The office suite I share with my colleagues across our division has desks, cubicles, two conference rooms, and a break room.  

Our team was the last to move – our offices needed to be vacated first – and the rest of the division had already staked out their claims.  

And it was…a mess.  Every surface was cluttered with old print samples, office supplies, and surplus computer equipment.  For every cluttered and junky looking surface there were two empty cabinets.

It bothered me for a while and was a little embarrassing to have people come to my office in the back corner past all the clutter and junk.   Didn’t seem, to me, to reflect a professional environment. 

Fast forward to this year – yes, it’s been like this for years – and my mental health is not doing so great. On a Saturday, I decided to come into the office and tidy things up – fighting back against the chaos with a little order.

I took a couple trashbags with me, turned on all the lights so I could see what I was working with, and set to work.

I gathered and broke down all the empty cardboard boxes.

Gathered all the surplus computer equipment in one area. 

Organized all the office supplies and paper. 

Cleared off all the desks and the counters in the break room.

And set up a nicer workspace for one of the student assistants in a cubicle with a lamp.  Everyone deserves a nice place to work.

Took me about 2 hours and while I worked I was supportive and encouraging to myself.

“Nice work on breaking down those boxes, Anthony!”

“You found the perfect place for those supplies,”

“You are doing such a good job with those desks!”

When I was done, I took out the trash and turned out the lights as I left.  

I assumed that my colleagues either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care.  It didn’t matter too much since I did it to try and help my own head. And it was very cheap therapy.

We were all remote on Monday, but on Tuesday one of my colleagues asked if I knew who cleaned up the office.  I told him it was me and he was surprised – but thanked me.

By the middle of the day, though, things turned slightly sour. 

Empty cardboard boxes appeared on top of a shelf that I had just cleared.  I didn’t know who put them there or if they were intended to be saved or just left as clutter.

And an extra monitor  – that I recall seeing on the floor of a colleague’s office – got moved to a desk in the common area that I had cleared.  Rather than clutter up their office, it now added to the clutter of the common area.

I had expected a slow slide towards chaos – it is the way of things since order takes work – but I didn’t expect it to happen quite so fast.  Not even a day…

I know that I shouldn’t feel bad about it or feel anything about it.  This is an office suite shared by 20 people and I don’t get to impose my own ethos on the space.  

But it would have been nice if it had lasted just a little bit longer…