NOT in your Work Desk

Today's short lesson on what not to keep in your desk at work.

1. Tax and IRS documents. Including paycheck stubs.

2. Legal documents. From an arrest, a divorce, a home purchase, whatever.

3. Bills, notices of bills, notices that your electricity is about to be turned off.

4. Love letters of any kind. Most especially if it's to or from a co-worker.

5. Pills, medicine. Anything that remotely looks like it could second for an illegal drug.

6. Stashed bottles of booze (although unstashed is pretty normal for us advertising folks).

7. Bank statements, receipts from personal purchases, any financial-institution documents.

Now here's why. Because a couple of unfortunate things might happen to you at any given time in which case another person (co-worker, boss, HR) has to clean out your desk for you. You might get fired. You might defect to Cuba on your lunch hour. You might get hurt in an accident that requires an extended leave of absence. You might die from choking on a chicken bone. Mostly, though, you might get fired.

Oftentimes when you are let go, you aren't given the opportunity to pack your desk. So take a moment right now to look around your desk area, open your file cabinets, peek in your overheads and see if there is anything that you don't want the general public to have their eyes on. Take that home.

For privacy’s sake, this is smart. Unless you are in an office that you lock on a daily basis, most of us are in cubes that are wide open to anyone walking around the company. Any Joe can open your drawers and help himself to your personal information.

Take a moment to also consider what you are keeping on a company-owned computer. Because in any of the unfortunate situations described above, you may not be able to access your computer either. I have had to get access to a former employee's email in a few cases, and I can tell you it is ALWAYS eye-opening.

Now I don't wish getting fired on anyone, so for your own privacy do NOT keep this shit in your desk.