View Full Version : PC possession
There is currently a really irritating man using my pc at work (I'm in the directors office as he isn't here today).
He is a one finger typer, didn't know what firefox was, and is talking to me like I'm 2 :angry: :angry:
He is inputting data into a new fangled data-base which was made out to be super complicated - it isn't. It is 90% bloody drop down boxes and that is it. He thinks it'll take "a few hours if not more" to get it all put in - I think I could do it in an hour tops.
But it is really grating on my nerves that he is at my pc and my desk. He keeps moving things and has left a coffee mark already (until I virtually threw a coaster at him) :angry::angry::angry:
Is anyone else as anal as this? :o I'm I just a tad too possessive of my work space/equipment?
Flibster
19-12-2008, 11:56
Yup.
Thats why at my desk where I used to work I'd locked down the USB ports, had a funky ergonomic keyboard that no else could use and a trackball.
No-one liked using my desk - so they didn't. :D
I know what you mean hun.
Although I don't have this problem at work as we don't have desks.
Leaving coffee stains on someone else's desk/table is just rude.
Blackstar
19-12-2008, 12:29
Wait until he goes on his lunch then strike! Finish the job and tell him to naff off home. I don't have a desk but if i did i'm 110% i would feel the same way.
Its the companies property so anybody can use it, dont know how people get so attached to work/equipment.
Its the companies property so anybody can use it,
Irrelevant. It's mine because I say so. I have nothing else to be the boss of, so the desk, inanimate as it may be, will have to do. :p
Davey_Pitch
19-12-2008, 12:49
Its the companies property so anybody can use it, dont know how people get so attached to work/equipment.
When you spend at least 50% of your weekdays at your desk, it's difficult to not get a little attached to it I think. Just because it's the companies property doesn't mean you don't feel an attachment to it.
Kell_ee001
19-12-2008, 13:30
I feel the same Tak.
I hate when people are on my desk - they always leave it a mess and move things around. I have it set up exactly how I like it so I'm at my most effecient.
Go slap him upside the face, yo.
I have my own office... I have the key... so no I don't have a problem with it! :D :p
Though if I were in your situation I would :(
Its funny how people react in situations like this. You spend most of your life at your desk, so you start to personalise it with photos/objects etc and when someone else is sitting there, its like they are sat in your lounge and you feel miffed.
I was able to observe this a while ago when I was working for the HMRC and there was a rule that no more than 2 photos were allowed on everyones desk and that at the end of the day, everything had to be laid out exactly (phone goes here, mouse here etc) and there was to be no other personal decoration such as drawings by kids.
Eventually, a study was done by psychologists due to the amount of people who wanted to be moved to a different department without these rules and those who went off sick with stress. It pointed out that if you sterilise the working environment, you cause the worker to be stressed and less productive, so they relaxed the rules slightly.
Matblack
19-12-2008, 13:45
Kill him with fire
MB
I don't think becoming a twisted firestarter would be appreciated when you're supposed to be helping upgrade the fire alarm system. :p ;D
Justsomebloke
19-12-2008, 14:15
I have no desk & no office & nowt to get possesive about. I do think anybody using somebody elses work space should have a little consideration though, I wouldn't be moving stuff about or leaving a mess/stains if it was me, that's all I can say really.
If I did have an office & a desk I'd lock the door & sleep for a week anyways :(
Pisses me right off Sam. When I had a week off back in July, there was crap left all over my desk, my phone had been moved, my keyboard wasnt at a right angle to the monitor etc etc.
MY DESK, MY ****ING RULES DAMMIT!!!!
Flibster
19-12-2008, 14:47
Pisses me right off Sam. When I had a week off back in July, there was crap left all over my desk, my phone had been moved, my keyboard wasnt at a right angle to the monitor etc etc.
MY DESK, MY ****ING RULES DAMMIT!!!!
You type at 90° to your monitor?
You're weird... :p
Matblack
19-12-2008, 14:49
If I did have an office & a desk I'd lock the door & sleep for a week anyways :(
My plan for Monday and Tuesday
MB
Don't really care, I've never had personal items, photos or random stuff clogging up my desk in any of my jobs, as far as I'm concerned it's just a computer and a desk, files come and go between desk and shelves as and when required.
There are only two that are ever in my (home) office and one's a cat - me and Borris :D
Looking at premises in the New Year though.
Don't really care, I've never had personal items, photos or random stuff clogging up my desk in any of my jobs, as far as I'm concerned it's just a computer and a desk, files come and go between desk and shelves as and when required.
That's how I used to feel when I had a desk.
The desk and equipment may be owned by the company but they are dedicated for my use and setup how I like them so nobody else is allowed to use them without my permission.
