Workplace Nightmares·
THE OFFICE SHUFFLE
After maternity leave, Jenn discovers her private office is now someone else's, prompting a policy-driven showdown over who really owns the coveted workspace and privacy.
Should the narrator give it back?
Be one of the first to vote.
Jenn came back from maternity leave to find her office taken, and this time, the answer from management was no.
In 2023, Jenn in the narrator's building left for leave after having a child. While she was gone, her company leaned into WFH, and her office sat open. The narrator saw the vacancy, asked their manager for it, and got approved. Out went the cubicle. In came a private office with a window.
Then the company changed course. WFH would end on 11/17/25, and everyone would be back in the building. When the remote workers came in for tours and desk assignments, Jenn spotted the narrator sitting in what had once been her office and asked the question directly: was the narrator leaving so she could take it back?
The narrator said no.
Jenn took it to management. The answer she got was blunt: the narrator did not have to move out. Management then asked the narrator if they wanted to return to a cubicle. They said no, and their manager and HR treated the issue as closed.
That did not stop the reactions. Coworkers started criticizing the narrator, saying they were punishing Jenn for something outside her control and that she was already being punished by the company by being compelled to return to the building. Jenn also emailed the narrator, asking them to consider the position she's in and to consider her feelings.
The narrator stuck to the practical side of it. They said, "I had no intent to give up the office." They explained that they like having their own office, that they have a lot of stuff in there they'd otherwise have to carry back home, that they'd be giving up the privacy they'd become adjusted to, and that they enjoy actually having a nice window to look out and none of the noise of the cubicles.
After the pressure kept building, the narrator checked with HR again. That answer added a twist: office assignments are chosen by policy, not by picking a specific person. If the narrator gave up the office, it would go into the pool, and Jenn would still have to compete for it with everyone else.
The narrator also told their manager about Jenn's email. The manager said she would reply and copy Jenn's manager so everyone understood the same thing: this matter should be considered closed.