My name’s Violet, I have worked at my company for three years. While the office is technically ‘hot desking,’ everyone knows I’ve sat at the same workstation for over a year. It has my ergonomic chair, my monitor setup, and even a small plant. I have back issues, so it’s been quietly understood that this is my spot.
A new coworker, ‘Mark’ (31M), joined our team last month. From his first week, he kept choosing my desk, even though plenty of others were free. At first, I asked politely, and he brushed me off with, ‘Desks don’t belong to anyone here.’
The next time, he’d moved my chair, shoved my plant aside, and adjusted everything. I told him, ‘This is my setup, please don’t use it.’ He rolled his eyes but moved.
Last week, I came in and found him there again. I snapped and said, ‘Stop sitting at my desk. This isn’t funny anymore.’ He got defensive, claimed I was being ‘territorial,’ and went to HR.”
“Later that day, my manager called me directly. She said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but Mark was placed at that workstation on purpose. It’s closer to the team leads, and we want him nearby while he’s onboarding. It’s not personal, just where we want him.’
So all this time, I thought I was standing up for myself… but apparently management had already promised my desk to Mark. Nobody told me. Now HR is treating it like I’m the problem, Mark thinks I mistreated him, and I’m stuck sharing a random corner desk while he sits in my old spot.
Am I wrong for confronting him, when I didn’t know management had actually reassigned ‘my’ desk to him?”