We will shortly be moving floors at work. One of the buildings the council owns is
closing and they are moving a lot of the staff here. Those of us already here are being moved to a different floor to let the new staff move into the lovely basement where we currently reside. We are glad we are moving away from the cold damp basement but their is a problem. We are moving to an area smaller than were we are and there will not be enough desks to go round which means one thing - Hot Desking
The whole section ( and we are a large section) is getting 15% less desks. Our small team which currently has 7 people (we should have 9 but thats a different story) is getting 5 desks. We are now having to work out how to allocate the desks. Three people have
hard drives that can’t be moved around. Four have lap tops which would make it
easier for them to hot desk, however one of these has a health condition that
means he has a raised desk and special equipment. In my plan the people with lap tops would be the ones to do most of the hot desking but apparantly this isn't fair and we all need to take turns.
What is particulary annoying is that we have just gone through an IT refresh and this was the opportunity to give more people lap tops to make this easier - but the powers that be decided not to.
As we get closer and
closer to the move deadline and are given very little information about how this
will be managed I am getting increasingly worried.
First I do not know if I am
getting my own cabinet or if I will be allocated a locker. The lockers are smaller and it would mean me
moving my equipment daily. As I have arthritis in both knees there are days that this will prove very difficult for me but I am expected to put up with this.
Second we
don’t know if the touchdown desks will have hard drives or not so if I am down
to hot desk on a day I will need to find a lap top and then carry it to hot
desk with my other equipment somewhere in the building not necessarily near my
team.
Third you can only book touchdown
desks 24 hours in advance so if you are on leave or sick you may come back to
no desk at all.
Fourth we may be able to work from home some of the days but we currently don't have the equipment to do this plus there is an additional cost which we have to cover ourselves (light, heat etc.
Fifth they have offered us compressed hours but the idea of 9 hour days fills me with dread, especially as I have an hours travel both ways.
Sixth and the final (and minor problem) - some people in the team and section are complete pigs and the thought of having to share with them and clean the desk and keyboard and mouse everyday is just gross.
I was originally willing to put up with this as we weren't moving till December and would have had lots of time to plan out the details but the move has been changed to just two weeks away and now we are panicking. I also didn't want to place the burden of hot desking on the other members of the team because I felt this would be selfish, however as we get closer I have decided to be selfish.
I have requested a health assessment based on my arthritis to see
whether is would be feasible for me to hot desk. I am hoping it means that I will get my own
permanent desk but because the timescale is so tight it will probably not be
done before I move which means I am screwed.
So in two weeks we move and I will enter the hell of hot desking. I will be monitoring progress and let you know how it goes
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