Clean Desk or Messy Desk?

Advantages, disadvantages of each?

I just moved into another department and spent most of today organizing my new workspace and cleaning it as much as I could without taking too much kidding from my co-workers. The previous user was a bit of a slob and not too organized. He did his job very well and everyone likes him, it’s just that we have different ways of organizing things.

I keep a pretty clean house and I like my desk the same way. No clutter and everything in its place and out of sight if possible - it’s comforting. I also tell myself it sends the message that I’m in control of things and am dependable and hard-working.

I wonder if that’s really the case, though. Do you see another’s organized desk as a sign of efficiency and productivity, or as proof that they have too much time on their hands? I don’t like to leave papers and projects laying about and do most of my work through MS Outlook, including the calendar. I like to play my cards close and avoid writing things on whiteboards, wall calendars, etc…

Bosses, do I need to leave more signs of my weekly 15 minutes of “real, actual work” or is it OK to arrange my pens by color and type? (kidding, mostly).

What is this “messy desk” crap?! There are merely desks whereupon significant and creative work is performed, and the rigid, uptight, hyper organized psychic labor camps of the anal retentive prissybots!

Copy, one nay to the anal retentive prissybot decor. :stuck_out_tongue:

I got some laughs when I shouted “no wire hangers!” when I threw one in the bin today.

I’m a messy desk person. I tend to binge and purge when working on a project. When I get through with one thing, I go through and get rid of heaps of clutter and find it therapeutic. I recall an article in the Economist that said a study showed messy desk people were more productive, but I can’t find it in this mess.

Some clean desk people seem to be inflexible and can’t start work until every little issue is resolved; my line of work requires great flexibility and I’m a bit suspicious of people who make a big show of having a clean desk.

Clutter fiend here. About the only people I know that keep a tidy desk are either obsessive neatniks or upper management types that don’t really do all that much.

Most of us security geeks and mainframe mavens at work are solidly in the organized chaos camp. Come to me and ask for a TPS report, and I’ll ask “Current or last week’s?” and be able to grab the appropriate one - the current one is on one stack of paper to the right of my monitor and last week’s is in a pile four stacks to the left. I fear for my neighbor’s life if we have a big earthquake - he’ll be buried alive under paper.

A couple weeks ago, I had an absolute FIT when I came in and found that the cleaning staff decided to “tidy up” my desk. I couldn’t find anything and was unable to get any work done for three hours while I undid their “organizing.” Then I emailed the building manager and asked why the cleaning staff was messing with desktop stuff. He confirmed that desktops were off-limits and that he was going to bring this up with the appropriate people.

My desk only looks messy. It is really organized piles. I can find whatever I need, whenever I need it.

If someone messes with it, I’m lost. If something is put away, I will forget all about it. I NEED the pile on my desk until I’m finished with the project, or I will forget all about the project.

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is an empty desk the sign of?

:stuck_out_tongue:

Eh, my home desk is completely organized. Really.

You see, this pile is the paid bills. The unpaid ones are in my handbag.

This pile is reference materials.

This pile is manuals.

My desk at work has both less stuff than the one at home and a set of drawers, so the piles just happen to be inside drawers. But in both of them I have the same problem as Hilarity N. Suze: if anybody moves anything, I need to reorganize the whole thing!

My desk is relatively tidy, it’s my in-box that’s a complete mess!

My desks are almost always messy. If they’re neat and tidy, I’m not working hard enough. There’s no advantages to the messiness, however. Except that I get to make up new swear words while looking for stuff.

Another one for the messy crew here. I have a somewhat secluded spot in the office so most people don’t really get to see the piles of paper scattered about. Its funny that as I started reading the OP, I wondered whether I should tidy my desk up… Not because I feel it needs it, but just because of other peoples perceptions.
Maybe the boss does put a big deal on it. I’m sure theres a stack of paper that could go in the recycling, but then again, I’m also sure that in a couple of days I’ll suddenly need that report!
Decisions decisions.

BTW - loved that point Rico

I’ve had two co-workers who’ve had not just messy desks, but messy offices. Each must have had at least two dozen piles of paper throughout their office. But if you ask them for “that drawing for the sled test”, or “the sprinkler plans in the basement”, they’ll go right to the pile and find it just as quickly, if not more quickly, than someone who actually uses their file cabinet.

I try to keep things in folders, but I generally have about a ream of papers on my desk, anxiously awaiting… something. :slight_smile:

It’s not messy; it’s working on the volcano principle!

Every once in a while I have a blitz, but generally, my desk is not tidy.

bit of both for me. I have 12 ‘wall pockets’ in 2 swatches, one has finished paperwork ready to file, one has contracts, one has hauler of record letters and one has cancellations. The other swatch holds 5 different types of internal paperwork. Typically, I have a current project pile for vendors I need to deal with, a notebook I use to log calls [I write everything down so I get service details right]. My department really depends on spreadsheets for assigning tasks to everybody as we are seriously busy [we have 4800 CVS accounts going live 9/1, and are also working on the next major client coming aboard which has some 11000 locations. We currently have 80000+ accounts that may need renegotiation at any given time for any number of reasons.]

I also have a little whiteboard that I write my planned absences down on - I have 2 different FMLA issues going on right now, one involves having my parathyroids yanked out in october so I am trying to keep my desk as clean as possible so I dont have any last minute panic attacks about missing contracts…

My desk is a huge mess. 99% of what I do is on the PC anyway. It really pisses me off when the cleaning ladies take it upon themselves to do a good turn and neaten up my desk. No matter how much I tell them I REALLY don’t want anyone to clean my desk or touch any of my shit, they think I’m being polite and clean any way. I can never find jack once that happens.

Messy desk. Very messy.

I do everything on the computer, but I’ve got stacks of CDs, a box of tea, pencils, manuals, wet wipes, chili flakes (for breakfast sandwiches) etc etc.

The cleaners used to move my stuff. I asked them (politely and repeatedly) not to touch anything on my desk. They persisted in cleaning, so I complained to the head of the cleaning service, not so politely. I also left a note on my keyboard which said ‘Do not touch this. I know who your supervisor is’.

Thankfully it worked.

I have a messy desk. It will remain that way. If you were hiring me for my cleaning abilities, man did you ever get the wrong man.

However, as a manager I don’t care if you have a messy or neat desk. It is your desk. We each have a different comfort zone.

If you happened to walk by my office and look at my desk you’d have a hard time believing anyone worked there - I keep it completely free of clutter and “stuff.”

When I’m done with something I put it away. Paperwork goes in the appropriate file, pens and such go in the drawer.

I can’t stand a mess - either at work or in my house.

Very “creative” desk, you anal retentive prissybot. In fact, it was the only area I was dinged on in yesterday’s annual review. “I wish StG’s physical files were as organized as her electronic ones.” But I know where everything is.

StG

I like a clean, orderly desk but mine is frequently a pig sty. It’s somewhere in between at the moment.