The worst desk on the floor just became mine

Post Reply New Topic

This is where they are moving me next week. I don't know what I'm going to do. (Well, not much work, for a start, and there will be at least 1 meltdown a day).

How is that the worst one?

Well, it's in an open passage, with nothing to cover your back, and right beside the coffee dispenser, with a million people (I guess) coming and going all day, chatting inanely.

I feel for you, LadyMahler.

Sounds like it might be time to discuss with whoever's in charge exactly why you can't use that desk. Better for YOU to be somewhere where you are comfortable and can do what you're paid to do; better for THEM to have someone sit at that desk who will actually produce their money's worth of work because they can deal with it.
I sure couldn't work right in front of the coffee, or with my workspace exposed on three sides like that (which is how it appears to me).

That layout totally sucks. Like it was designed to SUCK.

If they actually want you to work, at all, they need to give you a different desk.

It is an unbelievably awful location.

Great one, I'm still giggling! Like people who gravitate toward management have that kind of compassion, if it isn't mandated by law. ::snicker:: That's rich. They love it when an employee comes to them with a personal problem or complaint, especially when the only explanation they can give is: "this makes me uncomfortable." NT bosses are so sweet when that happens. NT bosses call that AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM. And I have dozens of pink slips to prove it.

Eww - what's with putting the coffee station in someone's work space?

I had something like that. We got moved when they renovated our floor, and my peer and I got put in together into this office while our other peers got cubicles. At first that was pretty good: her workspace was exposed when you walked in the door, and you had to walk around her desk to get to mine. But we also housed the filing cabinets in our office, and she decided to create a "tea station" on top of the filing cabinet (even though there was a kitchen about 10 feet away) so that the girls from our department could come by and chat with her. Eww.

If you can't request a move to another work station, can you at least request the coffee station get moved elsewhere?

I'm going to print that out and put it up on the one wall.

By the way, I think there is a misunderstanding here: that space is not MY CUBICLE. I don't have a cubicle... I only have a desk. It is like an open area, people just walking up and down. Yes, it is clueless and backward: the evolution of the cubicle = if you get rid of the walls, you can fit in more desks.

I think the part that upsets me most is that I have finished my Masters degree a couple of years ago, and I also started my own business (with ten employees) in the last couple of years, just can't work for my own business anymore because it is too stressful and too much client interfacing. So: this is the alternative. My boss doesn't even know my qualifications or my history. In fact, like someone else in this discussion thread, he probably has NO CLUE why this is the shittiest (sorry) desk in the universe. His assistant, when she told me where I'm moving, and I quietly mentioned that it is very noisy and busy there, said it may help get me out of my shell.

I was wondering about this; whether they might be doing it deliberately. My first thought was that , knowing my own tendencies, ( in a job that does not interest me) , to daydreaming and doodling, and wool gathering and gazing out of windows when relatively/entirely unobserved, it could be a move to make you more productive by putting you in plain view of other people.

Or, even worse, that they've decided that you don't fit in, aren't team material, so are trying to find ways to encourage you to quit, if they can't actually fire you themselves.

However, taking the most optimistic view, I thought it was probably just standard NT incomprehension of need for peace, space, "protection" of sorts, in order to concentrate etc. The idea that "it might bring you out of your shell" is tragic and awful.

Do you have a dx to refer them to? If don't want to claim "disability" of any kind then can see that is difficult to demand another desk if it means that someone else will have to have this one.

Is there a super chatty member of office who would love to work at this post?

Would anyone exchange with you? If not establish why not, and see if anyone else would be prepared to say, with you, that the desk is not up to standard of work-requirements. If a few of you went to the manager to say that perhaps they would have to provide better accomodation.

Who had the desk before you? When did you join this office?

Maybe find out if "your shell" is perceived as lowering the quality of your work, causing a problem in itself, in which case they may genuinely think that this is a solution, the "discomfort" justified. Perhaps a few meltdowns and weeks of non-productivity on your part will change their minds ? !

I think it could be interesting to find out the "use-history" of this desk.

Good luck. The desk does indeed stink.

Last edited by ouinon on 28 Apr 2008, 2:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm really scared that this is the reason.

I am a contractor, so a) I don't really have "employee rights" as such, otherwise I would have told them I have sensory problems and they have to cater for that, and b) if they want to end my contract, they can do so without hassle at any time, but I think they know I am valuable but as I said above, I'm scared that they think I'm daydreaming a lot and not delivering as much as I could. I hope that is not the case - I am really doing my best.

This desk has not been used ever, because even the most chatty, social person would not want to sit in the hub of collecting printouts and coffee - it is just invasive having people walk past your back all the time. So, yes, that's the history of the desk.

I think my way forward is to look for another position and, as I leave, perhaps talk to my boss about this. I really don't have the stomach to do this before I leave as I'm just too scared I will find myself casted out without having another job to fall back on. But he is an approachable and gentle person and perhaps it would serve a purpose in that the next sensitive person that comes around, won't feel that they have to leave because of ignorance about these things.

According to "Corporate Confidential" by Cynthia Shapiro, being moved to an unworkable workstation is strong evidence of being "managed out". Even as a contractor, the client contact you report to might not be able to justify reducing headcount. If you quit or are accused of something (even falsely), that person can say there is one less member on the team through "no fault of his own". You either need to discover and repair the reason you're out of favor (even if not your fault) or move on quick. My guess is that you don't have much time.

Sorry tailfins, but I am valued at my work, perhaps my post was overly negative. I don't think rushing into any assumption is wise: conversation and discussion will be my first step, with the confidence that I do have the possibility to take another job if that fails.

My office also sucks because it's small and there's a gate type thing and a teller type window and the desk is arranged so my back is to the gate.

Ok, the good news is that I asked my boss's assistant whether there is any other desk available to rather move to, and I voiced my concerns with regards to the noise, movement & busy-ness that the corner will have, and she told me Don't Worry: although there are no other desks available (the main reason why I was moved there, so no other bad reason there) she will try and make a plan. Phew. This is a huge relief.

Thanks, all, for all your support. I don't know where else anyone would understand these issues more than here. You are great.

Ar eyou sure that your boss really meant that, though? some bosses offer BS excuses if htey know they can get away with it...