Originally Posted by
Steely Dan
when i first started commuting, i was putting my bike in the vacant cubicle behind mine, but eventually word came down that the bosses didn't want bikes stored in the office, so i went to our HR manager and explained that it just wasn't safe for me to street lock my $2,000 road bike. so she went to bat for me and we got a compromise; i'm now allowed to store my bike in a locked, seldom-used basement storage room accessed from the back of the building.
the moral of the story: ask around in a polite and earnest fashion and a workable solution that appeases all parties can usually be found.
I worked in commercial property development in San Diego from '06 to '10, and new and remodeled commercial spaces were required to have bike racks per city code. Check the city code where you are at, and if yours is one of the growing number of cities trying to be "bike friendly", you may find an ally in city hall.