agonyaunt | Ask a Manager: My Coworker Is Living In The Office

I started a new job two months ago. My role is a senior one that reports directly to the CEO.

I quickly discovered that one of my coworkers — who is also a manager — is living in the office. He would technically say that he lives in his van. However, his van is always parked in the office parking garage and it is clear he uses the office for all his personal needs. I live near the office so have driven by at all hours and he is always here! He cooks all his meals in the office kitchen and has a couch in his office. He will also post a sign on his door that says “out of office” but he is actually in his office, just not working.

I think this has gone unnoticed because most people are still working remotely, but I am coming in every day and it is very uncomfortable. Sometimes it appears he has just woken up.

I don’t want to make waves because I am so new, but I also can’t stop thinking about this. Should I tell someone or just let it go and hope leadership notices soon?

A complicating factor to note — our CEO was recently let go and we are in the middle of a huge leadership transition. The organization is very chaotic right now and there is not clear leadership.

Well, it’s possible someone in leadership knows and has okayed it. Who knows why — most obviously, of course, he could have lost his housing. Or he could have split from his partner or simply decided this was more cost-effective while no one else was coming in anyway, or who knows what.

But it’s also possible that no one knows since most of your coworkers are still working remotely. And if that’s the case, the organization really does need to know — for safety and legal reasons, if nothing else. If they rent the space, someone living there could be a violation of the terms of their lease. It could be a problem for their insurance. And if something happens to the building in the middle of the night, someone needs to know a person is in there.

If you weren’t in a very senior role, I’d tell you this is above your pay grade and, especially as a new hire, to leave it alone for now unless it were causing problems for you (like if you were running into him half-clad in the mornings or unable to use the office fridge because it was stuffed with a month of his groceries or so forth).

But you’re in a senior role that reports to the CEO. Even though there’s no clear leadership right now, is there anyone above you or in a relatively senior operations-type role? If so, it’s worth mentioning it to that person — not in a “get Bob in trouble” kind of way, but framed as, “I wasn’t sure if anyone knew about this since he and I are generally the only ones here, and it seemed like something I should mention to someone.” That’s not making waves; if they’re fine with it, they’ll let you know that … and if they’re not fine with it, they’re unlikely to shoot the messenger.

It does risk making waves for Bob, of course. But you can’t start living in your office and expect your colleagues not to mention it. That’s not to ignore that he might be in a difficult spot — but again, there are legal and safety reasons the organization needs to know he’s there.

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Erm - why doesn't she advise talking to him first, giving the heads up that she has to do this, so that if he has to go back to his van he has some warning.

That was my thought. If there's no clear leadership and Bob and LW are peers, why is step one not asking Bob "So - is this a thing that is known?"

It's a thing that's known. In the comments, the anon LW posted that Bob is living out of his van by choice and "leadership is aware of his living situation. The COO shared that the former CEO approved this and she was aware. I got the impression from her reaction that they approved him living in his van at the office but that they may not be fully aware of the extent to which he is using the office. In either case, she said it will be up to the new CEO how they want to move forward with this living arrangement."
Even so, that just feels...icky somehow? Like, Bob doesn't know/care how much he's using the office and is taking advantage of a leadership vacuum?

It sounds like he's open about living in his van, so probably the next step is to ask him if he has the company's permission to park his van overnight? You could even phrase it as "Wow, it's so cool of the company to let you park here all night."

If the answer's yes he does have permission (and the answer might be yes, depending on the company), there's probably nothing else to be done. If the answer's no, then you can bring the van being parked overnight up with someone. (Which might result in him being given permission, or might result in him having to park elsewhere, which would presumably make it less convenient to use the office all night too.)

Edited 2021-10-25 19:45 (UTC)

Depends on what the company's lease on the property says, though. One of the places I worked had a private lot, but no overnight parking was allowed without incurring a penalty on the lease. Everyone assumed it would be OK, and I was charged with reading the lease to figure it out. When I found the clause, my boss was like, "Well, if you hadn't read that, no one would've ever known." I was like: "Um, that's not how this works."

Did your boss think you somehow magically activated the clause by reading it? Someone had to write that lease, after all. shakes my head at that boss

Yeah, could be parking the van overnight is against the company's lease, in which case you've got an easy way to deal with the problem without it being anyone's fault!

Some places will let people park overnight though (Walmart is the best-known example, around here a lot of churches and small businesses will if it's someone known to the church) & if he's in the kind of industry that valorizes things like "van life" and bad work-life balance, he may even have been given enthusiastic permission to park the van & maybe even use the bathrooms. If he's got official OK on the van, getting him out of the building at night will be tougher.

The last paragraph gives me the feeling that the senior manager living in his office is just one amongst an entire field of red flags, and probably a fairly minor one at that. If LW is the sort of person who loves cleaning up red flags, then they have plenty to do, and I'd say get to the guy living in the office in due time - either it will become a nonissue at some point, or it will become the key issue that explains all the others - but get the leadership situation sorted out, and (I'm betting) the finance, legal, HR, and everything else sorted, and figure out where this falls in that.

If LW is not the sort of person who likes cleaning up red flags, they should take a moment to look clearly around them and see whether they are, in fact, surrounded by the tatters of red flags that I sense, and then run.

yeah that did feel a bit like this is a pile of chaos from top to bottom.

This feels like a "none of your business" issue with a side of "make sure you document everything you work on to show how valuable you are to the company," possibly with an additional "polish your resume." The lack of leadership plus the organization being in a chaotic state is far more important than some guy sleeping on his office couch.

Yep, 100% this. With a side of working from home whenever possible.

I wouldn't be comfortable bring consequences down on Bob's head but I would also be wary about staying at this place longer than necessary.

Does RMS still do this? (I mean, not with a car. Just with his office.)

oh man. I was 100% sympathetic to Bob -- what if he's unhoused! what if he gets fired for doing this! -- but thinking about RMS doing this skeeves me the fuck out, and makes me more sympathetic to the advice to have LW tell management. If Bob is in dire straits, this would be bad. But Bob could also be an RMS-type making others unsafe, and... yeah.

In short, the world is messy and sucky, and RMS is so gross.

The letter writer posted an update - upper management knows about Bob living in his van and has OK'd it, but wasn't aware of the extent of Bob's use of the office.

Thank you for mentioning this!

Yeah, it's in the comments under "Anon Letter writer":

"Anon Letter Writer*
October 25, 2021 at 1:54 pm
LW update — without revealing identifying information, it was clear that this was a lifestyle choice for Bob so I took Alice’s advice. It turns out that leadership is aware of his living situation. The COO shared that the former CEO approved this and she was aware. I got the impression from her reaction that they approved him living in his van at the office but that they may not be fully aware of the extent to which he is using the office. In either case, she said it will be up to the new CEO how they want to move forward with this living arrangement."

There are reasons that the hacker space I was part of before moving states had a "no living at the space" rule.

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