tidy work areas

diane h

We have an area where there are about 35 employees that work at cubicles.
Does anyone have any suggestions or polcies on a "clean desk" policy?
Some employees leave their work stations a mess (ie food, overload of
personal pictures, scraps of paper, etc) and it makes the area look
sloppy and unprofessional. We have tried explaining to the everyone that
they need to keep their areas neat and clean, but it doesn't seem to be
working.

In addition we do allow employees to have snacks at their work stations,
but now some are eating full meals and then still take breaks and lunch
hours. Any suggestions how to curb the bad habits?

Don D

Are we certain that this isn't one person trying to force his/her personal tidyness opinions on the multitude? If this is truly a pandemic culture problem at your company, top management has the option of either ignoring it or making policy changes. In the meantime, I think HR has much more slippery fish to fry than becoming the crumb police and the scrap-paper patrol. Just my opinion.

Balloonman

A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.

My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Paul in Cannon Beach

My personal opinion is that you will be battling an awesome coalition of personal preference, habit, and personality on this one if you decide to become the "neat police".

I think your cause is noble and has merit but you may want to focus less on general messiness (i.e. papers on desk, clutter, photos) and more on truly indefensible problems (i.e. food waste, safety hazards, ergonomic issues).

As I write this I look at my own office space:
- a golf ball is on the floor next to some files
- a hockey puck rests on my computer
- three old coffee cups sit on the filing cabinet
- a pile of papers rests just south of my elbow
- cartoons and memorabilia litter the office walls (including my HR HERO winning entry for best employee excuse)
- a framed photo is on the floor leaning against the wall next to a door stop

And I am actually not the worst in this office.

Paul

Crout

Why make a policy that will be a nightmare to enforce fairly? How are you going to objectively quantify what constitutes a messy desk vs. a neat desk? I agree with Don. It's a bad idea. On the other hand, you could always do what one of my former CEO's did. Come in on a Saturday and throw out EVERYTHING on every desk in administration that wasn't company related.

HRGirl

I once was one of those people that sat in that cubicle and was allowed NO pictures, NO radio, NO mess, NO little trinkets that showed who the person was that sat in that cubicle, NO childrens art work. I HATED IT. NO one in the company was allowed to leave anything on the desk when they left at night, clean...clear, or have a nasty message from the president of the company the next morning.

I have since left that company and as I look around my desk right now, I'm frightened. The desk continually vomits or breeds papers (I haven't decided which yet). I have a coffee cup and a Pepsi can buried somewhere. My daughter stares at me from every angle of my desk, and my computer monitor is covered with the last three years of school pictures from my daughter and my co-workers two children. Allen Iverson's head bobbles behind me on a shelf. Photos of the Key West Lighthouse and the popular sunset are tacked next to my JIMMY BUFFETT DRIVE sign on my bulletin board. There are some beads from Mardi Gras on there too...and yes even music playing (Buffett of course).

My point is I hated to go to a desk everyday that was cold and uninviting, that didn't feel like it was mine. Now I am surrounded by things that make me happy (the papers don't make me too happy) and I actual enjoy coming to my desk every day. The area should be tidy and neat or at least an attempt should be made. I'm sure that there is something more pressing than this to deal with. Just give them a reminder that the area should be clean and free of food and crumbs.

Don D

That was fun to read. Thanks.

ritaanz

Hmmmmmmm, let's see, I have an assortment of toys on the left side of my desk. There's a small red car, matchbook size, sitting on top of a bunch of pennies. That's my Mecedes Benz fund. I have a plastic ball filled with sand and shells and when it's shaken forms different scenes. Helps calm down the restless natives. x:D Next to that I have a flat rock of many colors I picked up in the desert and someone put a lifelike lizard on top of it. That's just the top left. Because I am expected to work, I leave the center of the desk kinda clear. I also have to accommodate the computer, keyboard and mouse, speakers, telephone, calculator and a pen. It's the pen that I have the hardest time finding. There's a coffe cup in the morning and a soda can in the afternoon. Once in a while you may catch me with a candy wrapper or an empty bag from pretzels. That's just the desk. But to me it's home away from home. I still consider it neat. There's neat and then there's sterile. Please leave my stuff alone.

Don D

Since I'm all packed, I suddenly have the tidiest (is that a word?) desk of all. But there was a time recently when you could spend hours in here just looking at all kinds of neat stuff. As long as nothing crawls or changes colors that's not supposed to, I agree with the 'leave my stuff alone' concept.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Diane,

I am curious if any of the above comments were helpful. If it makes you feel better, I am going to clean my office. Not today, but soon.

Paul

scottorr

I think you are looking at a morale disaster. People will not be happy. We allow and encourage our staff to make their areas their own. We want them to be comfortable and enjoy coming into their space so they can concentrate on their work rather than on if their desk looks clean. Of course we monitor for safety issues but generally allow photos and other personal items. How would you determine whose definition of clean is the right one?

