I recently accepted a new position as a software engineer at a large company. Everything has been going great so far except for one thing, they haven’t given me a desk yet. Every day I come in and check to see if anyone is out of the office, if they are I sit at their desk for the day and work there, otherwise I sit at a table about the size of a 4 person restaurant table and work with 3 other people. Those are the only seats available, every other seat nearby is taken.
This is a problem for me on multiple levels, firstly I work better with 2 monitors, having more screen real estate helps me to program better especially if I have to consult documentation while I’m coding. Secondly using a laptop all day in what is effectively a dining room chair (when I’m at the 4 person table) is fairly uncomfortable on my neck and wrists.
I’ve talked with my manager about it and he has assured me that I will be getting a desk “soon”, but it has been multiple months already and nothing has come of it.
I have never worked at a place in the past where employees weren’t given assigned desks in the past so I can say that I didn’t think to ask about it in the interview, but they didn’t mention that I wouldn’t have an assigned workstation either.
Am I overreacting to this and need to suck it up? If not, how can I best convince my manager to do whatever is necessary to get me an assigned seat?