Enzo Calamo is a stacker. Or he was.
The Vancouver-based marketing director for AEGON Canada says so much paper came across his desk in a single day that by week's end he was surrounded by a fortress of teetering piles.
It was overwhelming, and ate into his productivity and that of his employees, he says.
So he made a business decision and a career investment: He hired a professional organizer.
"She came in and helped me create a filing system, and she made different piles that were more manageable. It just became much more efficient," Mr. Calamo says.
"It's allowed me to handle more projects in a more effective manner rather than get bogged down on one or two projects and hoping to get to others."
We've seen the professional organizer on shows such as Oprah, heroically digging housewives out of their closet clutter or bedroom full of junk.
But this brand of organization is now commonly tackling the cubicle as companies realize that an organized employee is less stressed and more productive, says Clare Kumar, director of marketing for Professional Organizers in Canada.
"Companies are getting it; they're getting that equation between, 'If I help somebody be successful and be well at their work, it will pay off,' " she says.
This year's gloomy outlook will spur many workplaces to get their downsized staff organized, she adds, since administrative assistants can often be first in the layoff lineup and are some of the only ones trained to keep files in check.
Getting organized often makes the list of New Year's resolutions, and more office employees are adding it now that job security is top of mind. A cluttered desk or a lost report is one of the last reasons you would want to be shown the door, she says, but it does happen.
"Clearly the downsizing is going to leave the people that are left behind managing everything even more stressed," she says. "There is that background mental chatter of, 'Oh my God, what about my job?' "
Debra Milne, an organizer who works solely with the corporate set, remembers one woman who was fired because she couldn't navigate the piles of stale reports and unnecessary papers.
"If the manager hands off work to someone who is very disorganized, work will just go missing," she says. Not good in the boss's eyes.
There's an investment in getting organized that goes well beyond stocking up on file folders, says Jane Woolsey, a Toronto organizer who focuses on helping people in their home offices. It's teaching a skill managers often assume people already have, she says. "It's like physical fitness - you don't just get organized once," she says.
Grace Walker realized how little she knew about staying organized after laying off 13 people from the physiotherapy clinic she runs in Orange, Calif., since the economic crunch started in September - her office manager being one of the casualties. After that, she had been playing catch-up, buried in papers and files she couldn't keep track of.
"I was coming in on weekends to get through all the paper," Ms. Walker says. "I was just feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities. Not having a manager any more, a lot of stuff was being dumped on my desk."
Organizer Regina Leeds, author of One Year to an Organized Work Life, taught Ms. Walker to be ruthless about tossing things she won't realistically need.
Ms. Leeds, who takes a Zen approach to her professional organizing, says the key is sorting out your thoughts before organizing your desk.
"The office is like your body, it's what you present to the world. You don't want to be made to feel overwhelmed, tired and exhausted the minute you enter," she says.