Don D

Diane: Be careful with your reply. Paul has a number 2 pencil and is going to analyse what you say. He'll relate it to personality. He does these long-distance evaluations, ya' know.

ritaanz

We had a programmer whose desk was completely covered with computer printouts, correspondence, books, files, professional magazines, junk mail, you name it. His thinking was, why waste your time filing this stuff when you are only going to go through the file and throw it away later. His desk was his file. So..... we took his file cabinet. x:D

Rockie

Being a self-confessed obsessive-compulsive when it comes to neatness, I have to say order and tidiness is very appealing to me, but I also recognize that everyone should have a personal space. I do have a couple of personal pictures in my office of my husband and my dogs that I look at when I am having a bad day because they make me smile.

As long as it doesn't infringe upon anyone else, I say live and let live.

Cheryl S SPHR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-02-03 AT 02:40PM (CST)[/font][p]I'm going to have to go against the majority on this one. We are a bank and many areas of our bank are open to the public. We do ask our employees to keep their work space tidy and free from clutter. We do not allow food, pop cans, etc. in the offices, but they can have beverages in our logo'ed mugs and cups and food is available in our employee lounge. The impression we make with our customers is important. We encourage our employees to personalize their work space with pictures, trinkets, etc. as long as it is in good taste. A morale buster? To the contrary, I think it helps us promote a professional image to one another and our customers.

I have a less than clean desk, but my area is not open to the public. I'm jealous of those who can maintain a clean, neat work area, but the HR paper beast gets the better of me most of the time!

Perhaps your decision should be based upon the type of business you are in and the image you wish to portray.

Leslie

I'm the Employee Relations Manager. The HR Director and I have offices directly across from each other. In personality, she is obsessive compulsive, and I'm pretty laid back. To see our offices you would never know it. Mine is clean and always under control. All the time hers looks like a tornado just passed through.

Not to say mine isn't a tad eclectic - My D-backs opening day cushion hangs next to a 2001 World Champion poster, an African giraffe mask next to a gorgeous picture of Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Shay, much smaller than the Grand Canyon but with Indian ruins). Pottery, potpourri, plants. American flag, pictures of sons, family and boyfriend. Plaques, awards (including a plastic cruise ship won on, you guessed it, a cruise), diplomas and troll dolls - one says 40 isn't old if you're a troll. Stuffed ape, stuffed Seattle Mariner moose (guess you have to come up with some kind of mascot), and a signed $1 bill won in a bet with a department manager who swore I'd never get a computer system to understand his complicated vacation accrual.

And that's not all. Now that I'm looking around, it would probably take me as long to move out of this place as a small house!

Now I know you all thought I didn't have one, but my point is, as long as they aren't breeding insects, and it's not a public nuisance, leave 'em alone - because the next thing you know the person you'll be "tactfully" talking to is your boss!

scottorr

The reason I said this is a morale buster is because this company is already allowing everyone to keep their desks as they please, and, now trying to retro-fit a policy. This company needs to evaluate why they want to change their current policy. Employees do not like change as anyone in HR knows. Changing any policy leads to morale issues.

HRPeg

I wouldn't worry over the paper, personal stuff, etc (don't sweat the small stuff). We don't allow people to eat full meals at their desk, however, the vast majority of our employees are on the phone all day and it is difficult to talk if their mouth is full of food! We put out a BRIEF memo stating that crackers, small bag of chips, sodas, are ok, but to wait until lunch to eat the Whoppers! Also, towards the end of each Friday's workday, we spend the last 10 or 15 minutes emptying trash, organizing the clutter, etc. That way everyone is doing it at the same time and gets into the mode! We are by no means sterile!

Sally

Maybe my organization is more liberal or flexible because we are an arts organization but here's what I see as I look around. The box office that most of our customers see is fairly neat but the employees have some pictures and posters of guest artists.
As donors and board members (many of whom are CEOs of top companies in our city) come into the office itself they see the PR Director's office (he has a filing system that only he understands, but it involves his desk, shelves, table & floor), our Sales Director's office (similar filing system, involving bags of ticket stubs), our Development Director's office (she has some nice artwork, plus a very large 4 ft X 6 ft pink pig -- don't ask!), our Major Gifts Manager's cubicle that she just took down her icicle Christmas lights on St. Patrick's Day, our Executive Director's office with two computers in different stages of being taken apart and an assortment of cups of Coke and coffee mugs, and our Artistic Administrator's office with an organ pipe, stacks of materials from performers agents, among other things. My office has photos of my children, my CD player, a bird's nest with two fake birds on my computer terminal, and a cut out bird on my window from five years ago when it took months for the bird crap to be washed off the window.
Yes, we would like our staff to try to keep things a litte more neat at times, but we've cut positions and all of us have assumed more responsibilities which means less time for housekeeping.
The way we look at it, as long as we don't have problems with bugs there really is not a problem.