Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Desk and Personality

Are you sitting next to a workaholic - or perhaps someone who
just wants to be loved? A report by Adecco Alfred Marks, a UK
recruitment agency, suggests that a person's workspace is a
crucial evidence of his character.

Desks convey character, and you can tell the type of employee
by the type of desk he has, said psychologist Donna Dawson, who
studied more than 500 desks as research for the report. It is
often junior employees who have personal effects on their desk,
but as they go up the company ladder they will remove these
because they get increasingly unwilling to reveal too much
about their characters, she continued.

In her report Ms Dawson identified six main desk types:

1. The super-organised workspace:
This desk is used only for essential office equipment and
is keep immaculately tidy. Such desks indicate employees
who may feel unappreciated and lonely.

2. The organised Chaos desktop:
The desk is buried under piles of paper and miscellaneous
rubbish. This employee is likely to be a good lateral thinker,
although prone to bouts of hysteria.

3. The creative Chaos desktop:
This desk is scattered with books, drawings and notes. The
owner is likely to be constantly in a whirl of activity, and
is creative and unpretentious.

4. The personality extension:
This desk is covered with photographs and personal effects.
Employees with desks like this need constant entertainment
and can sometimes be insecure.

5. The show desktop:
A large desk devoid of any revealing personal effects. This
employee is good at assessing strengths and weaknesses.

6. The trophy desktop:
Each item on this desk is carefully positioned for maximum
effect. Employees with desks like this are usually natural
team leaders, but may sulk if their talents are ignored.

So, which kind of desktop is yours?

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:56 AM

    Um......very simple workspace on my desk. Computer and a phone only.
    So..what does it mean?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robin, same here - chaotic at times.

    PP, it means you're a neat person - would #1 or #6 fit in somewhat?

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  3. so boring one! also no.3 here ... *sigh* now where is my car keys ... ;)

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  4. Want some sexy jokes? hehe....

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  5. Anonymous9:45 PM

    OMG!!!! Such split personalities! I am #2, #3, and #5.... all rolled into one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:16 PM

    actually hor ... i really like my desk very well organized
    but more the often it under piles of papers & rubbish
    sometimes scattered with reference books & drawings
    as well as photographs & personal effects.
    looks messy, fortunately, i usually have one side of desk they are usualy empty & clean. trophy? i want to put but aint got any yet :(

    omg, who am i? hahahaha ...

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  7. Umm...I have a problem here. I have two different desks at work. One of them is the Organized Chaos type, and the other is the Creative Chaos type.

    Am I having an identity crisis, or am I just chaotic?

    ReplyDelete
  8. identity crisis here too... at the beginning of setting the desk, it seem like #1, within a few days, it became #3, nicely called 'creative' chaos, with workload piling up, it became #2, sometimes when the feeling comes, let's decorate it with some #4, and i still don't quite understand how #5 and #6 looks like..

    33.33% more to go in exam! yeah yeah!

    ReplyDelete
  9. LB, looks like you're an all-rounder, sort of. haha..

    Slurp! reminds me of a colleague who only works with a tiny, tiny empty desk space - the rest is occupied. And he's comfortable, but is constantly running around! Probably that's why he just needs that tiny space.

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  10. MM, chaotic, definitely chaotic! But aren't we all once in a while? Chaos is good for without it, there is no order. Does that make sense?

    YD, sounds like the life story of a desk. haha..

    Hey, good for you, having one third more to go.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Totally the "organized chaos" desk. I work with a couple of other "organized chaos" types and a couple of "super organized". I find I work better with the fellow "oc"s - I do OK with the SO's but things just seem to flow better with the "oc"s.

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  12. Bonnie, I do agree that 'birds of the same feathers' do work better together probably because they think somewhat alike and are willing to compromise or walk the extra mile for each other.

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  13. the ever-famous chaos theory...

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