Employee takes over desk at work by leaving his trash all the time, coworker adds even more trash to it until manager notices and intervenes: ‘No more camping at the desks’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jun 5, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

The only thing worse than working in an office is working in an office that uses the "hot desk" system.

If you are unfamiliar with "hot desks", it is a term to describe an office with desks that are open for anybody. No assigned seatings, no desk is reserved. You come to work in the morning, you choose one of the remaining free desks, and you get settled for the day. Then you do it all over again tomorrow.

While the office might save a few bucks from this system, we have never heard of an employee who actually enjoys sharing a desk with their coworkers. It is almost always a cause for some friction between the employees, and you can be sure that there will be at least one employee who thinks they are better than everyone else and tries to prove it by claiming ownership of one of the open desks. Usually, the one everybody wants the most.

That is exactly the case in the office from a story posted on Reddit's r/pettyrevenge Subreddit. While everyone in the office was trying to make the hot desk system work, one employee tried to rig the system by taking over a desk and leaving it in a state that ensured no one else would use it. He would constantly leave his coffee cups and other garbage on the desk just to make it look like the desk was constantly in use, even on days when he wasn't even in the office.

This led one of his coworkers to take action and put an end to the childish behavior. Every time this employee was not in the office, the coworker would either mess with the desk's cables, readjust the monitors, or even add more trash to the desk to make it look significantly less appealing. Eventually, this caught the manager's attention, who was appalled that someone had left a desk in that state, and proceeded to remind everyone of desk etiquette and cleanliness principles…

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  • 01
    Employees sitting at their work desks, represented by models.
    via Tim van der Kuip

    Employees sitting at their work desks, represented by models.

  • 02

    Someone claimed the best hot desk for themself by leaving their garbage.

    We have a few dozen "hot desks" that are open for anybody to use. No seating is reserved or assigned.
    via 1quirky1
  • 03
    Some people are particular about desk height, the way their monitors are set up, etc. They pick a workstation far away from the door because most of us grab the nearest seat to do their work and leave.
    via 1quirky1
  • 04
    But not this guy. He claimed the very first desk nearest the door. Someone walking straight through the door would hit the chair at this desk. He made it look like it
    via 1quirky1
  • 05
    was constantly in use by leaving his coffee cups and other garbage on it. Now everybody. has to pass by his garbage on their way in and out. He is only there for a few hours per week.
    via 1quirky1
  • 06
    The paper coffee cups had that staining at the bottom when they had been sitting there for a long time.
    via 1quirky1
  • 07
    I used that desk just to spite him. It helps pass the office boredom and it is fun to mess with these kinds of people. He is short so I always raised it to
    via 1quirky1
  • 08
    be a standing desk and adjusted the monitors at tallest I could stand.
    via 1quirky1
  • 09
    To show intent I tangled up the headset cable with the keyboard cable. He never said anything if he saw me working there.
    via 1quirky1
  • 10
    He strengthened his claim by adding more garbage, making it less appealing and look more like it it was in use.
    via 1quirky1
  • 11
    Late Friday while the office was nearly empty I went through the recycle bin to triple his garbage heap. Someone caught me doing it and laughed. It was the first thing that the manager saw when opening the office on Monday.
    via 1quirky1
  • 12
    Now we have signs at each desk reminding us of basic cleanliness principles for our shared desk spaces. No more camping/garbage at the desks
    via 1quirky1
  • 13
    near the door. He probably í 1 off to some desk in the back like he should have in the first place.
    via 1quirky1
  • 14
    Image representing an open-space office filled with employees.
    via Arlington Research

    Image representing an open-space office filled with employees.

  • 15
    BufferingJuffy Going through recycling is insanely petty. Well played, OP. ☺
    via BufferingJuffy
  • 16
    ashatteredteacup I'm taking notes. Well played! There's a joker who does this sand when I sat there, he got all indignant and had the audacity to ask "Where am I gonna sit now?"
    via ashatteredteacup
  • 17
    Do I look like your mum? Also I cleared your trash, you're welcome.
    via ashatteredteacup
  • 18
    UnfairDictionary Better way would have been to collect the trash from the desk and bring them to the person when he next time came to work. "Hey, you forgot your trash" and then drop it all on his desk, right in front of everyone.
    via UnfairDictionary
  • 19
    Mira_DFalco Well played! Now I'd be at the back of the room just because of not wanting to be distracted by all of the people passing through. Him being a slob at the office is just...
    via Mira_DFalco
  • 20
    Decent_Berry8196 One of actually probably my ONLY issue with working remotely, when I do have to go to the office, I don't have MY desk. I liked my cubicle and how I had it set. Now I have to rearrange everything, clean up from other people. But this - this was masterful. Well done
    via Decent_Berry8196

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Tags

boss workplace-stories employee manager job desk tales-from-the-workplace coworkers Office workplace entitled coworker company
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