Part 2: What’s on the desk? (Sorrel Downer, Business Life, 2007)
When you have a pen, a phone and a keyboard on your desk, it can be difficult knowing what goes where. Thanks to Lean a national campaign to reduce clutter and improve efficiency devised at a cost of £7.4 million by logistics consultants Unipart, the dilemma is over. The National Insurance department at Longbenton, Northumberland, is one of 44 UK office in which Lean working practises have been introduced, including the latest clear-desk concept in which consultants put black marks on the desks to show where things are to be put. “This is in line with the workstation ergonomics training that all of our staff receive and complies with the display screen equipment regulations (2002)” said a spokesman. “The markers on desks are used to demonstrate that it is much better to work in a tidy work environment where everything has its place.”
But there is dissention. “We had a situation in some offices in Scotland where staff were asked, ‘Is that banana on your desk active or inactive?’ – meaning were they going to eat it? If not, it had to be cleared away” says Kevin McHugh of the Public and Commercial Services Union, adding. “This office has been open for 60 and people have always managed to find their pens and staplers without consultants helping them.”
Clutter
On average, we spend 15 minutes a day or more looking for misplaced paper, equivalent to eight working days a year (Fujitsu ScanSnap!). Over half of us have documents on the desk for over six months, a quarter of us lose documents at least once a week, and 10% lose something on the desk every day. Open Ergonomics deskologist, Nigel Robertson, urges workers to take the matter seriously: “We all know that paper clutter makes us inefficient, but most of us can’t resist carrying on regardless. It’s worth making the effort, though – what most individuals fail to realise is that desk symptoms typically escalate very quickly, and can end a person’s career and reduce their quality of life in a wide range of ways. The two essentials for less stressful, more productive desk management are ‘don’t endure’ – act today, and ‘do it yourself’.”
The desk as a prop in furthering your career
According to Sam Gosling, a personality researcher from the University of Texas, we can’t help forming impressions of people based on the clues left behind in their physical environments. Given that each person in an office starts with essentially the same basic workspace, every variation can be particularly revealing. The FBI is adept at reading the clues we leave behind on our desks and has teams of special investigators trained to read the signs. Using similar techniques, Gosling’s researchers independently made detailed and generally very similar assumptions about the occupants of 94 offices from banks to real estate agencies they visited after hours. The ways in which we link personality to space fall into three classes.
“Identity claims are deliberate statements of our values, for example a picture of some person we admire, Einstein if we’re a scientist, or a framed certificate from Harvard Business School pointing to visitors are intended to impress. If they were really proud they would have it pointing towards themselves. Then there’s behavioural residue. No-one sharpens pencils in order to create an impression but it inadvertently creates the impression of a conscientious person. Thirdly there are thought and feelings regulators – how a person changes their environment to reflect how they feel. For example a person easily distracted might actively remove distractions. “We’re doing it all the time. Some are right – conscientious people do have tidier desk spaces, but they’re also judged by others to be nicer people, and that turns out to be a wrong assumption. There’s no relation between tidy we are and how nice we are.”
Examining the evidence and understanding how people customise their space to make themselves more comfortable, less stressed, says Gosling, “reveals an important need for people to express themselves, so why not take that into consideration in office design?” Of course once you understand what people are reading into the state of your desk, you can rearrange your props to your advantage.
‘I mean business and I’m ready to move up’ The pin board is covered in news articles about industry trends and big names in your field, award ceremonies, staff get-togethers, gilt-edged invitations to events at the Dorchester, Savoy grillrooms. Since your company won the China contract you have added a framed map of China, a Mandarin-English dictionary and a photograph of the Forbidden City. A magazine feature making favourable reference to you lies casually open. Motivation Plaques perhaps along the lines of “Within me is infinite power, before me is endless possibility, around me is boundless opportunity…” a screensaver with the company logo or mission statement.
‘I’m secure in my environment’ The level of personalisation around a desk indicates how secure you feel in the organisation. Well-tended plants, particularly large ones, suggest you have committed to staying, as do large boxes of tea bags, bottles of vitamin tablets. Family photos would be expected here, but they’re subject to a lot of scrutiny and can be interpreted in various ways. For example are they there because you miss them during the long, long working week? Some psychologists see family photos are a status symbol. Unless the kids look a mess and the pictures are facing you, it will be assumed they’ve been put there specifically to create an impression.
‘Hey! look at me – I’m hard at work!’ A red, orange or bright green accent wall or panel is an effective way to draw attention to your corner of the office allowing you to plough on steadily with the task in hand secure in the knowledge your diligence is not going unnoticed. A desk lamp is a good way to make your work space stand out in a large room filled with workers. Create a warm glow and bask. ‘I am efficient and conscientious’ Meticulous, hard-working people often have a clock or watch somewhere on their desk. Pencils will have been sharpened and put in a pot or beside the paperclip section in the drawer organiser.
According to George J. Pfeiffer, author of WorkCare: A Resource Guide for the Working Person, they may also have colour-coded files, a three-tiered in-tray with little in it and an expanse of gleaming desk space. Too few items on the desk, and you’ll risk giving the impression you have an introverted personality or that you’re not wholly committed to the organisation. A single Post-It Note by the phone would be a nice touch. An over-reliance on Post-it Notes – anything above ten – may suggest you’re overwhelmed by your workload.
‘I’m ready for anything’ A jacket on a hanger will indicate a willingness to represent the company at any formal work function at the drop of a hat, but although you may feel like you live at the office, underwear, and multiple pairs of shoes, however practical aren’t viewed in the same light. Likewise, although participation in team sports looks good on CVs, sports bags, cricket bats, footballs on and beneath the desk suggest distraction.
