Kindergarten?

While I understand some of the reasoning behind the push to keep our work areas neat and tidy, I question the tactics being used to do it. Although, I must admit, without someone standing over my shoulder, marking items off a check list, my cubicle would likely return to its former state. You see, I have always filed by strata. A place for every stack, and something in every stack. I know what pile each thing is in, and if you give me a time frame, I can tell you how far down it is in the stack.

Now we will have monthly inspections. A photo was taken of each person's cube, laminated with each person's name and the "rules." Each month a team of 2 will circulate among the offices and take an inventory of our space, comparing the current appearance with the photo. Everything must be put away at night (do they really think the janitors care how my desk looks?); drawers must be clearly labeled; surfaces will be cleaned. I always thought someone who worked in an area this clean didn't have enough to do...that he or she had too much time to think about organizing stuff and not enough real work to do to keep occupied.

And as for putting labels on all my drawers? I always thought rifling through someone else's drawers was inappropriate behavior. It just wasn't done. I know, I know. I'm pretty old fashioned to be thinking like that.

Anyway, I spend at least 5 minutes every evening taking what I've been working on and finding just the right place to "hide" it. Every morning I have to go to my hiding place and pull out all that work so I can continue. Another 5 minutes perhaps is spent. That's 5-10 minutes each day not working. Hmm. 10 minutes times 5 days/week times 50 weeks equals 2500 minutes or almost 42 hours spent not working. And I'm getting paid for it. Maybe that's not so bad after all.