Employees spar over better office seat after entitled coworker refuses to compromise: 'I did try to make it fair, but he shut that down completely'

Where one sits in an office can be crucial to one's overall well-being.

No one likes to feel like they are watched like a hawk at all times during the workday. It's not necessarily that you want the license to procrastinate, although occasionally, that would be nice. Rather, it's that the feeling of constant surveillance rarely begets productivity, efficiency, or improved quality of work. This, of course, is contrary to what many old-fashioned managers may think. Still, people like to at least have the illusion of freedom while they complete their daily tasks and responsibilities in the workplace.

As a result, the location of your desk, private office, or work station can be a key contributing factor to that feeling of freedom or surveillance. These two coworkers ended up arguing over a prime desk location after some office reshuffling meant that the highly coveted private work station was now available.

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via Vitaly Gariev

A male and female coworker argue in the office in front of two other employees.
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[Am I wrong] for taking the better desk after my coworker refused to compromise?

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via Vitaly Gariev

A manager speaks to two employees who look shocked to hear what she has to say.
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via Vitaly Gariev

A male and female coworker argue in the office in front of two other employees.
_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
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via Unsplash+ (Toa Heftiba)

A small workplace setup for an employee against a wall.
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If you're an office manager or a human resources representative reading this, let this story serve as a potent reminder that you should never leave seat assignments up to coworkers to figure out on their own, as this manager did. What a colossal mistake to assume that everyone was going to be an adult about this. At the end of the day, people like privacy, and since one empty workstation was far more appealing than the other available spot, this manager should have thought ahead.
If he wasn't able to see why leaving this up to the two coworkers to decide was a mistake, then it's clear that he isn't a very good manager. It's quite obvious that these two employees are easily competitive with one another. Now, it's possible that the manager was doing this on purpose for his own twisted amusement. That's the only explanation where he comes across as someone who isn't clueless. Still, those are the two options. He was either being totally clueless or maniacal.
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