Getting your own office is an exciting thing if you take even the slightest pride in your work. Whether it means you’ve been given a promotion, or it means you work from home, having the opportunity to design your own work environment, to create a ‘lair’ where you can work on your secret projects, and having the ability to summon people is really a great feeling that fills you with a sense of power, importance and accomplishment. Most of us see ourselves as some kind of Blofeld/Doctor No character when we’re sitting behind our desks (I really must get a cat) or a kind of Iron Man or Batman in the Bat Cave... but how can we design our office so it gives us that sense of control and organisation while still being respectable and pleasant for those we need to work with?

Firstly you need to make sure everything is organised (which I discussed in a previous article ‘Keeping Your Home Office Organised’) but you also need to think about the layout (the ‘Feng Shui’ if you will) and the decoration. In terms of ornaments and ‘knick knacks’ you need to keep yourself fairly restrained. The problem is, the more personal items you have on your desk or in the room, the less impact each item will have. If you have a picture of your Mum on your desk that’s great and the receptionist will probably think you’re very cute, but if it’s in among fifty other photos of your friends and family then it loses all significance and the same goes for every other piece on the desk. Furthermore, an array of bits of junk and clutter will make the desk look untidy and will make it more difficult to clean (meaning you’ll do it less).

So try to keep a limit on the amount of items you have on your desk – maybe keep it to three or four, and at the same time keep them varied. Maybe one photo, a toy and a piece of memorabilia? You can mark your individuality in other ways through pictures, mugs, posters and your sense of style.

And this sense of style can come out in how you arrange the office which will tell people a lot about you and your goals. Things to take into consideration when doing so is – where is the window in the room? You don’t want the window to be behind the computer or it will create glare. Where will visitors sit? By creating a bigger height difference between you by giving them a low chair you’ll increase their perception of your power and authority though not necessarily your benevolence.

Other great items to have in the room are desk toys – which serve as a distraction while your computer loads while not sucking you in quite the same way as a game of solitaire; plants – which counter the feeling of being ‘trapped’ or ‘cooped up’ while increasing oxygen in the room (fish make great companions too but are a bit exotic); and pictures of outside locations for the same purpose.

Mack LeMouse

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