— Robert Heinlein, The Moon is A Harsh Mistress
Why would people want to treat their coworkers this way? It seems so unnecessary and negative...
Actually no it's not a bit strong, those people need to be outright told to fuck off on a more frequent basis.
These often aren't just arbitrary rules.
Alcohol is another thing.
so you'll inconvenience ALL of your colleagues so your unprovable condition can be avoided. i hate open desk plans coz of things like this. hr inevitably comes down on the side opposite to common sense and things get banned with no solution(like having a quick snack when you feel tired is not allowed and you can't afford the time away to visit the cafeteria)
I’ve got all the proof I need to know I have this, and it’s never happened in the absence of someone eating a crunch snack.
Personally I can't stand people who are eating stuff or chewing gum while they are on the phone with me. Same with noisy eating in a silent place. I sometimes silently leave the place if I can, or warn the eater as politely as I can, if he/she's my friend.
Heck, if I'm extremely tired or weary I can not even stand myself sometimes.
I only wanted to point that absence of some irritation or uncomfortable feeling in presence of the stimulus for one person is not enough for one to label such sinister and delicate matters as "not real" or "non-existent".
:)
Where do you work in India?
If your office infrastructure is so broken that you could have mice infestation, you definitely have far bigger problems than eating at your desk. In fact at this point in time, I'd like to think you have a mice infestation already.
At almost any major tech park that I've worked in Bangalore, I can't recall even single instance of even seeing a fly or mosquito in office. Let alone see a rat.
I'd love to see how many offices in London have mice infestations to a point employees could notice it.
I was of the opinion that the western world took hygiene quite seriously.
The mice would come out in the evenings. You'd know because first you'd hear one of the salespeople scream. Then the more macho traders would rush around banging on desks, trying to flush out the by now petrified mouse...
The trading floors also had small cafes ('trader delis'). One day I found a dead mouse on the counter next to the cafe's credit card machine. I took a photo as I knew noone back on the trading floor would believe me.
At that point, the cafe was closed for the day and thoroughly cleaned. The cleaners also started removing all food from people's desks.
The best solution imo would have been cats...
I've worked (and still am!) in London in loads of different sizes and types of offices, and have yet to see a single pest (mouse, cockroach, mosquito, etc.)
Nothing personal, just general policy on my part.
Also because that company gave no reasons other than the cafeteria thing I mentioned (and that was based in absurdity).
I'm not trying to be flippant. I have noticed that many managers say no to anything they didn't think of first. Its made me usually default to thinking the manager is wrong unless the employee is adversely affecting another employee. If no one in the group could understand why they shouldn't keep those things, then it sounds like they weren't adversely affecting anyone
Edit: I should add that when I say management I mean management that is more than one level above the person who's behavior they are trying to change. People do t have as strong connections once it starts being a chain of relationships and you start losing the benefit of the doubt
Or potentially someone could get injured through corporate negligence (eg, if there is a fire and the software engineer sleeping under the desk gets burned; power goes out for 12 hours and someone with a fridge gets food poisoning).
Focusing on GP's comment specifically, if the government (local or higher) discovers that a premise is being used for habitation I imagine there are a whole bunch of rules that kick in that the company does not want to be involved with.
It is much cheaper, easier and more internally consistent to mandate that all employees have a standardised work space. Then not only do you cut your risk profile, you also might find opportunities for efficiencies elsewhere.
Compare personal risk profiles to a company. If I am a bit risk-prone maybe I tolerate a lifestyle where there is a 1 in 200 chance of a near-fatal accident each year each year (so I'm expecting to make it to old age with a near misses or two in life - I've met people who I judge to live to this level of risk). If you try that sort of approach with a company of 150 employees, in a given year you now expect:
1) More likely than not to have a near fatal accident in the workspace
2) To be imprisoned or have your business ended by the government for being a menace to your employees
Corporations can't tolerate risk at anywhere near the level individuals do; because they have to scale everything up to their entire workforce.
We had problems with people bringing knives in to de-core their apples. Every year there'd a nasty hand injury or two, and we were under pressure from upper management to keep our injury statistics low. Since hand injuries were one of our major problems; knife ban! :D
It was as effective as it was unpopular.
I was the manager, not someone a level above. I was responsible for space planning for my department. The offices weren't luxurious but they were decent hard wall offices where 4 of the 6 offices in each office bay had windows. Insisting that one should be allowed to take a seat in a window office for a cactus farm seemed very immature. I was also resonsible for assuring a reasonable attempt to adhere to health and safety rules. The unthinking objections to removing a fire hazard showed no appreciation for who would have hell to pay if something happened, even if only a mildly smokey electrical short.
How is it anymore of a fire hazard than anything else plugged into the electricity? I doubt you were rationing the electricity or unplugging everything at night, and if people had laptops they we're likely plugging things into and out of the sockets every day. People can see the obvious hypocrisy it poor reasoning and it makes them ignore or detest even reasonable requests from management because the requests are so frequently unreasonable.
If management had their way everyone would be completely standard, with no individuality or humanity because it would be cheaper and easier to deal with. The unthinking objections to every bit of personality or decoration of a space people are in for half their waking lives shows no appreciation for the mental toll it takes on employees
The Wiccan Creed is surprisingly rich:
"An' it harm none, do what thou wilt."
[1] https://www.amc.com/shows/better-call-saul/extras/better-cal...
At another place I had some sit next to me for a while due to construction at the company ... it was months of nothing productive, just nothing. I was a little shocked, I mean I assumed, but when you see it, it is amazing.
She repeatedly used the phrase "You let them have / do that?"
The response was to things she saw at people's cubes like:
* A mini fridge. * A blanket. * Some food at someone's desk. * A fan.
And some random stuff.
It didn't occur to anyone at that point that anyone had to "let" someone have those things at their desk.
Eventually an email went out banning such things, no reason was given.
An annoyed co-worker asked why via email and they were told food at their desk was "unnecessary" because there is a cafeteria.
The only cafeteria was on the other side of the country at the new HQ in San Jose....they didn't respond to follow up emails.
It always struck me that this person who visited's entire role was to enforce some arbitrary rules like they were our parents or something.
The rules were complied with for about a month and as soon as visits stopped, everyone at our location just ignored them. Somehow nothing bad happened just as nothing ever had before.
When visiting the HQ later I did eat something (breakfast bar) at my temporary desk. My coworkers in San Jose we're quite shocked, I was amused by their reaction. We all survived. Although security eventually caught me (came running even) for not wearing my ID "visible enough" ;)