When we were called back into the office, at first we didn’t have assigned seats and had to reserve them in advance. It became a ritual to log in every morning and immediately jump to the reservation system to grab the same seat for two weeks hence.
One of my coworkers was grumbling jokingly that I took “her” seat one day (of course, someone else had taken “mine”, so that’s what prompted it). I told her, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.” She laughed. The whole situation sucked, and we were all just trying to make the best of it.
We had an online reservation system. One time I found out that the two-week restriction is done at the front end (browser), and I can send a network request to book a seat years into the future.
Sadly, they announced that the reservation system was going to be deprecated soon after. We can no longer book seats, but rather see who came to the office earlier. That effectively forced us to either work longer, or without a seat.
Heh. We can blame Trump, as I worked for a government agency at the time. (I took the early retirement and am now a photographer/bicycle mechanic.)
There’s a back story to how we got into that situation. During the pandemic, we were all teleworking, and they decided to renovate our building, so they had us go in and take all of our stuff home, or dispose of things we didn’t need. The plan, created and approved during Trump’s first term, was that we would shrink our footprint and move another agency into our building, and most of us would be teleworking most of the time, so the desks were set up with hoteling in mind, with fewer of them, because with hoteling, we didn’t need as many. Win for everyone!
Trump came along again and decided we should all be back in the office. It just threw everything into chaos. There weren’t enough offices and cubicles for everyone, and it was a mess.
Had I stayed, I would have gotten an office again (I had one before the pandemic, and was the longest-tenured branch chief in our division). But there were enough other issues going on with my job in particular that I took the opportunity to get out.
That really does sound awful. Someone probably complained about not getting a window seat,
Everyday you have to re-set up your work space, in a new spot and all. Even its just “log in” to the computer, you still have to adjust the display and chair to your preference.
They’re probably loosing 15 min of labor per person everyday for everyone to unpack their stuff and adjust to their “new work environment”, not to mention the time spent finding any one.
I would do reassignment anually. If you like your spot, great you keep your spot. If you want to move, your spot is added to the pool. Seniority gets first pick.
Any moves mid-year must have a valid reason such as medical needs, personnel issues, or a job change, or it’s just a vacant lot and you asked nicely.
Everyone sits different and will need to adjust the chair for an ergonomic seating position. Beside that, everyone has to pack their environment into a bag everyday? So no office decorations, physical calendar or sticky notes and whatever else people bring and can normally leave in their office space to make it a “home base” for their work.
If people are logging in to pick an assigned seat (which should be considered part of the work day), instead of actual work, that’s a waste of everyone’s time.
My company has been threatening us with this, but the joke is on them: my current spot is the worst. The chair is broken, there’s a tear in the carpet that keeps catching the wheels of the chair, there’s only one monitor when most have two, and my docking station is glitchy with the monitor
But we rent the entire building, have extra desks, and can’t coordinate consistent work from home days. Something would have to change drastically for them to be able to save money on hot-desking
When we were called back into the office, at first we didn’t have assigned seats and had to reserve them in advance. It became a ritual to log in every morning and immediately jump to the reservation system to grab the same seat for two weeks hence.
One of my coworkers was grumbling jokingly that I took “her” seat one day (of course, someone else had taken “mine”, so that’s what prompted it). I told her, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.” She laughed. The whole situation sucked, and we were all just trying to make the best of it.
We had an online reservation system. One time I found out that the two-week restriction is done at the front end (browser), and I can send a network request to book a seat years into the future.
No one was able to take “my” seat since.
Lol nice!
Sadly, they announced that the reservation system was going to be deprecated soon after. We can no longer book seats, but rather see who came to the office earlier. That effectively forced us to either work longer, or without a seat.
Fuck those executives.
That sounds like corporate hell, wtf???
Heh. We can blame Trump, as I worked for a government agency at the time. (I took the early retirement and am now a photographer/bicycle mechanic.)
There’s a back story to how we got into that situation. During the pandemic, we were all teleworking, and they decided to renovate our building, so they had us go in and take all of our stuff home, or dispose of things we didn’t need. The plan, created and approved during Trump’s first term, was that we would shrink our footprint and move another agency into our building, and most of us would be teleworking most of the time, so the desks were set up with hoteling in mind, with fewer of them, because with hoteling, we didn’t need as many. Win for everyone!
Trump came along again and decided we should all be back in the office. It just threw everything into chaos. There weren’t enough offices and cubicles for everyone, and it was a mess.
Had I stayed, I would have gotten an office again (I had one before the pandemic, and was the longest-tenured branch chief in our division). But there were enough other issues going on with my job in particular that I took the opportunity to get out.
That really does sound awful. Someone probably complained about not getting a window seat,
Everyday you have to re-set up your work space, in a new spot and all. Even its just “log in” to the computer, you still have to adjust the display and chair to your preference. They’re probably loosing 15 min of labor per person everyday for everyone to unpack their stuff and adjust to their “new work environment”, not to mention the time spent finding any one.
I would do reassignment anually. If you like your spot, great you keep your spot. If you want to move, your spot is added to the pool. Seniority gets first pick. Any moves mid-year must have a valid reason such as medical needs, personnel issues, or a job change, or it’s just a vacant lot and you asked nicely.
man they really oughta tighten those chairs up if they’re loosing labour on them
Everyone sits different and will need to adjust the chair for an ergonomic seating position. Beside that, everyone has to pack their environment into a bag everyday? So no office decorations, physical calendar or sticky notes and whatever else people bring and can normally leave in their office space to make it a “home base” for their work.
If people are logging in to pick an assigned seat (which should be considered part of the work day), instead of actual work, that’s a waste of everyone’s time.
My company has been threatening us with this, but the joke is on them: my current spot is the worst. The chair is broken, there’s a tear in the carpet that keeps catching the wheels of the chair, there’s only one monitor when most have two, and my docking station is glitchy with the monitor
But we rent the entire building, have extra desks, and can’t coordinate consistent work from home days. Something would have to change drastically for them to be able to save money on hot-desking