Workplace Nightmares·
THE DESK BATTLE
In a hot-desking office, a driven GM muscles in on a preferred desk, sparking a quiet turf war as colleagues fight for space and fairness.
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The GM took a desk that had already been booked, then sent his executive assistant to ask someone else to stop booking it.
In an office built on hot desking, that was the whole point: desks had to be booked in advance, and none of them were officially assigned. The poster only came into the office one or two days a week, and on team day, usually Friday, their group of about 10 to 15 people tried to book desks together in the same area so they could actually sit near each other.
About six months earlier, a new GM from another division started appearing in that same area. He seemed especially attached to one particular desk.
A few weeks ago, the poster accidentally booked that desk. It was close to colleagues, and the office had visitors that day, so options were tight. Then the message came.
The day before the booking, the GM wrote asking the poster to "release the desk." The poster replied and asked why, and also asked whether they could still book in that area. No response came back. With no answer, the poster kept the booking.
The next day, the poster arrived and found the GM already sitting in the desk they had booked.
He pointed out that he had messaged the day before. When the poster asked why he hadn't answered, he said he was busy. The poster moved to another desk elsewhere in the office, annoyed that he hadn't explained himself or apologized.
Later, the poster noticed that the same desk had become available again, so they booked it again.
This week, the poster booked it for Friday. Then today, a new message arrived, this time from the GM's executive assistant. The request was not subtle. They were asked to "kindly release all future bookings and refrain from booking the desk he usually books".
The reason given was that, as part of the leadership team, he needed a desk with a screen that faced away from the rest of the office.
The poster says there are multiple other desks on the opposite side of the floor that would fit that description. They also point out that the desk is not assigned, and that this is the area where their own team normally sits on Fridays.
For now, the desk remains at the center of the fight: booked in advance by one person, claimed in practice by another, and defended with a request to stop booking it at all.