The only thing I have found (fairly) consistently is that it occurs whenever we use 'Switch Users'. The bigger concern is: 'Why does this happen at all?' I have to do this at home all of the time.
This will allow you to preserve all of the customization you 'lost' without having to recreate everything. If you do not have administrative privileges, you will need to fist sign on with a user ID that does. You can do this under your own user ID if you have administrative privileges:
There is a better way to fix the immediate problem.
