When Does a Messy Office Cross the Line?

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Here's a question we haven't discussed in far too long: is there such a thing as a “too” messy office? When does it cross the line? Can some people “get away with it” — and if so, who?

The Messy Office

Obviously, if you have frequent clients or superiors coming to your office, you're going to keep it in a fairly regular state of order — but if a lot of your meetings are elsewhere (conference room, superior's office, client's office), then you may feel like you can let your office get a bit messier.

I've always been this kind of person, to be honest — part of it is my too-many-tabs-open brain, and part of it is just a general comfort with disorder. I've always marveled at friends who kept their desks bare of all paper except the immediate project they're working on, and felt a kinship with coworkers and bosses who had files, boxes, loose papers, half-read magazines and other things lying on the desk (and floor, and window ledge).

Being a Messy Person, though, even I have been aware of some colleagues whose offices were Too Messy — the ones where people would joke that if a stack of tall papers were to topple, someone might be trapped inside. For some people it was their idea of work life balance — as long as they could work in the space, why should they spend any of their “own” time cleaning it — whereas for a (very few) others there may have been some deeper seated issue.

So here's the question: when does messy cross the line into something unprofessional that makes people question your work product? Does the mix of “messy” objects matter — e.g., do several pairs of shoes in a corner read differently than several open magazines or newspapers in a corner?

What's the messiest your office has been — and what did you do about it? Has anyone brought in professional organizers or bought office furniture to hide the mess? What's the messiest office you've ever seen (and whose was it — a superior's? junior? college professor?)

What Readers have Said About The Messy Office

When we've asked in the past (with polls),

• 51% said it was too messy when it looked like you couldn't get work done in there
• 26% said it was too messy if it looked like someone could live in there
• 11% said that so long as you were getting your work done and weren't bringing clients to your office to meet, who cared?
• 10% said that any mess was too much mess

A lot of commenters, though, noted that the messiest offices were frequently associated with the most brilliant people they worked with (particularly in the legal field), with some even calling it a “badge of honor.”

Perhaps another note of interest here: when we've run articles in the past with tips and tricks to clean your office, readers have reacted with outrage that it was women's work, and men's business publications never run anything similar. (Not true — Forbes and Inc. run stories on this pretty regularly, and even the Harvard Business Review has had similar stories — see, e.g., here, here, and here.)

When we've discussed specific things like moving office files to storage or clearing office cabinets, some commenters reported that they never did it — some said they did it once a year — and others said they did a Friday wipe-down and tidying before they left. (Smart!)

Where do you fall on the issue now, readers — is there such a thing as a “too” messy office? When does it cross the line? Can some people “get away with it” — and if so, who? How often do you clean or tidy your office?

Stock photo via Pexels / Tara Winstead.