For a shared desk handover, leave the agreed shared equipment, take your personal belongings and work documents, and record any unresolved equipment issue through the workplace’s usual channel. The next person should be able to identify what belongs there and adjust the setup for their own work.
The useful question is: what does the next person need to know before starting? This guide offers a simple way to organise that handover. Adapt the examples to your workplace’s arrangements, including how equipment, cleaning and information are managed.
Agree on what stays at the desk
Start with an inventory of the items that belong to the workstation. That might include a monitor, docking station, keyboard and a labelled adapter. Confirm ownership before moving or removing anything: a cable that looks spare may belong to shared equipment.
Keep the inventory short enough to check at a glance. A desk identifier and four or five item names may be enough. Where two similar adapters serve different purposes, use the workplace’s approved labels or an agreed diagram rather than expecting every user to recognise them.
Do not make a colleague’s personal items part of the shared inventory without agreement. An individual headset, notebook or charger may need to travel with its owner even if it is often left in the same place.
Give personal items a destination
Before leaving, gather the items you brought and put work material where it belongs under your workplace’s arrangements. Choose a destination for unfinished work: an approved digital workspace, a designated storage location or your own work bag, as appropriate.
Try a simple pack-up order: documents, personal devices, stationery, then the bag itself. Check the drawer or other permitted storage area you used. This is an optional routine, not a rule that every shared office needs to adopt.
Avoid leaving a document on the desk solely to remind yourself about tomorrow. Put that reminder in your own task system instead. Handle confidential material through the organisation’s established process, rather than including it in an open desk note.
Make the note specific and useful
A handover note is most useful when it describes an exception. Write what you observed, where you reported it and what remains unresolved. Keep customer names, passwords and other sensitive information out of a note that anyone using the desk can see.
For example: “Desk B: the keyboard’s space bar is sticking. Reported through the equipment help channel today; awaiting instructions.” Follow the workplace’s process for faulty equipment, including any instruction to stop using it. A note alone does not resolve the fault.
For a non-fault example, an agreed note might say: “The shared presentation adapter is in the labelled accessories drawer.” Only leave that message if the location has been checked. Remove or update it when the arrangement changes.
Leave room for the next person’s setup
A shared desk does not require everyone to use identical settings. WorkSafe Victoria’s office guidance recommends giving people time and training to adjust shared workstations to their needs. Follow your workplace’s setup instructions and the equipment maker’s directions. Read WorkSafe Victoria’s office layout guidance.
On arrival, check the shared inventory and any current note, then prepare the equipment for your own task. If a setting or control is unfamiliar, ask for instructions rather than forcing it or copying a colleague’s setting by default.
If the next task involves both a screen and printed documents, use our guide to planning one desk for screen work and paperwork to sketch the change of layout.
Planning accessories for several shared desks? See our workplace accessories page for current products and what to include in an enquiry.
A handover you can adapt
Imagine one person finishes screen-based administration before a colleague arrives to review printed documents. The outgoing user takes their laptop, paperwork and personal charger. Shared equipment stays in its agreed location. Any issue is reported, and the incoming user arranges the workstation for the next task.
Use this short departure check:
- Shared equipment is present, or its location is explained.
- Personal belongings and work documents have been collected or stored appropriately.
- Cleaning follows the workplace’s process and the equipment’s care instructions.
- Equipment issues have been reported through the agreed channel.
- Any handover note is current, specific and free of sensitive information.
Common questions
Should we return every desk to one fixed layout?
Agree where shared items belong, while allowing the next person to make permitted adjustments. A reference photo can show inventory and storage locations; it should not imply that one chair or screen setting suits everyone.
Do we need a note after every use?
Use the workplace’s existing handover process. If no note is required and nothing has changed, an extra message may add little. Reserve an exceptions note for information the next person needs to act on or check.
What if an item is missing?
Check the agreed storage location and report the gap to the responsible person. Avoid replacing it with an unverified look-alike or taking equipment from another workstation without permission. Record the unresolved gap through the normal process.