Consequences of Messy Desks

Read and discuss the following text.

Explain the underlined phrases and sentences in your own words.

Explain the words and word combinations in bold in the text.

Be cooperative.

Have realistic expectations.

With increased workloads and cutbacks, many people are feeling they can’t do their best work. Keep your work in perspective. Look at the big picture and establish reasonable objectives. Prioritize and make lists. Do what you can each day, and recognize each accomplishment. Look at what you can achieve, not at what you can’t.

In hard times, it is difficult to focus on the shared goals of employer and employee. Yet, maintaining an attitude of cooperation and a team approach can make your days more positive and rewarding.

Communicate, communicate, communicate!

Clear communication between management and staff is vital in these days of ongoing change. It is also important for management to invite input from staff on work issues, particularly those that will directly affect staff.

Lost documents, lost time and possibly a lost raise or promotion

INDIANAPOLIS - It's time to get organized. Sure, being neat will make you feel better. But organiza­tion has important career implica­tions. First and foremost: produc­tivity. Being in control of your office space saves time.

There are uncountable hours lost each year in the workplace be­cause of disorganization. But people mix up cleaning with organizing. Being clean is a visual thing, but being organized is being able to find things when you need them.

Detailed system of organization for offices involves a critical question: What to do with all that stuff that lands on your desk.

Handling those incoming items is a big issue. We get buried under it. The physics of clutter is that it will come into your office without your assistance but will not go away without your as­sistance.

Handle all mail, e-mail, voice mail and verbal requests immediately and make one of five decisions: discard it, delegate it, re­spond to it, file it for a follow-up or put it in a safe place for future refer­ence.

And as you make that decision, remember the 80/20 principle. Eighty percent of the stuff you get you are never going to need again. Twenty percent you do need, and you need to prioritize its importance.

As you shuffle through the stacks, be aware that the boss may be watching.

The cleanliness and organization of an employee's desk are consid­ered by more than half of Ameri­ca's managers when they conduct annual reviews, hand out raises and offer promotions.

Of the 2,600 bosses surveyed worldwide, 51% agreed there is a link between a worker's organiza­tional skills and job performance. In other words, employers look more positively at neatniks than slobs.

The reason may have a little to do with the bottom line. It is estimat­ed that every document lost by an employee costs a company $120, the DYMO study says.

Employees fall into a variety of categories when it comes to work­place organization, the study says. About half of American workers are professional but relaxed, meaning their desks are organized but have a couple of small neatly stacked files; 31% work among organized chaos; 13% are the creative type, or very messy; and 7% are prim and proper, meaning the only thing on their desks is a paperclip.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29