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I think you are overreacting. It is perfectly reasonable to ask your manager for a different seat. However, if you walk around the office to collaborate all the time, I don’t think it’s worth your energy to stress so much about having a seat that is in a corner and feels “claustrophobic.”
Here is how I would phrase this:
“Hey Tony! Could we rethink my new seating assignment? I work best when I’m near others and have the ability to have quick collaboration and communication with them. I know some other people probably prefer to be on their own and away from others. Is it possible for me to get a seat closer to everyone else? We can save the corner for someone who would prefer that kind of arrangement.”
I was more so asking if other people would say something in this situation or if it would be considered unprofessional to do so - “overreacting” was probably a bad choice of words.
I wasn’t trying to just dig my heals in against your POV, but your response focused on how I’m getting up out of my seat to collaborate elsewhere and thus my desk doesn’t matter much, but that’s not the case. You recommendation of what to say to my manager was catered towards my need to be near specific people, which is also not the case. The seat is undesirable to me because it feels very enclosed to me and I’m claustrophobic - the seat really triggers my anxiety/OCD. I’m struggling to find a way to bring that up without being unprofessional or oversharing about my anxiety.
You can ask, nicely, one more time. “Hey, would it be at all possible to be in seat X instead of Y. I know it might seem silly but I’d just feel better not being against a wall.”
And then, whatever the result, let it go. Seating assignments are based on what management wants and your perspective is limited.
This ^
Or, if you have a problem with this seat specifically, rather than asking only for seat X, give them more options - could I move to one of the seats away from the wall?
I agree. It’s just a seat. To me it’s overreacting… Ask for a different seat if you don’t like the one assigned. Also, the ‘need to chat’ might hide a different agenda (and not necessarily a positive one). For example, supervising closely the new guy because we are scared he is not picking up quickly enough or is not independent in his work or performance is not good…
But they’re not even on the same team. They don’t report to the same manager, in no way is it Chad’s job or responsibility to report back on the new hire’s performance (they’re effectively peers).
Chad (who isn’t on our immediate team anyway). Apparently the new hires manager (who is not my manager) wants his new hire near Chad because they might need to talk about things from time to time. We have a very open floor plan and they would only be 30 feet away from each other (instead of 20 ft) if he took the desk on the opposite end of the row from the desk I want. Chad isn’t even in this row himself, just sort of near by the row my team will be in. The desk they put me at is backed into a corner and just generally feels claustrophobic to me. Am I over stepping to ask my manager to step in and ask for me to have the seat I think is more desirable? The move would happen before the new hire even starts so they wouldn’t know anything different.
I don’t want to be difficult but I basically asked for the seat I want and was superseded for what I feel is not super important like “might need to talk from time to time” … I walk all around the office to collaborate and meet with people all the time. Thus far my manager hasn’t been super involved because he doesn’t care where I sit, he told the new hire’s manager to talk to me about it.
Subject Expert
Just keep in mind that you may not be the only person who is asking for a seat change and your mgmt may have been dealing with fallout since this was announced. Can you trade with anyone or find a solution to bring to your mgmt. so you are are not presenting a problem they need to solve? Been there myself and it can be very frustrating and near impossible to please everyone when asking teams to shift or change.