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We'll decide where you put your pen, tidy office police tell civil servants
Last updated at 10:52am on 05.01.07
It is 'much better to work in a tidy work environment where everything has its place', according to officials
There's a place for everything in the office.
And to keep workplace essentials exactly where they should be, consultants have told civil servants to mark out spots for their pen, phone and computer keyboard with black tape.
The idea is part of a £7million Government 'efficiency' drive to improve the working environment of public-sector staff.
It is being piloted by hundreds of workers who process National Insurance payments.
But union representatives believe the project is 'demoralising and demeaning'.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, which is paying for the so-called Lean Thinking programme, said the tape would help to keep desks clear of clutter.
It is 'much better to work in a tidy work environment where everything has its place', officials said. 'Part of the Lean processing is to clear the workplace and only keep essential items to hand,' said a spokesman.
'This is in line with the work-station ergonomics training that all our staffreceive and complies with the display screen equipment regulations.
'The markers on desks are used to demonstrate that it is much better to work in a tidy environment where everything has its place.
'Staff involved have confirmed they prefer the tidier workspace.'
But union leaders say the scheme is impractical for shift workers who share desks.
Kevin McHugh, branch sec-retary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, at Longbenton National Insurance complex, near Newcastle, said the project would lead to endless rearranging of desks.
'If the person coming in after you has longer arms, he will have to move the markers,' he added.
'This office has been open for 60 years and people have managed to find their pens and staplers without consultants helping them in that time. Marking the desks tends to get members upset sometimes when they've got personal photographs on their desks and they have to move them around.'
Last year, it emerged tax collectors subject to the same Lean project had been told to take down family photographs in case they made them unproductive. Managers at HMRC offices in North Wales told staffto tidy up their desks and remove their family snaps.
According to a leaked memo, it was supposed to encourage 'efficient business processing'.
The edict also banned workers from keeping food on their desks and restricted them to one cup, pen and pencil.
Fruit was allowed only if it was 'active' - jargon for whether or not it was about to be eaten. So-called 'inactive' fruit was outlawed.
One worker had a banana on his desk and was asked whether it was 'active' or 'inactive'. He was told he had to eat it or remove it.
PCS members in HMRC centres took strike action in July as the Lean system was introduced.
The union said it leads to 'deskilling' of civil service work. A work to rule protest followed in October.
'A tidy work environment'
Reader views (8)
Civil servents should not be thought of as stupid, they never asked for LEAN and with the exception of a tiny minority (as in any office) they do not need to be told how to work. This is a multi million pound initiative that was thought of at the top, copying a business model from Toyota's production line. Every civil servant I have spoken to or heard from that had anything to do with LEAN has dismissed it as a waste of money and as a staff demoraliser.
- Jon, Exeter, United Kingdom
This initiative might have proved useful if it had been trialled in John Prescott's office. Then he would have known where to keep his two inch ruler and he would not have been allowed to have an 'active' banana on his desk.
- Rick, London, England
What a complete waste of money. I am sure that it could be spent on more worthwhile projects such as providing each civil servant with a new biro and stapler!
This would be better than having a handful able to say "that is where I normally keep it, but someone has borrowed it."
- Graham, Reading, England
Do not take this story seriously! The purpose of the Civil Service is not to achieve administrative efficiency. It is to provide a bolt hole of otherwise unemployable people who would swell unemployment figures to politically unacceptable levels.
The last thing the country needs is a Civil Service staffed by intelligent, dynamic people. Leave the sheep alone!
- Roy Gilbert, Solihull, England
In the meantime, the real world has to finance this rubbish.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke
My God, what a bunch of comedians
- Brian, Swindon
What a complete wate of money - if civil servents haven't the common sense to be able to, at best keep a clear desk, or at the very least maintain their own stationery, one would have to question, quite rightly I believe, how on earth they got their job in the first place. Council tax wastage on paper clip management training.
- Karl, London
More money wasted on ridiculous consultants. Why not spend that money on their line front workers as a recognision on improved efficiency. Please it just make me sick.
- Ana Davies, London
