After sharing an internal office with another associate for a year, I finally have my own office, with a window. Just wondering if you have suggestions on how to decorate now that I have my own digs. I bought this Syrian rug on a trip to the Middle East that does not really work with my modern living room decor at home. Would it be appropriate for my new office, to give it a more personal look?
— John
Although the Syrian throw rug sounds lovely, John, the question for me is not how to decorate your workplace, but whether to decorate it at all. I subscribe to the view that less is more when personalizing your office space. A Syrian rug might mean “worldly, sophisticated and mature” to some, yet cry out “pompous, rabidly ambitious upstart wants my job” to others. It sounds like you might be one step away from fuzzy slippers and a pipe clenched between your teeth.
Have you ever heard the expression “Don’t outshine the master”? Sure, your workspace, cubicle or office says something about you, but be careful what message you might be sending. Or, at least, be certain of the message that you are sending. Overly intimate office decor can send the wrong signals, and an office cluttered with personal mementoes and dirty coffee mugs might send the message to the people who matter at work that you are messy, distracted and unprofessional, and have poor personal hygiene. Not you specifically, John. These are just examples.
So: Keep your office space tidy and relatively impersonal and make sure that all your personal effects can be carried out in a small box. If it ever hits the fan, the office security escort will not give you time to gather a truckload of personal effects and download personal files (two words: MEMORY STICK!).
Inhuman? Yes. Cynical? Definitely. Soul-crushingly depressing? Perhaps. But your office is not your living room. In fact, your office is not even technically your office. Therefore, it need not reflect your personality. I happen to believe that, first and foremost, your office should reflect your commitment to the workplace. If you must personalize your office, do so with mementos that reinforce your brand, like your ultra marathon medals or some asinine comic strip that references the legal world. At the white-shoe Boston firm where I worked, I put up a reproduction of a painting of Castro smoking a cigar. The cigar smoke was shaped like Cuba. It was intended to be subversive, although I was quite content to collect my big, greasy wads of U.S. dollars from the firm. Not the way to go, folks. Clearly, I had no aspirations of partnership back then.
I wouldn’t recommend bringing in art until you make partner, least of all artistic representations of a communist regime. So, please don’t decorate your office space. Personalize it. And if you must personalize it, moderation should be the guiding principle. Save the rug for your bedroom, John.
Sandra Rosier is a former Supreme Court of Canada clerk who has worked at large firms in Toronto and Boston. Having come to her senses, Sandra currently practices tax law at a smallish Toronto firm. Her etiquette column for lawyers appears every other Monday at lawandstyle.ca. Got a question for Sandra? Email us.
Photo by Werwin15