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

" (with the exception of desks set up with disability adjustments)."

What about height adjustments? Do you have to find that footstool thing and re-adjust your chair and monitor every day? To be ergonomic, your work station should be adapted to the person.

No 42 year old is called Linda!!!

We started a clear & hot desk policy about 5 years ago & it is strictly enforced. It always looks odd when I see papers out when I visit other offices.

It made it easy when we started working from home. Unless I tell the other person it looks as if I am in the office, but I could be in a cafe, on a train, in a park, out for a walk, in the campervan..... . With extra recruitment over the last 18 months we now have a staff to desk ratio of 6:1 so it is just as well it is seamless.

This is the reason why people are saying the office from Ricky Gervaise's The Office is now considered an aspirational workplace.

Keep calm and professional with the lovely Linda but remind her of the policy once again. Everyone else adheres to the rule so why not her. If nothing changes hide the teddies 😂.

@MistySkiesAfterRain

Does anyone have a permanent office where a clear desk policy actually works? Not seen it myself.

Never! In fact, at my old office, my boss (two bands higher) probably had the messiest desk out of everyone 😂

Managers should have the ability to manage.

That does not mean dragging 4 seaparate issues under 1 umbrella, and then throwing a strop and airing it on a public forum when a member of staff has dared to assert some autonomy.

Piles of paperwork everywhere not just on Linda's desk then?

Is hot desking implemented or is it not? Does Linda hot desk?

"some of them are bloody disorganised and need a kick up the arse " bullying disrespectful language, and the isuue is obviously not just confined to one staff member.

Yet here is the OP ridiculing one staff memember on a public forum

Confidential information left around by whom?

very poor OP

I worked for years with a clear desk policy. I had a locker but most people didnt. I never printed anything off. I had a notebook in my laptop bag and that was it.

We had a twat regularly come around, open desks, try to remove PC hard drives etc. If he found your own personal stuff like bank info etc he would hold it hostage. I bad a glass on my desk and two pens and that was it. Laptop always locked to the desk but in all honestly even I could have forced it off.

@DogFoodPie

This is the reason why people are saying the office from Ricky Gervaise's The Office is now considered an aspirational workplace.

It's probably one reason why WFH is popular (aside from the obvious lack of commute).

In an office, you're side by side for the majority of your waking hours with people with whom you've got nothing in common, for the most part, except the company you work for. The teddy-and-photo lovers will irritate the minimalists and vice-versa, and there's no underlying connection to smooth that over. Add to the mix a harassed manager trying to please everyone and/or a manager on a power-trip and you have a toxic mix.

Substituting Linda for Karen doesn't make this any less unpleasant, misogynistic or ageist a post - and the only things on my desk are the computer, keyboard, mouse and monitors.

We all know that Linda is going to be nearer the 60 mark than 42. Just be honest and say you want the older woman and any evidence of her existing to vanish from your line of sight.

I quite agree!

"the teddy-and-photo lovers will irritate the minimalists and vice-versa"

Not a problem if everyone has their own desk is it? I don't care what my colleagues put on their desks.

If you have your very own desk and nobody else ever uses it then clutter it up with teddies and photos, and souvenirs from holidays and anything else you fancy I suppose. The cleaners can just clean the bit that is uncluttered.

Hot desking is different.

In our office security puts everything left on desks in big plastic bags and informs the linemanager. You have to get your linemanagers signature to get your stuff back. Solved the problem nicely!

@Gwenhwyfar

"the teddy-and-photo lovers will irritate the minimalists and vice-versa"

Not a problem if everyone has their own desk is it? I don't care what my colleagues put on their desks.

Depends - if you find a cluttered environment generally to be uncomfortable or (as some pps have mentioned) feel that a bare office is soulless, it is going to affect how you feel about your office even if you can have your own desk how you want it.

@Sparklingbrook , we did banks too , odd to think I may of cleaned your desk [smile
Yes my manager sent a email to the business about a week before we were due to remind them to get their staff to clear as much as possible off the desks so we could sanitize them properly . It made our job much easier if they complied .

@Franticbutterfly , No 42 year old is called Linda!!! ummm really, just where did you get that info from ?

Stick to your guns OP. Clear desk policies are the norm pretty much everywhere now, better for security and hygiene, look tidier and more professional.

I don't understand why people want photos, toys or teddies to help them work.

Admittedly we do hot desk, but we not only have a clear desk policy but also have to clean down the desk, computer, mouse etc at the end of each day. How can you do that effectively on a desk piled high with shit?

Half of my team have their desks cluttered up with cuddly toys and all sorts of other crap. It makes everything look even more cramped and untidy than it already is. None of them seem to ever clean their desks either, so much dust!

Thankfully we've been working from home since COVID and when we go back, it'll be to a new office with hot feeling and, to my delight, a clear desk policy.

@AlCalavicci, mine was the clear desk without a keyboard full of Wotsit dust.
Belated thanks for all your efforts and apologies for the filthy savoury snack eaters in my team. They could have probably done with their chairs shampooing TBH.

When I first started work I had a proper pedestal desk, built for one person, with two integral sets of drawers, with a filing tray , totally separate from everyone else. Photos,pot plants etc didnt impinge on anyone else's workspace
Modern offices are very different. I dont have a desk. I have a space on what is really a long table, with three or four other people, no barriers or wall space. Personally I dont mind the odd photo or cuddly toy, but too much would really get in the way of other people. It's just not practical. We all have a box or tray with personal stuff that just gets put away in your locker at the end of the day

Just use the points
In your op (well perhaps not the boot up the arse one 🤣) and stick to your policy

Previous place had this and it was enforced by the cleaning crew. They gave everyone a date to ensure all surfaces were cleared to allow a deep clean and anything left would be binned with the exception of pcs.
Lots of moaning about it, some thought it was a joke and stunned to come back and find out cleaners had binned loads of crap. From then on anything left at the end of the day was assumed to be rubbish.
It had to be done to get rid of the mice infestation that was rampant and they were running across the floors and sides during the day.
It was really nice tbh to be able to sit in front of any screen without needing to clean first and not having to use manky keyboards. It was also nicer for us asthmatics not having the dust from the crap that the cleaners rightfully so weren't touching.

@Sparklingbrook, Wotsit dust ? nope never saw that , , , nope not ever.

Tbh if you saw the grime that came out of the keyboards and off the chairs you would wrap your keyboard in clingfilm and insist on a standing desk !

[quote AlCalavicci]@Sparklingbrook, Wotsit dust ? nope never saw that , , , nope not ever.

Tbh if you saw the grime that came out of the keyboards and off the chairs you would wrap your keyboard in clingfilm and insist on a standing desk ![/quote]
The use of paintbrushes was genius to get all the keyboard crapola out, I just thought it was awful that it was even required.

Our clear desk policy was brought in to comply with an enhanced cleaning regime for Covid. I would have thought that would be fairly standard now.