An awful lot can be revealed about a personโs personality by taking a look at their workspace, according to new research from commercial property specialistย LondonOffices.com.
Chris Meredith, CEO of LondonOffices.com,ย said: โGetting to know your co-workers has never been easier โ just look out for the giveaway signs listed below and youโll get an overall idea of the people youโre working with.
โFrom shelves lines with awards and certificates to desks littered with bobble-heads and novelty souvenirs, they all reveal snippets of a colleaguesโ personality.โ
Here are the seven things your workspace might reveal about you:
1. You donโt really like entertaining
If youโve purposely positioned your desk to face away from your peers and the doorways where guests will enter, you probably donโt like to entertain. Pair this with the fact any nearby chairs are piled high with discarded documents and files so that no-one can sit down with you, your workspace is telling others that theyโre not welcome to linger and shouldnโt stick around.
2. Your door is always open
Besides literally keeping your physical door open, there are a number of giveaway signs to indicate that youโre always happy to entertain. A dish full of sweets placed on the corner of your desk, a drawer full of painkillers and other first aid supplies, a number of chairs placed welcomingly around your workspace, and well-fed plants decorating any available surface. This is likely the place your colleagues flock to be.
3. Youโre not planning on sticking around
Youโve got files piled up in boxes, your desk is lacking any kind of adornment, thereโs no books on your shelves and not a plant or award to be seen. Either youโve just been fired, or youโre planning on leaving very soon and donโt feel the need to spend time making yourself at home.
4. You take yourself very seriously
Youโve had all of your degrees and certificates professionally framed and theyโve been hung up in a perfect row behind your desk; your numerous awards have been polished to a โTโ and placed neatly on your shelves; the same shelves are full of magazines featuring articles either about you or that youโve contributed to; your name plaque says your full name, title, and lists your qualifications. We get it โ you think youโre very important and deserve respect, but this is likely only going to turn people off.
5. Youโre just daydreaming about your next holiday
A few (office appropriate) holiday photos on your desk of your most recent trip abroad is perfectly acceptable, but a calendar dedicated solely to counting down the days to your next getaway (146 days) is a bit too much. Combined with the stack of cruise brochures piling up in your drawers, your workspace only serves to tell everybody else youโd much rather be anywhere but here.
6. Youโre a super clean freak
A clean, tidy workspace is pleasant for anyone working in or around the area, but if you keep bottles of antibacterial spray in your drawers, your desk is piled high with packets of cleaning wipes and thereโs not one single item out of place besides a stash of sanitiser, your workspace is verging on actually being sterile โ and thatโs intimidating.
7. Youโre a bit of a joker
If your workspace is littered with humorous posters, novelty souvenirs, ironic bumper stickers and bobble-heads, you probably donโt take work too seriously. To some, this could portray you as a creative and light-hearted individual, to others it might indicate a lack of focus โ particularly if on the desk of a financial type.
