Clear desk policy or “no Linda you don’t need 10 teddies on your desk you’re a 42 year old woman”

[Strafficy]

I’m at the end of 2 weeks annual leave and clearing out emails.

Member of the team has taken the opportunity of me not being there to start an email thread with my boss about my clear desk policy and how unhappy she is. Boss rather bemused and “can you talk to XXX when she returns”

I started 6 mths ago and have asked all staff in my division to have a clear desk for a number of reasons

1. piles of paperwork everywhere some of it years old and I want them out of the habit of printing everything (one member of staff was printing all their emails!)

2. We are supposed to hot desk and it isn’t fair on part timers when they come in to sit at someone’s desk when it’s piled high with family photos/teddies/half eaten bowls of cereal

3. Frankly some of them are bloody unorganised and needed a kick up the arse

4. confidential information left all over the desk for anyone to see

This staff member has done nothing but complain about it since day 1. I’ve had just about enough now

@HeddaGarbled

I think there’s probably room for some compromise here.

This.

Do staff have lockers to put their stuff in?

It doesn't really matter if Linda wants 10 teddies on her desk - if that makes her feel happier at work then it causes no harm and probably does some good. There is no need to be arsey because she's a different person to you. If you feel its an issue for people using the desk when she is not there, get her to put them in the locker you have provided at the end of her working day.

My understanding of clear desk is just that it's cleared of at the end of the working day. Set fair, so to speak, for whoever gets it next?
What you say implies (to me, so could be faulty understanding) that you can't stick a photo or teddy out (if that's your thing) or a pile of papers and a couple of mugs and a bag of Maltesers, and a few sticky notes on your desk during the day.
That would be a bit soul destroying.

So people have regular desks but you also have a hot desking policy?
Which is it? Because a hot desking policy means a different desk every day.

In theory it means a different desk every day but in practice that often doesn't happen. People tend to default to the same desks if they are in every day, and it's only the people who work reduced hours who are hunting round to find desks.

I find that the worst of both worlds. Either have allocated desks or hot desking, not half and half - if you don't have an allocated desk but have to walk round asking 'is anyone sitting here' like a commuter on an overcrowded train, it's really shit.

To work smoothly, hot-desking means you have to be able to sit at literally any desk, no questions asked (with the exception of desks set up with disability adjustments).

Sorry my point was in ref to @PineapplePrincess

I'm on board with clear desks to an extent. If you're in an open plan office and there are 100 desks all piled with stuff it can be overwhelming and overstimulating. I'm with you @Skybluepinkgiraffe Plus, it makes it hard for cleaners to actually clean the desks. Since covid wfh, I've realised how unhealthy and unsanitary the office environment was.

I do like a few bits and bobs - I'd have a pot of stationery and a small tray with personal items so it wasn't completely bare but still tidy for anyone hot-desking. Maybe a middle ground is a 'no loose items' policy.I found it a pain when a colleague would have to search through their massive pile of paper before answering a question.

Just tell her that to leave stuff on the desk containing confidential information is a breach of GDPR and can result in a company being fined thousands and thousands of pounds. See if they want that on there head and risk losing there job

@VladmirsPoutine

Each to their own and all that but there's something I find very bizarre about people whose desks are covered in pictures of their relatives/children or dolls etc. Like why!?!

Because picture of their kids remind them who they are working to support when work feels really shit and they don't want to be there?

Because pictures of people important to them makes them feel like a connected meaningful person rather than an anonymous corporate cog?

Could be loads of reasons really.

Personally, I'm on Linda's side in this. I think you should scrap hot desking and let people have their desks how they like.
So long as there's no confidential information left out, I really can't see the harm in a bit of personalisation.

@Skybluepinkgiraffe

My understanding of clear desk is just that it's cleared of at the end of the working day. Set fair, so to speak, for whoever gets it next? What you say implies (to me, so could be faulty understanding) that you can't stick a photo or teddy out (if that's your thing) or a pile of papers and a couple of mugs and a bag of Maltesers, and a few sticky notes on your desk during the day. That would be a bit soul destroying.

You can bring these things out of your (tiny) locker, if you’re lucky to be allocated one, and display during the day, but everything has to be cleared at the end of the day, even if you’re returning to the desk the next day.

Our company have a desk booking policy. So you have to book your desk, and can do so two weeks in advance. I have sat at the same desk for 7 years, last 2 through the desk booking arrangement. The only time I’m not there is sickness or holidays and happy for others to use it.

