Hoteling
Have you never heard this insidious word before? You are a lucky jerk.
(I’m going to insert here that I really like my job, and that my employer is super awesome. Both of these things are true, keep that in mind while I rant.)
I now work for a company with over 100,000 employees. For someone who’s largest employer before this was about 300 (closer to 100 if you’re talking just about the business branch I worked for), this was a big shift. But it wasn’t the hardest thing to deal with. Hoteling was.
For those not in the know, hoteling is the practice of asking (most) employees to “reserve” themselves a desk/workspace. Since so many of my coworkers are often off on client assignments and rarely in the office, this works really well for them. If they only need a desk a few times a month, why give them a permanent spot to rest their butts and their junk?
I, however, am in the office daily. I have a desk I prefer that is close to my boss and my coworkers; it also gets lovely light in the morning, which wakes me up a little bit. I haven’t brought in any of my normal desk paraphernalia (see here and here and here) since I could lose my desk at any time, which is weird for me. I did get an extra monitor from our awesome IT staff, so I’m not completely lost.
Hoteling lends itself to some jerk behaviors (however unintentional they sometimes are). If you don’t “check in” at your desk by a certain time, someone else can take your spot. This happened to one of my coworkers her first day of work. If you are on vacation (like I was last week) someone else may reserve your normal spot. Yesterday (my first day back) I didn’t have an issue, but this morning I got in to discover that someone had booked my normal spot for the rest of the week, and was sitting there using my mug and my monitor. When I walked into my cube in a haze of no coffee and bad bus ride, she just kind of stared at me while I grabbed my water bottle and grumbled something at her.
Now I have to be the bitch and go tell her I’m taking my mug and my monitor back, and move them down the hall for the rest of the week.
Seriously. Hoteling? Limit it to consultants not in the office very often. (And I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a bad idea.)
