I Refused to Give Back My Coworker’s Old Office—I Don’t Care If She Was Away on Maternity Leave

It seemed like a basic workplace dispute. A coworker wanted her old office, and another didn’t want to move out, so HR stepped in. Simple, right? Except it spun in a direction no one saw coming, and now the office isn’t exactly the warm, emphatic place it used to be—with everyone convinced there’s more to the story than what actually happened.

A Tiny Workplace Disagreement That Sparked Big Drama.

Dear Bright Side,

My coworker Jenn went on maternity leave in 2023 and kept working from home afterward. I took her office, way better than my loud cubicle.

Now in 2025, everyone’s called back. She came in, asked me to move, and I said no. HR agreed. But today, I froze when my coworkers started whispering that Jenn was heading my way to “take her office back”.

She came in, closed the door, and said she didn’t actually want it. HR had already approved her remote arrangement, and she just needed to come in once to clear her stuff. She grabbed her old inbox tray, said, “All yours”, and walked out.

Now everyone’s acting like I either pushed her out or she pulled some secret move on management, and I’m stuck in the middle of gossip I didn’t ask for. So what do I do now? Was I the bad one?

— Mark

We’re sorry this whole situation got so messy. Honestly, stuff like this happens in a lot of workplaces, so we put together a few tips to help you handle things like this more smoothly in the future and make your time at work a bit easier.

• Get ahead of the gossip with one simple, boring truth: Don’t let the rumor mill fill in the blanks for you. Casually drop into conversations that Jenn already had a remote arrangement approved and only came in to clear her stuff. Keep it short, keep it neutral. People lose interest fast when there’s no drama to latch onto.
• Be friendly but not defensive: If anyone makes a weird comment like “So...you kicked Jenn out?”, just laugh lightly and say something like, “Nah, HR sorted it way before she even showed up.” No long explanations, no emotional tone.
• Touch base with Jenn, just once, to clear the air: You don’t need to become work buddies, but a quick message like, “Hey, just wanted to say thanks again for letting me know everything was sorted. Hope the remote setup’s going well,” shows you’re not part of any weird narrative. If she responds kindly (which she probably will), it’s proof the situation is chill.

• Don’t overcorrect by acting awkward in the office: People can smell guilt or discomfort and will assume it means something. Just keep acting normal. Sit in your new office, do your work, be pleasant. If you look tense, people will assume there’s a reason. Half of workplace PR is just staying unbothered.
• Remember that most coworkers forget scandals in like...three days: This feels huge to you because you’re in it. For everyone else, it’s just Tuesday’s hallway entertainment. Give it a week. Someone else will microwave fish or send an unhinged reply-all, and you’ll be old news.
• Stop taking ownership of other people’s imaginations: A lot of the stress here comes from you feeling responsible for whatever story people invent. But you didn’t create the situation; HR did. You didn’t create the gossip; bored coworkers did. And you didn’t wrong Jenn, because Jenn literally told you everything was fine.
  Sometimes the healthiest thing is to remind yourself, “This isn’t my circus.” People are going to believe whatever makes their workday less boring, and that’s not on you to fix or manage.

Funny how fast a normal day at work can turn into “Who’s the villain this week?”, and honestly, he’s not the only one. Another reader wrote in with a totally different situation, but the same end result: she said one simple “no”, and suddenly she was the office bad guy. Here’s her story: I Refuse to Cover for a Coworker on Maternity Leave—Now I’m the Office Villain.