I’ve spent most of my career as a booth renter. And I’ve always taken my “my station is my business is my kingdom” philosophy pretty seriously. My station is my business. And when I am not at my station, my business is closed.

It has always bothered me when I arrive at work to open my business and find people sitting at my station. Whether they are eating at my desk, using it to hold their purse, or someone is just sitting there while she visits with her friend who is having her nails done by a coworker, I just feel that no one should use my desk but me.

And now I have another tech in the salon with me. And she doesn’t work the same hours I do, so it’s not uncommon for her not to be here while I’m busy during several hours of the week. And now I have clients come in and put their dang purse down on her desk! Or their soda. Or their husband.

What is up with that? Two months ago that desk wasn’t even there! And all these same people put their soda on the corner of the desk they’re sitting at — my desk. And they put their purses on the back of their chair, or on the chair by the window. And they put their husband in the chair by the window.

Why is it that so many people just think, “Oh she’s not here, I’ll just use her space.”?

You don’t get to sit on my lawn when I’m not home! Why would you usurp someone’s workstation just because they are off the clock?

I don’t even understand why people need the extra space. There’s plenty of room on my clients’ side of my desk. There’s room to hang a purse off the back of the client chair. There’s a space to drag a chair up if your hubby really needs to sit that close to you the whole time you are getting your nails done.

I personally think it’s a weird, subconscious dominance thing — like cats do when they rub all over stuff — a way of marking territory. My clients’ way of making some small statement that they were here first and that they outrank the new girl.

Either way, I keep trying to politely tell people that there’s room for their personal items here at my station; they don’t need an extra nine square feet of space for their latté.