Coworker bursts into tears and refuses to move to a front desk near a colleague, claiming she’s being “punished,” so HR lets her keep the quiet desk by the manager

Team dynamics are easy to pretend you understand until someone cries over a desk like it is a hostile takeover.  

In a small office of three women all in the same niche the furniture and seatinhg arrangements can quickly turn into a power move. The person who handles the bulk of customer-facing work ends up drowning in calls and lobby chaos while the other quietly avoids the front and the spotlight, using anxiety as a full‑time job description. The manager nods along, the boss's boss nods along, and everyone quietly agrees that one person is doing the real workload while the other treats the office like a bunker for avoiding responsibility. Then the office finally hires someone new and the natural move is to shuffle the setup so the new person sits near the manager and the established worker gets the remaining front desk spot.

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  • Smiling woman wearing a yellow blazer and jeans holds a tablet while standing against a plain light background, styled in a modern professional casual look with short natural hair and minimal accessories.
    via alex starnes

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Coworker was told she had to move desks to be near me, she burst into tears

    I work in a small office, there are three of us, all middle-aged and female. My manager, myself and a woman I'll call Maggie.
    via Tripwir62
  • We work in a niche industry, so we manage all the administrative paperwork and have a lot of industry- specific knowledge we provide to staff and customers.
    via Tripwir62
  • Our team dynamics have had ups and downs, as Maggie and I have very different personalities and work ethic.
    via Tripwir62
  • Maggie can be quiet, shy, and says. she has a lot of anxiety talking to people, even though we have a customer-facing role.
    via Tripwir62
  • She will actively avoid customer interactions in person or by phone, leaving that sole responsibility to me.
    via Tripwir62
  • There have been moments where there are calls back-to-back and our lobby is filled, and she has to be prompted by our manager to engage almost every time as I'm begging in the office chat for some help.
    via Tripwir62
  • Woman wearing a dark blazer and white top works on a laptop at a round table near large windows, focused on the screen in a modern office setting with natural light.
    via Christina @ wocintechchat.com M

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • This has been going on for almost 2 years. Maggie doesn't like me, she says I am too loud, not funny, and overly direct to the point that it gives her extreme anxiety to talk to me.
    via Tripwir62
  • Maggie is the only person who feels this way about me. Most people, my boss. and my bosses boss praise me for working hard, am knowledgeable, and often the first person to go to when my manager is unavailable before Maggie, even though I got hired a year after Maggie started.
    via Tripwir62
  • I personally think Maggie is threatened by me for some reason, and I am not the kind of person who cares about Maggies opinion, because I don't respect her.
    via Tripwir62
  • I'm here to work, not build lifelong friendships. I am nice to her, we have a couple inside jokes, I remember her birthday and her childs birthday, we trade recipies, I ask her if she needs help when she's swamped, we generally get along.
    via Tripwir62
  • My manager and other staff all agree Maggie avoids work and uses her dislike of me as an excuse.
    via Tripwir62
  • We are getting a much-needed additional person, and this person needs to be near my manager.
    via Tripwir62
  • This is how the office always has worked, it's not new, we all did it when we first started
    via Tripwir62
  • Maggie has recently been asked to move her desk in our small office closer to me so she's more visible to staff and customers.
    via Tripwir62
  • When Maggie was told she would be having a desk, in the front, next to me and no longer the desk by the manager, she burst into tears and was crying on and off all day.
    via Tripwir62
  • She said she feels like she's being punished for something she doesn't understand, that she needs to have the quieter desk by the manager because she only feels relaxed next to the manager and I'm too loud, I trigger her anxiety, she can't work near me, and she wants to remind everyone she's NOT racist (I am a black woman).
    via Tripwir62
  • She didn't come in for the rest of the week, saying all the anxiety of being demoted (she was never promoted and no one understands why she thinks she was as her pay and title never changed) has caused her severe vomiting and migraines.
    via Tripwir62
  • All this happened while my poor manager was on a much-needed vacation, and had to field Maggies emails and communications, while she's suppossed to be relaxing.
    via Tripwir62
  • I for one, am bewildered at this womans behavior and cannot understand why someone would throw such a tantrum about a front desk position we both share?
    via Tripwir62
  • And I'm obviously insulted Maggie is so upset to even be near me, she would rather self sabatoge her own career than be near a black person?
    via Tripwir62
  • Honestly, completely bewildering. HR's solution? Have her move back to her old desk. After she threw a nearly week long tantrum, they are just going to give in and let her get what she wants.
    via Tripwir62
  • Now, I'm annoyed, but honestly, not surprised.
    via Tripwir62

