keyboard can be moved between desks.

If groups of people / teams need to be together then their should
be assign banks of desks or a room to a team but not assigned desks per person.

It’s not being territorial to want the same desk and set up, it’s called routine and a bit of dignity at work. You know since we spend most of our life there if we’re in the office every day. Use the buzz words to polish corporate turds though.

Fair enough for those who are always in the office five days per week every week.

But for part timers, WFH'ers, those who spend a lot of time away for meetings, visiting other premises, etc., it's a complete waste of resources to have a fixed desk that only they can use, when they're not actually there for most of the week!

@GettingAroundTown I completely agree it is a failing of management and a tad outrageous.

I have raised this with the two managers who are responsible for implementing and overseeing hotdesking and both have suggested that I am being difficult for raising it. They think the hotdesking set up works FINE because they don't want any problems and it doesn't affect them (they have a big single office.)

It's not fine - it's discriminatory and it's dividing the team. It also shows preference for those who have worked in the organisation longer which again is a problem.

This would wind me up terribly!
Could you ask for the hotdesks to be installed in nicer areas, including the offices etc. So it is not ‘nice airy office with fixed desks’ vs ‘crammed hotdesk section’.
Could you insist that ‘fixed’ desks can be used by hotdeskers when the person is not in the office.
As a last resort I would focus on me and how to claim a fixed desk. If everybody does it they will have to either get more desks or insist that everybody hotdesks.

I would also insist to know why fixed desks are out of bounds when people are not in the office. If the reason to keep it was proximity to a team it doesn’t apply when they are not in for example.

Is there a policy? If it's just a badly implemented plan, ask for a copy of the policy.

If they're booking through the system, they're still hot desking. Why would it matter that they always broke the same table?

Just reading through, sorry if this is answered later

Got there in the end. So you work for a bunch of weaklings who don't want to upset some of their staff who aren't hot-desking but don't care about upsetting the others.

This is a bit of a joke workplace from the sounds of it. Either you hot desk or you don't but the current "process" batshittery is not correct.

Just do away with it.

Hot decking is terrible for people who hate change. They tend to be the ones who aren't flexible and like a moan! It's totally necessary with hybrid working because you can't reserve a desk for the whole week when you only come in 3 days.

It works great at our place. Booking system so you know who you'll be sitting near to. Desks thoroughly cleaned. Lockers and cloakrooms. It's a great system in my view.

Also, sounds like your building is really unsuitable for hot-desking. Lots of smallish rooms are a nightmare for modern work set ups.

My keyboard and mouse might fit a locker, but I don't think my OH prescribed chair and standing desk will.

Also, having to carry a keyboard that cost hundreds of pounds and a mouse that appears to no longer be manufactured between floors (because the lockers aren't on the same floor as the free desk) puts that equipment at risk of being broken in transit.

You also need to consider that autism, migraines, and visual impairments can all require a worker to need to be away from windows, not have overhead lights in eye line, need to be somewhere with dimmable lights, or need specific monitors.

Bottom line: hotdesking is ableist corporate bullshit because it forces disabled workers to once again have to fight for a decent working environment and causes non-disabled colleagues to resent Jill with her fixed desk.

Hot decking is terrible for people who hate change.

Oh, like autistic people, who literally have a medical reason for struggling with change? As I said, it's ableist.

"they are allocated their own laptop which they have to take in with them."

I wouldn't accept having to carry my laptop every day if I am working consecutive days in the office. They're heavy!

You're not fine with people with longer service than you being able to keep their own desks, but you're totally fine with your bosses having their own offices lol.

My work bag, with laptop, specialist keyboard and mouse in their own carry cases to avoid getting smashed to smithereens, notebook (the paper kind), cables, and lunch comes in at 11kg. I've used the same bag as my only luggage item to go abroad for two weeks. It won't fit in the office lockers.

And people wonder why I avoid going into the office...

Yes even special equipment may be able to be moved to another location if necessary, but is a disabled person who needs the said equipment going to be fit enough to move it? If not who is going to move it for them?

"I've never really seen this "territorial" aspect where staff don't want anyone else using "their" desk, especially when they're not actually there to use it themselves. Seems particularly strange that some people make it so personal they don't want anyone else to use it (disability adjustments aside)."

Even if you're not disabled you're supposed to have your chair and screen at the right height and others shouldn't mess with that. You may also have personal/confidential stuff on your desk or in the drawer.
I'm not surprised nobody said anything to you because people are generally scared of auditors, but they probably didn't like having someone else at their desk.

@Gwenhwyfar I didn't say that I am fine with bosses having their own office. I was saying that the 'bosses' are slightly oblivious to the problem as they have their own office and don't have to hotdesk.

It is blatantly unfair to bring in a new blanket policy and then allow some people to blithely ignore it and carry on as usual while others have to hotdesk whether they like it or not.

Management needs to grow a pair.

We don't have lockers but we do have our own desks, mostly
I'm only in once every 2 months so my desk gets used as needed except for the days I'm in
Nothing is to be left at work including laptops, our work was destroyed and we all lost everything that was there from photos to makeup to precious stuff in drawers to iPads so nobody leaves anything now as we lost it all instantly

You can't always do that, if there aren't enough desks. Hot-desking is often a strategy (eg ratio of 11: 9 people to desks) which saves space and ensures people get a desk if they're in and relinquish it at the end of the day.

Reasonable Adjustments - Civil Service do this very well. If someone has a reasonable adjustment, they will be allocated a protected desk, however if they aren't there 5d/week the person puts their in/out weekly schedule on the desk to enable people to use it if they aren't in. If they have a special chair for back issues, there's normally a sign on it asking people not to adjust it or use a different chair.

Nope, some are very thin and light. I've just checked online for the tech spec of my son's and it's apparently only 1.57kg.

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/samsung-galaxy-book4-fe-15.6-laptop-intel-core-i5-256-gb-ssd-grey-10263962.html

Plenty under 2kg. If you've been given a particularly heavy one, then that's something to bring up with your HR department.