I work as a reporter at a small, weekly newspaper. I've been at this job for 4.5 years and in that time have built a close relationship with my editor and feel I'm respected by my boss/the publisher. They trust me enough that I am occasionally allowed to work from home and the hours are pretty flexible, which is nice.

A little over a year ago, one reporter left and a new reporter, we will call him T, was hired. He was hired part-time initially because they thought the area he was covering might be doable in less than 40 hours per week, and they were looking to save money. Well, he was barely producing any copy in 30 hours per week, and they attributed that to the fact that, since he was part-time, he might not be as committed to the job. They decided to make him full-time.

Still, he was hardly producing any copy. The standard is supposed to be 4 full-length stories per week, plus obituaries and shorts. He was producing maybe 1 story per week, or if he had to do an obituary, no stories. He also started calling almost daily and saying he would "work from home" but he never actually did any work. He'd even say he'd submit a story by a certain time, and then not do it.

My editor spoke to him about this several times, and repeatedly asked him if there was a reason he did not want to come in to the office to work. Eventually, he told her that he found that he was too distracted by the open office concept - we don't have cubicles, we all have desks against various walls in one open room with the editor in the middle. T said he couldn't concentrate or produce work with people talking around him and walking around, etc. (Except he wasn't producing work when he was at home, either, so...)

Anyway, the office had an old darkroom from when the paper developed film, and over the weekend my editor and publisher cleaned it all out, repainted, bought an AC unit for it, and turned it into a private office. T was granted this office, with a window and a door and all, when he got into work on Monday.

WHAAA!?!?

I love my editor, but I'm kind of pissed! Her solution to him not being a productive employee is to reward him with his own office? None of the other writers, three of whom have been here much longer than he has, and who have never had issues with productivity, were never even consulted about whether THEY might like an office.

I don't get it! I would LOVE my own office. So is my lesson that I should have been a crap employee who complained a lot in order to get what I wanted?

I'm debating saying something to my editor but I don't want to offend her. At the same time, like I said, we have a close relationship (she's going to be doing a reading at my wedding!), and she often confides in me. She's talked to me plenty of times about T and the issues with him (I usually feel like it's none of my business and just listen and nod.)

Maybe I'll just mention that it would be nice if we could rotate use of the private office annually or something, and throw in that I'm sure we would all love to have that option available to us? Or should I be more direct? Or not say anything at all?