If there’s one thing people hate more than politics, it’s office politics – but a recent employment tribunal judgement has brought them to the fore after an estate agent manager convinced the judge he was sacked because of his desk.
Nicholas Walker jumped ship from Robsons Estate Agents in Hertfordshire after he claimed he had been effectively demoted during a branch transfer.
He was shifted from the de facto ‘boss’ desk at the back to one in the middle – with his old seat taken by a younger, more junior colleague.
After being goaded into quitting over the move, he took Robsons to a tribunal and won after a judge found he felt his status was ‘undermined’.
Referring to Mr Walker’s boss, the judge said of the whole episode: ‘We find that…he did not understand the significance of the back desk.’
The ruling has opened the door for others to launch their own lawsuits if they don’t like their seating arrangements at work. But what makes a desk in the office ‘bad’ in the first place?
MailOnline has asked the experts: office workers, bosses, even those selling the desks and chairs that spark such diplomatic crises in the first place.
Using their correspondence, we’ve come up with the definitive guide to the desk you don’t want to sit at – and it might be the one you’re at right now.
In the graphic below, one is the ‘best’ desk and six is the ‘worst’.
According to the professionals, the objectively worst desk in the office is a hive of activity from everyone other than the person sitting at it: a buzz of noise, rushing passers-by and little-to-no natural light.
It might also be the smelliest: whether from the stench of the kitchen microwave – particularly if someone has brought fish – or the toilets nearby.
Or it could run deeper than that, as in the case of estate agent boss Mr Walker: the worst desk in the office could be the one you’re stuck in because someone else is at yours instead – a big problem in the era of hot-desking.
PR account director Maisie Bamford told MailOnline: ‘I would personally never sit in the middle of a block of desks, and I would avoid a desk near the kitchen at all costs.
‘You have to make small-talk with people all day when they go to make coffee – and you can smell people’s food at lunch.
‘I would also avoid a desk where your screen is visible to a lot of people,’ she confessed, adding: ‘So I can happily scroll Pinterest when I’m not too busy.’
‘High-traffic areas such as water coolers, printers and walkways can be distracting,’ admits Harry Mills, director at financial consultancy firm Oku Markets.
‘Sitting next to the loos is a disaster waiting to happen, and being too close to the kitchen – especially if the office has a phantom tuna microwaver – has both aural and nasal downsides.
‘The best desks provide plenty of team interaction, decent access to the coffee machine – and a quick escape route.’
‘For me, the dud desk is the one parked next to the loo,’ adds Tony Redondo, of currency exchange firm Cosmos. ‘Every flush is a grim reminder of your place in the pecking order.’
There appears to be, as Mr Redondo suggests, a psychological element to being stuck beside the loos. What does it say to the worker stuck in the smelly corner about how their work sees them?
‘If employers don’t address grievances, this would signal a huge lack of respect,’ says James Mackie, boss of BestBuy Office Chairs.
Jeff Kaiden, CEO of US logistics firm Capacity, said: ‘A bad desk isn’t just uncomfortable – it sends a message. It tells someone they don’t matter, that their work isn’t important, or that they’re an afterthought. Nobody wants to feel like that.
‘Whether it’s shoved in a noisy corner, stuck by the bathroom, or miles away from the team, placement matters. It affects focus, collaboration, and morale. People notice. And when they feel overlooked, their work suffers.’
But there is also one more kind of bad desk, like that sat in – or not, as the case was – by estate agent boss Mr Walker.
Nicholas Walker (pictured) had been asked to move branch but was ‘upset’ after being told he would sit at a ‘middle’ desk rather than the ‘back’ desk – typically where the manager sits
Matthew Gooder (left), a more junior colleague, sat at the ‘back’ desk after the company’s director Daniel Young (right) made a structural change without informing Mr Walker
The desk at the back of the Rickmansworth office (pictured) was said to have ‘practical and symbolic’ significance as it had always been used by the branch manager and was where financial documents were stored
The worst desk of all might be the one you’re at because someone else is sitting in yours – or, at least, the one you think you deserve.
In Mr Walker’s case, he had been transferred from a branch of Robsons in Rickmansworth to Chorleywood, where he ‘worked hard to set up’ the underperforming branch before being asked to return to Rickmansworth.
But his younger colleague, Matt Gooder, was also being promoted to branch manager, a role the pair were expected to share – and Mr Gooder took the seat at the back that had belonged to Mr Walker before his first transfer.
Mr Gooder told the tribunal he moved because he was an ‘ambitious person’ – in effect seeing his shift to the back as an elevation of his status. The tribunal concluded both understood its ‘symbolic and practical significance’ for senior staff.
Mr Walker arrived at the branch to find the youngster in his seat – and found out only then that the job would be shared. Put out, he texted company director Daniel Young to say: ‘I am not… sitting in the middle.’
Mr Young later arrived at the workplace and said words to the effect of: ‘I can’t believe a f****** 53-year-old man is making a fuss over a desk.’ Mr Walker threatened to resign, to which his boss said: ‘Go on then.’ He promptly did.
An employment tribunal found there had been an element of goading, and that Robsons had failed to properly inform him of the change to his job – and has ruled he should be given him an unspecified financial award.
Desk spats aren’t unusual. Keith Budden, managing director of GDPR assistance business Ensurety, found out for himself working at another company.
His former boss introduced hot-desking in an office with three plush glass cubicles that had been used by managers. But they threatened to revolt after junior workers elbowed their way into the nicer workspaces.
‘Can it be petty? Yes. Does it matter? Yes, a happy staff is a productive staff, and that starts from the top,’ he said.
Ultimately, there will always be bad desks in offices – and one PR boss says whoever finds themselves in a seat they don’t like might just have to suck it up.
‘I’m aghast at this case of desk politics – that it was brought in the first place and that Mr Walker won. What’s the world coming to? I thought Gen Z were supposed to be the overly-sensitive ones,’ said Ruth Shearn, founder of PR agency RMS.
‘Of course, as an employer, you want to make sure everyone’s as happy as they can be in where they sit but this isn’t always possible – you just hope people are mature enough to understand that not everyone can take pole position in the desk derby.’
David Belle, founder of financial newsletter Fink Money, is less concerned about the politics of desks.
‘I think this story says less about what a lesser desk is and more about the absolute love of victimhood and desire to have everything you want, coupled with legislation that protects these factors,’ he said.