’I'm actually very important’ Your desk may be small and at the end of a dead end corridor, but you can attempt to counter this in the details, like an expensive pen (“Remember” one psychologist urges, “brushed brass always beats brightly coloured plastic.”) Workers with little status in the organisation often give themselves away with a barren work surface. Fight back with a carefully positioned, thick book, preferably one that you’ve written yourself, and photographs of a big house and beautiful family (neither necessarily yours) facing outwards for all to see. Should anyone come by.
‘I’m an extrovert’ Shrinking violets can let their desks do the talking. Use a box of chocolates and a spare chair as bait to lure colleagues in, and posters of celebrities and historical characters (avoid imperialists, politicians and religious leaders) to suggest values and aspirations and act as a conversation starter. ‘Extroverts set out their desk like a showcase’, psychologist Ben Williams (CH) told the BBC. ‘For them, the workstation is like a megaphone, shouting about the things they like or dislike.’
‘I’m a creative ideas person’ Teetering piles of open reference books, tickets, invitations, pictures ripped from newspapers, two mugs of cold coffee all help create the impression of an actively productive person with wide-ranging interests. The publication earlier this year of A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman clearly demonstrating that chaos, spontaneity and disorganisation benefit companies and the people who work in has been described as the antidote to the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success, but this is still a risky strategy. The co-authors themselves did a survey in which they discovered that two-thirds of the people asked felt guilty about being messy, and believed they’d be more successful if they were neater.
And Gosling’s researchers also made negative assumptions about people whose desks were messy. A boss with a messy desk will give the impression the company is about to go under; a worker with a messy desk may not be considered for top assignments for fear they’ll not have the organisational skills to handle it and deliver results on time.
Desk envy
The fundamental rule is the bigger the desk, the fancier the chair, the higher the rank. A big hardwood traditional desk, wider than the door frame, bearing a plaque engraved with your name is a reassuring place to which to retreat if you’re sensing disrespect. Everyone understands the symbolism and each new furniture and stationery allocation is loaded with portent. According to Jared Sandberg, columnist for the Wall Street Journal “When a New York investment bank stipulated that junior bankers would get a particular chair and senior bankers would get the same chair plus a headrest one vice president threw such a tantrum over his non headrest-equipped chair that his employer agreed that he could switch. “It was high comedy,” an associate says, adding that he really wanted to tell the vice president, “Dude, it’s a chair.” By stipulating precisely what furniture entitlement goes with what rank, companies hope to keep the politics out of furniture selection. Standard Oil, California, for example, classifies every employee from Type One (curtains, wall-to-wall carpeting, walnut desk, etc.) down to Type Four (no private office, oak desk). Another Manhattan company has every worker on a sliding scale of office size and desk type from 280 sq. ft., “furnished to taste,” for top executives to 100 sq. ft., with 60 x 30 inch standard metal desks for engineers.
Fundamental desk needs
Meticulous research across U.S. and Canadian public and private sector organisations by the Canadian National Research Council discovered that regardless of whether processing parking tickets or solving genetic conundrums, job satisfaction is based on desk size. The most satisfied workers is inextricably linked with people want on average an 8-12ft workstation, between 2.4 and 3.6 square metre work area and, if in a cubicle, a side panel height of 1.37 metres (54 inches) – apparently just high enough to obscure the person in the neighbouring cubicle. Anything lower and dissatisfaction rises. They also want adequate storage for their stuff and a desk suited to their size, height and reach, and the tendency to simplify office design by giving every employee the same furnishings and physical layout isn’t appreciated.
“Allowing individuals to customize their environmental conditions, a measure of control over lighting, décor, ventilation, yields many benefits to the organization: it improves their mood, enhances their creativity and intellectual performance, and leads them to solve interpersonal problems co-operatively” the report concludes. Desk decor Cubefabulous.com is one of innumerable online companies offering office makeovers, says the New York Post. Jeanie Ahn, a consumer researcher at Time Warner, now has a Parisian themed workspace, complete with large picture of the Eiffel Tower, grapes, espresso machine, wine rack and crystal chandelier. Another office makeover beneficiary, Meghan Flannery, whose Hello Kitty theme extends to Hello Kitty radio, clock, screen saver, stapler and toys, and is offset by pink-and-white cupcake wallpaper, says “I spend a lot of time at work. If you work a lot, your cubicle is like your home and you should decorate it like it is home.” Most dispute the possibility the décor is distracting. In fact, Jeff Pucillo, another Time Warner employee, whose space is shared by NASCAR action figures, a LEGO Ferrari, posters of race tracks and drivers, says “I perform at a very high level at work when I’m surrounded by this kind of inspiration.”
While this level of service is yet unavailable in the UK, workers can achieve something similar with the ever-popular Pimp My Cubicle kit comprising dollar-sign paperweight, leopard print fringe and disco ball. Alternatives include a beach theme and the ever-popular Taj Mahacubicle, Fundamental desk needs Meticulous research across U.S. and Canadian public and private sector organisations by the Canadian National Research Council discovered that regardless of whether processing parking tickets or solving genetic conundrums, job satisfaction is based on desk size. The most satisfied workers is inextricably linked with people want on average an 8-12ft workstation, between 2.4 and 3.6 square metre work area and, if in a cubicle, a side panel height of 1.37 metres (54 inches) – apparently just high enough to obscure the person in the neighbouring cubicle. Anything lower and dissatisfaction rises. They also want adequate storage for their stuff and a desk suited to their size, height and reach, and the tendency to simplify office design by giving every employee the same furnishings and physical layout isn’t appreciated.
“Allowing individuals to customize their environmental conditions, a measure of control over lighting, décor, ventilation, yields many benefits to the organization: it improves their mood, enhances their creativity and intellectual performance, and leads them to solve interpersonal problems co-operatively” the report concludes.