It’s clear desk and if you leave anything you get into trouble from facilities.

Looking round the office it just looks soulless. No personality, could be any company and any worker. Feels like if you dropped dead it saves someone the bother of clearing your desk. 😂

Has Linda become the new Karen?

Threads like this with bosses thinking they're so clever for chucking employees' personal stuff in the bin makes me glad I'm self employed.

The one time I came in and found the office empty and paperwork everywhere I cleared it all into the locked storage and "accidentally" took their only key home with me. Came in to total panic and while I wasn't popular that day it never happened again....it wasn't really the only key but as manager I held the other one no one was keen to ask me for it given the circs!

I bet they all thought what a nobhead you were. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Staff are people. They aren't automata. Frankly they probably spend most of the time they're awake sitting at their desk or in the office and if they want a bit of personalisation to remind them they're a human being as well as a money-making machine it shouldn't be a problem. Provided they can still do their jobs it's none of your business.

@SquirryTheSquirrel

So people have regular desks but you also have a hot desking policy? Which is it? Because a hot desking policy means a different desk every day.

In theory it means a different desk every day but in practice that often doesn't happen. People tend to default to the same desks if they are in every day, and it's only the people who work reduced hours who are hunting round to find desks.

I find that the worst of both worlds. Either have allocated desks or hot desking, not half and half - if you don't have an allocated desk but have to walk round asking 'is anyone sitting here' like a commuter on an overcrowded train, it's really shit.

To work smoothly, hot-desking means you have to be able to sit at literally any desk, no questions asked (with the exception of desks set up with disability adjustments).

We have a hot desk policy, but with desk booking system. People just book the same desk they always sit at, because 95% of the time most people at our office work from the same location.

We have other offices with more turnover on desks, but then you never know the person you sit next to in that office and are often separated from your team in these locations. So not convinced that works particularly well either.

If it's a clear desk policy then that's what it is.

My desk is home from home but I'm the only one to use it and there is never any paperwork left out.

We obviously don't have a clear desk policy.

Tell them covid and hot dealing means you have to be able to actually clean desks.

Printing out emails and leaving confidential information lying around is just crazy

God I fucking loathe office politics.

I would forward the email back to her and just respond ‘noted’.

I would then send an en-masse email reiterating a clean desk policy due to hot desking. This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis and if you get pressed reiterate, we’ll review it next summer.

Don’t get drawn into the tit-for-tat it’s not worth it.

We have assigned desks. And while we are supposed to have a clear desk policy each night, it doesn't often work as such.

I would hate to hot desk. That's something that would make me look for another job. Despite the fact I am in first so could get the pick of my desk. I like to have a place to work that feels like mine. That my boss can leave work on if they need to. I don't want to feel like just a number and so easy to replace they don't need to bother to clear out my desk.

Some people like empty desks. Others like to see some reminders of family or friends or whatever at work. Neither is wrong. If Linda likes her teddies what's the issue, provided she's doing her job? I don't have teddies or anything like that but my desk is how I want it and as an adult that's my decision.

I'm so glad that my team are on permanent remote working now!

You sound like one of my old bullying managers. Because we had a hot desk policy, I got the blame if any papers etc were left on my usual desk. I also got blamed for any leftover cake, boxes, rubbish etc because I sat near the cupboards, meeting area. I had to sit there because I'm disabled so needed a particular type of desk when I was in the office and that desk and area suited best. I now work from home permanently and this nit picking by managers contributed to the decision (and lack of adjustments too)

I couldn't hot desk to save myself.

I'm all for being tidy and considerate, and the confidentiality issue is important of course, but I'd rather not feel like I'm working in a gulag.

I would have thought Covid alone made a clear desk policy sensible.
After all it is easier to clean that way.

Our clear desk policy only related to papers, there were no rules about personal objects. It was advised to lock away small attractive items if they belonged to the company in case they were stolen but up to you what you did with your own stuff. We didn’t hot desk.

Oh god I’m having a flashback to when I implemented similar policy. There was one stubborn man who refused to comply, I got rid of the filing cabinets and told him we weren’t keeping paper files anymore. Even got him to use the electronic versions quicker than using paper files.

Can’t remember how I got him to sort his desk out, but eventually I spent so much time arguing with him over it we ended up getting married and having 3 kids.