Toys, food and unfiled paper swamp office desks

04/10/07 17:42

Soft toys, food, photos, and unfiled paper are just a few of the things that many office workers surround themselves with, according to new survey results.

Conducted by equipment supplier Toshiba, the survey is part of a campaign to encourage more responsible printing habits, as well as promoting sensible filing within the workplace.

Results showed that over half of respondents (64%) admitted to having piles of unfiled paper on their desks, while 40% confessed that they would rather throw paper away than spend time trying to file it sensibly. Equally, a similar amount owned up to not tidying their desks on a regular basis.

However, it isn’t just paper creating disorder on desktops. One in 10 respondents admitted to keeping a cuddly toy at work, with employees in the financial services coming up top for having toys, food and photos on their desks to help them get through the day.

Findings presented at Psychology Conferences in the UK and Canada also found that pictures and plants within the workplace help to create individual environments, which indirectly improves the level of performance.

Steve Hewson at Toshiba voiced his concerns about wasting paper in the workplace: “There seems to be a tendency to print documents for one-time use and then just dispose of them,” he said.

“However, by scanning documents and filing them electronically, these become much more available to the rest of the organisation, free up desk space – and reduce the amount of paper being wasted.”