Question about filing into filing folders (Now With Poll!)

In My Humble Opinion
1

In 16 or so years of working in offices, I’ve never run into this before, and I’m wondering if there is a right and wrong answer here, or if it is just preferences. The files in one filing cabinet are filed so that when you open the folder on a desk in front of you, the papers on the right-hand side of the folder are upside down. To me, this just seems wrong - in English-speaking countries, we file so that the papers are on the right-hand side of the folder, with the heading at the top of the folder, but I’m (somewhat) open to the idea that this might be a stylistic preference.

What say you all?

2

Some folders don’t have a distinct “top” and “bottom”, so your question is ambiguous.

3

The folders I’m talking about have a larger tab which indicates the right-hand side when you lay the folder open flat on a table. Here’s a picture of the kind of folders I’m talking about.

4

I’ve always put the papers on their left side, and facing me, so that, when I pull the folder out of the cabinet and quarter-rotate clockwise, the pages on the right side of the opened folder will be in proper reading position.

(If I were storing books this way, I’d be laying them on their spines, cover-art toward me.)

Obviously, this is for “portrait mode” documents; for “landscape mode,” it’s even easier.

I’m also fond of hanging file folders, with manila file folders inside them. Sort of a three-stage system: drawer, hanging folders, loose folders.

Nobody I’ve ever worked with does it the way you describe in the OP, so that files come out upside down. Deride them!

5

I don’t understand how one of those “right” options isn’t exactly the same as left (or how top and bottom come into play in a folder obviously meant to put papers in sideways). But anyway, the papers go on the left.

6

You’re wrong. :smiley: (j/k)

StG

7

They go on the right, in reverse chronological order.

8

If the papers are not placed on the right side facing up then you are dealing with a sociopath who will likely send faxes upside down and pee on the toilet seat.

9

Turn the filing cabinet around.

10

I think you’re describing it better than I did - maybe I needed to make a video to demonstrate. :slight_smile:

Maybe the book is a good example; if you were filing a paper into the book the way my co-worker is filing, when you open the book to a paper she has filed, it will be upside down compared to the other pages in the book.

11

Is your co-worker left-handed? I used to work with someone who filed things the way you describe and it all came down to her being left-handed–she would pick up the papers with her left hand and drop them in the file; thus, they would be upside down when the file was pulled and opened.

12

I chose the first option, because that’s usually convenient for reading files. The only time it’s different is if there is an identifying name or number in the upper left hand corner of the page and you might have to pull paper work out of the file. Then it’s easier to be able to just thumb through the corners of the pages w/o having to pull the whole folder out and lay it open.

13

I haven’t noticed if she is or not, but that would explain it. It still makes it upside down, though, doesn’t it?

Next I’ll do the crazy way lefties staple things, so you can’t fold the papers properly. :slight_smile:

14

I’ll be interested in hearing about it. This lefty always puts the staples in the upper left hand corner at a 45 degree angle. Is that wrong?

15

I leave the folder in the desk/cabinet drawer and just remove the contents to read them. I put them back into the folder with the tops of the papers to the left. And the newest paper goes in front of the others, so it’s on top of the stack when I pull them out.

16

So maybe you’re just opening the wrong side…

17

This is how I’ve seen lefties staple at more than one company. This is how a document is stapled so you can flip pages over and fold them most efficiently. It sounds like you are stapling correctly. :slight_smile:

18

This lefty puts the papers in the manila folder pretty much every which way. The important thing is that the right papers be in there, regardless of which way they’re facing.