It may seem anal but it annoys me when I find stuff moved, stuff missing and things unplugged so to save me having to waste time setting things up again I don't allow anyone else to use the area.
Piggymon
19-12-2008, 18:55
I don't care about people using my PC or desk but it really ***** me off when they move things around ! GRRR!!
If I have a few days off my boss sits at my desk throughout the day, I come back and my stuff is just everywhere ! I always keep my production diary to the left of me but it walks into a drawer by the time I come back :/
I just can't work properly if things aren't where they should be !
When I was working in NOC and we hot desked, I really wasn't bothered. Then I moved into Sysadmin and I suddenly had one specific PC, and all of a sudden it began to irritate me when people used it.
Unlike other departments we setup our PCs ourselves, installed our preferred version of Linux on them, customised it to suit our work practices and so on.
With the amount of typing and the style of the typing I seem to do with sysadmin an ergonomic keyboard was essential otherwise RSI strikes in a matter of a day or two.
To stop the RSI my keyboard was always carefully placed on my desktop to help alleviate this. My chair was also very carefully set up to stop my back problems occurring again.
What happens when someone uses it? Keyboard gets moved, chair gets adjusted, and monitor moved, all of which take me up to a week of small adjustments to get sorted again and thus stop my back and wrists from hurting.
So yeah, I get a bit peeved when other people use my desk / PC at work.. :D
Justsomebloke
19-12-2008, 19:15
My plan for Monday and Tuesday
MB
Gissa job !!!
I can Do That !!!
Go on then, Gissa job :angry:
I need a green smiley :umbrella: <<< He is Not smiling just Green with envy, Sry best I could do.
SidewinderINC
20-12-2008, 00:51
I don't have my own PC, but I do have my own pipettes (& Tips), my own timer, my own sterile water/saline/buffers and if people start using those without asking me they feel the wrath!
All of our equipment is numbered, so I never have to check it when writing down the numbers, I know that it's been cleaned/cared for and quite a lot of the other pipettes are just manky to use.
Yes, technically everything on my desk is company owned (except my logitech wireless mouse), but I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, it's _my_ kit, it's organised how I like it, the chair, monitor height etc are all in positions as recommended by the person who does our workstation evaluations and all hell will break loose if things are moved around.
In reality, everyone in the office is very good about such thing. We all have laptops so there's no PCs left on the desk for others to use anyway and we don't tend to hot desk at all in here so it's an unusual occurance for things to be moved around. The natural keyboard scares people away anyway.
The natural keyboard scares people away anyway.
Same. My chair does go walkabout now and then but it's mostly cleaners moving the rest so I did the job for them over the holidays (removed the batteries from the keyboard and mouse too :evil:). Looks like they tried to clean my screen recently with god knows what so I'll have to take a proper cleaner in next time to sort that. :(
AboveTheSalt
24-12-2008, 11:05
I was able to observe this a while ago when I was working for the HMRC and there was a rule that no more than 2 photos were allowed on everyones desk and that at the end of the day, everything had to be laid out exactly (phone goes here, mouse here etc) and there was to be no other personal decoration such as drawings by kids.It is a great pity that HMRC don't invest more time in simplifying their wretched forms and tightening up on tax evasion.
As to the OP, you should try working as a contractor, I have long since lost count of the number of times I have turned up on site to be told that nobody was expecting me, no desk, PC or 'phone is available, my contact is off on holiday or off sick, trainees are not available, the system can't be shut down for the intended upgrade or maintenance and generally, I am wasting my time and the client's money.
We have a clear desk policy... unfortunately I don't adhere to this fortunately it's my office and I'm the only one with the key :p I don't understand how you can have a clear desk policy - I have too much work to do to keep it clear!!
So do we. What it means for me is that at the end of the day, I close my scribbly notepad and put my pen in my drawer.
Apart from that, it's hardly clear!
We have a clear desk policy... unfortunately I don't adhere to this fortunately it's my office and I'm the only one with the key :p I don't understand how you can have a clear desk policy - I have too much work to do to keep it clear!!
At Claranet there was no such thing, but we were strongly encouraged to be as paperless as humanly possible. Surprisingly (to someone always used to having sheets of paper around) that worked incredible well. My desktop had on it, at best, my mug, keyboard, mouse, red+black A4 notebook, monitor and a system documentation folder (shared between 6 of us, seemed to end up on my desk most often.) That was pretty much it. I scribbled stuff down in the notebook if I needed to, and only once in a blue moon did I ever print something off. A few times with long Perl scripts I found it necessary to print it off to be able to work my way through it, but once all was done and dusted the script had to go in the confidential recycling bin.
I never appreciated clear desk policies before working for Claranet, but now I'd never want to go back to anything else.
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