  • The twist is not that the existing worker is being moved closer to the busiest part of the office. The twist is that the person who has been hiding behind quietness and claimed anxiety suddenly treats the swap like a court ruling instead of a rescheduling. The desk by the manager is the comfort zone the quiet corner the place where she can avoid customers and pretend the workload is not her problem. The desk next to the loud direct coworker who fields the calls and keeps the ship running is somehow coded as punishment. The reaction is not a conversation it is a full‑blown tantrum tears emails vomiting migraines accusations of being “demoted” when she has never been promoted and a weird reminder that she is not bigoted. The last bit is the polish on the whole performance like throwing in a disclaimer while the behavior speaks louder.  

  • Childless_Catlady42 It's not you. She doesn't want to do the work and knows that if you can see her, you will expect her to do her job. She liked hiding in the back, she didn't have to do the job there.
    via Tripwir62
  • educatedvegetable Original Poster's Reply Agreed, I know it's not me but I've never witnessed such behavior in an office environment with human adults and been the brunt of this ire. She liked hiding, something we all knew but now that she's being forced to work she's panicking. Not sure how Monday is going to go but we'll see!
    via Tripwir62
  • OddLanguage I am sorry you are dealing with this person. Is this a small business? | know you said the office is small. Is that the whole business or are you in a department in a larger business? I am thinking of discrimination laws. She is creating a hostile work environment for you. I take it your manager doesn't see the problem or want to address it?
    via Tripwir62
  • educatedvegetable Original Poster's Reply It's a large business but has a small admin staff that handle the main location and several satellite locations. We are understaffed and due to business needs growing, additional staff has been added and she simply needs to move to accommodate this new person. My manager and her boss are livid at HR, but HR is saying they have to be ADA compliant since she is claiming anxiety. It's just so stupid, we're here to work, it's not personal?
    via Tripwir62
  • Outrageous_Guard_674 Why on earth does this person still have a job?
    via Tripwir62
  • generickayak she sounds unhinged, manipulative, and lazy.
    via Tripwir62
  • 37-pieces-of-flair Exactly. OP, just keep doing your job and interact with her as little as possible. Keep being professional and polite, but grey rock her as much as possible.
    via Tripwir62
  • meSabina Maggie needs to be fired or put on a PIP.
    via Tripwir62
  • Otherwise_Object_446 Is going to HR to complain about her refusal to sit next to a black person and creating a hostile work environment (are her complaints about you being loud a racial stereotype for example) an option for you? Even if nothing happens this time it might be worthwhile to start laying the foundation. especially given how she has been treating you.
    via Tripwir62
  • Noone_2See Sometime quiet people can be a bully. And she's one of the quiet bully. I remember befriending a quiet girl because im also quiet and i got bullied by her like tf? •
    via Tripwir62
  • Rmartin5612 It's wild that she thought being sat next to the manager was a promotion when the manager literally wants the new person next to her to handhold/give her more help. And she's been there longer than you. The manager had to keep a close eye on her to make sure her work was being done. And she's mad that person is now you, her equal (though she sees you as under her). Crazy they're not firing her, since they had to hire another person to make up for her slack. You have every right to be
    via Tripwir62
  • Spdsk84miles Your management aren't really doing their job.
    via Tripwir62

  • What makes it extra funny to watch from the outside is how quickly the system folds. The crying launch codes get punched in and suddenly HR decides the solution is to give the comfort spot back and let the office pretend the front desk never needed to be staffed properly. The real insult is not that someone does not want to sit next to you. It is that the workplace respects tears more than it respects work and lets avoidance win while the person actually doing the job gets to watch the tower rearrange itself so the burden never really shifts.

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