[miningmx.com] — YOU may have only eight things on your desk when
you go home at night.
At work you may chew chewing gum or enjoy suckers, but you may not consume
chocolates or nuts.
These work-environment guidelines are contained in an 11-page memorandum to
employees in BHP Billiton’s new City Square skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia,
which they recently occupied.
The memorandum leaked out and was last week’s most important business news
Down Under after being published in the Australian Financial Review.
The main theme in the memorandum is a “clean-desk practice,’ which clearly brooks
no individuality among employees of the world’s biggest mining company.
This immediately reflects the strong preferences of Marius Kloppers, the Chief
Executive of BHP Billiton, whose obsession with clinical workplaces is well known
beyond Australia.
Kloppers has been known to fly off the handle upon finding a half-eaten muffin on a
desk in the group’s commercial office in Singapore. Last year, he imposed a slightly
more lenient version of these prescriptions on the group’s Brisbane office, and gave
orders that an analysis sheet should be kept of odour infringements, the locations
where they had taken place and the offenders’ names.
Clean-desk practice means that the only items that may remain on a desk at the end
of the day are a monitor, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, telephone and one A5 photo
frame, the memorandum explains.
It is accompanied by a photo of how the workstation should look.
Anything else will be removed by the night-time cleaners, who will leave a note on
the desk and the building managers will discuss the matter with the relevant
department head so as to have the situation rectified.
No plants from home are permitted – “to avoid unintended plant diseases or
maintenance issues’. Moreover, ample plants have been provided “which are
carefully chosen to ensure a green, clean and safe working environment’, says the
memo.
There may be only one A5 photo on a desk. That’s no bigger than 148x210mm. You
may replace it with a company commendation if you have been awarded one, but
displaying both – photo and commendation – is taboo.
Foods permitted for consumption at the desk include chewing gum, throat lozenges
and suckers.
Chocolates, fruit, nuts and other snacks are to be eaten in designated places.
– Sake24
