Keeping the Peace

When I first was promoted to my current job, we a decent sized office space. I had my own office and our part time worker had an office in our reception area. That meant that when the part time person was not there, either my boss or myself would sit in her area and check students in. Because it was the part time worker's work station, I was careful to no move things around. She had her work area set up the way that worked best for her, and I was respectful of that. I figured if the tables were turned, that same respect would be extended. I was wrong. I'm not alone in this. There are many people out there with open office environments or that have part time workers or other co-workers utilizing their workspace. If the other parties can respect the fact that the workspace is not theirs to mess with it is one thing. If they think they have free reign to move things around, then it is another.

In my case, it all started when we moved into a new work space. It was smaller and our part time worker lost the luxury of having her own office. She still had her own work station in the lab. She still had a computer and her own desk (albeit a much smaller one). My boss asked me if I would be willing to let her keep a few things in my desk. I'm not heartless, so I said yes. Pretty soon I was regretting that choice. Soon the drawers were filled with her belongings. I couldn't get up to use the restroom without her "reorganizing" items on my desk. Yeah, she would arrange items so it was more convenient for her. The issue was, it just wasn't working for me. My office is often cold, so I would keep a jacket on the back of my chair. As soon as I would walk away, she would pick my jacket up and hang it on the door. The door hook is up way to high for me to reach, so now I have the joy of fighting to get my coat back. This might seem petty, but over time it just wore me down. Not to mention I would put files in a particular place, only to have her move them. I was embarrassed by the number of times people would ask me for information and I had to look incompetent because she had moved my files again. She "organized" my icons on my desktop to her liking. She would change my desktop picture. We use an instant messenger system to talk among employees and she would constantly log me out of mine. She would save projects she was working on to my computer, and then use that as the reason to why she had to keep sitting at my desk. I would come in to find my pictures now hanging on the other side of the room. Um I wanted them right by my desk. She has her family call my office line instead of her cell phone, and she makes several personal calls from my office phone. She even has gone as far to start telling people we share an office. I patently took it, until it all just added up. Now the question is, what do I do? I could whine and throw fit, but that wouldn't do me much good. There are few steps you can take to try and remedy this.

The first thing to do is to go to the co-worker in question. Come up with a tactful and straightforward way to tell them how you feel. Try not to attack the person. That will just make things worse. Then they will also be on the defensive. Try to even be constructive in your explanation. Acknowledge that you know the co-worker is just trying to help. Try to avoid being harsh, but do not sugar coat the truth. Yeah, it is a tricky balance.

After I confronted my co-worker, it still kept happening. I started trying to do little things to reminder her of our conversation. When she would move things, I would simply just move them back. When she started hanging my coat on a hanger on the back the door (thus making it even harder for me to retrieve it), I told her I was really not fan of the hangers. Still, it didn't get any better. I had to do something else.

If it doesn't get better, your next challenge will to take it your boss. This can be a delicate thing. You don't want to come across like your are whining or tattling, but you want to make your point that it is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. If it possible, make sure you take the emotion about the argument. When I went to my boss, I did not even get into my personal objections. I didn't make it about me versus her. I didn't go on and on about how it made me feel. I kept it strictly to work. I explained to her how I was losing time and making the department look unorganized when she moved my files. I admitted we needed a better system in regards to a few things, but to was hard to put things in place when every time I turned around she was moving them again. I also explained that I had brought this up to my co-worker and that being direct with her did not help the situation. That is when my boos decided that it was time to reorganize a the workspace. She came into my office at the end of the work day and told both of us that she wanted me to sit down and re-work the office space. She told us that now that we had an idea of how the workspace flowed (something we did not know when we moved obviously) it was time to make some changes.

Routine maintenance of this may be needed. If the person is so compulsive or just so rude they still have no regard for your space, you may have to do follow up talks with your boss. I made the changes...yes changes that were supposed to be binding. At first things did get better, but soon I would return from lunch and folders would be moved. Things would be relabeled. Even after one Saturday, she had been bold enough to remove a number my personal and work related items from the desk and put them in a box for me to take home. I promptly returned the items to the desk. It is my desk, so why are her personal items allowed, but not mine. Not to mention some of the items were actually thing I use for work! For now I just deal with it until I have enough examples to take to my boss. Don't go running every time the person steps over the line. Then it just becomes petty and annoying to your supervisor. Make your claims substantiated and rational.