Is your work desk anything like this?
If you have a messy desk then you may want to think of tidying it today, with a new study showing that you could be in line for a formal warning from your boss or even the sack because of decreased productivity, while your health could be suffering.
The study shows that nearly half of the nation’s desks are a mess with nearly half of workers admitting to losing important paperwork because their desk lacks organisation.
Some desks are so unruly that over a quarter of those surveyed have received complaints from a colleague or boss, with more than one in ten receiving a formal warning about their messy ways, while one in 20 even say they have been fired.
The survey which polled 2000 Brits reveals that almost a third have desks strewn with half-eaten food, empty wrappers and bottles, and nearly half admitted to leaving dirty cups and plates around their workspace.
Debunking the popular myth that women are tidier then men, the study also found that members of the fairer sex have desks just as messy as their male counterparts.
But while an untidy desk can aggravate our colleagues, more disturbingly the research found that it can have a significant impact on our happiness and productivity in the workplace.
More than half of participants feel an immediate rise in their stress levels when faced with a messy desk as soon as they get into the office in the morning. Despite this, over half of us only tidy our desks once a month at most, with one in ten admitting to last tidying their desk over six months ago.
The study by Staples which is backed by Dr Tomas Chamorro -Premuzic, a Professor of Business Psychology at UCL, found that almost 70% of participants feel that having a tidy desk boosted their creativity, and a whopping 80% of people feel more productive and less stressed when their desks are in order.
From a psychological point of view the results of this study suggest that people's productivity, engagement and well-being could be significantly boosted simply by devoting a bit more effort and resource to keeping their office environments tidy and well-organised.
