The blog post mentions that the author decided to skip steps of the onboarding process and decided to occupy a desk in a moment in time new arrivals were expected to occupy none.
Also, it seems the onboarding process the author decided to skip was a multi-day event, so it seems the need for a desk popped up a few days before schedule.
How many teams have free desks around waiting for unexpected developers to show up?
I've been at companies large and small. One time for example I had to sit on a different floor from my team because they did not have space on that floor. This was a huge downtown office tower owned by the company. They had even put in the request for a desk in time for one to be ready and all that. But there just wasn't space and they had to play tetris on the floor plans and move entire teams around floors to make space for me (and some other new guys that didn't sit with the team either but at least on the same floor. This was explained to me right away though and honestly while not great, it was totally fine in that sense. I just sat in a meeting room or in the coffee area or next to someone else at their desk (yes the desks were large enough for that, no all offices are WeWork sized) for some time (basically ignoring my assigned desk) until this resolved.
It’s not like desk moves happen very often. Unless there’s an intern about to leave, there’s always some free desks on teams that are hiring. At least at every company I’ve worked.
If I’m hiring a new person I generally have desk space available before they show up. Even if that involves fitting 7 people in the space for 6.
Hiring someone but forgetting to prepare a workplace for this person seems very unprofessional to me. There could be valid reasons for it, but they must be exceptions, and just forgetting is not a valid reason.
> How is it better to humiliate them in front of the CEO?
Author just provided an honest answer when asked by an unknown person. If manager had a valid excuse, this should not be a problem. If manager feels „humiliated“ because their mistake was exposed, but behaves professionally, also fine - we should feel sorry for our mistakes and should not expect, that everybody will avoid saying truth just to protect your feelings. Shit happens, lesson learned, move on. Our loyalty is defined by our contract and it is to the company and to shareholders, after all, and every manager in the hierarchy deserves the truth - any conspiracies to hide it are counter-productive politics.