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Dr Froswa’ Booker-Drew answers your questions, putting her years of experience and practice into the goal of solving those knotty problems that beset us, and assuring us: ‘you’ve got this’. If you’d like Froswa’ to look at your particular problem, email it to managingeditor@thebusinesswomanmedia.com.
We are in an open plan office and the person who sits at the next desk space to me is like one of those people you see on World’s Extreme Hoarders. Her desk is a nightmare of clutter and stuff piled up every which-way. I’m a total neat freak… I could fill in for Marie Kondo at a pinch. It is doing my head in! Antionette J.
Antoinette:
Believe it or not, there is research by psychologist Jay Brand that correlates higher salaries to individuals with messy desks. There are other studies such as one from Princeton that totally contradicts the aforementioned stating that there is a negative effect of clutter. Obviously, clutter works for some and not for others.
I’m curious—does the clutter impact your co-worker? Is she not able to find things? Does it cause low productivity and focus? If so, that’s a different conversation because that will definitely impact the team at some point. If that’s the case, you might want to have a conversation with your boss about it and what can be done to help her.
Is it impacting your ability to be productive or is this more of a preference issue?
If girlfriend is just messy, then my question is to you is what kind of relationship do you have with your co-worker? Is there trust established? If so, I think you should tell her that her desk is driving you crazy and that you are willing to help her organize. You recognize that she’s busy and it might be last on her list to deal with so ask kindly how can you help her. If she says no help is needed, then let it go. There are some career experts that would say drop hints but I find that in situations like this, it can come off as passive aggressive or the hint is completely missed because the person doesn’t realize you are talking about them. If there is not much of a relationship, your desire for her space to be clean might make things worse.
At the end of the day, it’s her space and without company policy that directs acceptable and unacceptable workspaces, it’s her prerogative. That is one of the challenges with open plan office space but I also believe those spaces were designed for collaboration. How can you use this opportunity for you both to come to some kind of collaborative agreement about the space you share? Sounds like you didn’t need Marie Kondo after all! You. Got. This!
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