Human Resource Blog

Handling Interoffice Moves

We recently realigned our organization and had to move several people’s offices. One individual moved from a cubicle to an office. Unfortunately the employee currently residing in the office would have to move to cubicle of the person who would take his office.

The current office occupant packed most of his stuff into boxes but travels a lot. The cubicle worker was excited to move into the office so I told him that he would have to wait until the office worker returned or else he would have to move that person’s stuff. He chose to move that person’s stuff.

Upon returning from traveling, the old office worker found his stuff moved into his new cubical and was upset that a coworker was allowed to move his work and personal stuff. Since he was told the office move would be a few weeks away, he said not everything was packed and his coworker could have gone through his personal stuff.

Was I wrong to have allowed the move without his presence? Or is he just upset for being downgraded in terms of office space?

Justin

Yes, you probably could have handled this better. The best practice would have been to wait until both employees were present, to switch offices. If that was not possible, then the employee in the office should have been given the opportunity to completely pack his stuff in boxes, and set them against the wall where they would not be touched, until he returned to move them.

Imagine what would have happened if the office employee said that he had $500 in cash in his top drawer before the move, and now it was missing. Or that he has a valuable glass paperweight which was a gift from his grandmother, and was broken in the move. Either way, you would be embroiled in a royal mess.

Employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy for their personal belongings in their office. It is never a good idea to have one employee move another employees belongings. Having the new resident of the office move his stuff, just added insult to injury. You led the resident of the office to believe that the move would not take place for several weeks, and you should have stuck to that. You should apologize to the employee for your lapse of judgement and not do this again.