Are you allowed a messy desk at work?

[Ghostornot]

Realise lots of people hot desk but if you don’t does your company have a policy on messy desks?

My managers desk looks like a particularly sad episode of hoarders. She can’t authorise my annual leave as she’s lost my form somewhere on her desk , we’re supposed to have a clear desk policy but she clearly doesn’t care

No, no personal effects or nik naks and nothing like lost forms or mess.

Using a paper system is surely part of the problem? I can't believe any companies don't use email/an actual programme for approving leave?

We have a tidy desk policy which isn't enforced. So it's each to their own. Some people have piles of paperwork, some have nothing, some have food and manky dirty cups. It's a mishmash. Personally I like a tidy desk so the only paperwork on it is what Im working on. I have a terrible messy box file of stuff which needs properly filing though.

NHS, annual leave forms with a little tear off slip!

We can keep whatever we want on our desks, but if it’s covered I crap, the cleaners won’t touch it (not that I expect my desk to be cleaned for me, it’s just part of the cleaning contract)

I hate a messy desk. I can’t concentrate properly if I’m surrounded with stuff, it makes me feels really stressed. My colleague opposite keeps encroaching on my desk, I keep threatening to put up a fence

We have a clear desk policy and a very strict information security policy which are poorly enforced. My managers desk is atrocious - full of documents which should be filed away

It has to be cleared for the cleaner once a week, but other than that we’re left to our own devices.

Mine is one of the messier desks, but mainly because people dump stuff on it for me to sort out.

Pretty tidy, if you overlook the in/out/pending and stuff waiting to be scanned & archived trays.

I once worked for a firm that had a major disaster, so I'm used to clearing everything away in the safe or fireproof cabinets at the end of the day.

Not your place to criticise your mangers desk. You have a right to ask your manager to find your form and approve your leave.

I try to avoid paper if possible and every project I work for has a slim DIN A 4 folder where the 'in progress' things are kept.
So if I drop out tomorrow somebody else can seamlessly take over.

Most people in our office have clear desks with only the 'in progress' - materials out, but that is because they work like that not because of a policy.