No universal desk system. The desk as a work place. Some general helps for all types of desks. Analyzing the desk system problem. Desk systems for executives. General clerks. Special desks for special clerks. Stenographers and typists. Secretarial desks. File clerks. THE need for standardization of desk systems will be perceived when it is recognized that every minute motion used in the handling of office work has a bearing on the final result. It is this combination of motions in working that differentiates the good from the poor worker, the trained from the untrained, the efficient from the inefficient. If work is to be handled without waste of effort, standardization of desk systems is imperative. It is needed to provide the proper location for all material which is at the moment not being worked upon or with; this includes all work in process, unfinished work, supplies, and data required to carry on the work. It is needed to preserve order and enable the office manager to keep in touch with all work in process throughout the office; it will enable him to locate any particular piece of paper or other material wanted (no matter in what desk it is located) without waste of time, should the occupant of that desk be temporarily absent. All these things are of vital importance to the effective conduct of the business. NO UNIVERSAL DESK SYSTEM Office managers have for years recognized the need of a remedy for such conditions, and many have been the attempts at a solution, all of which are in a certain sense attempts at standardization. Some few have solved the prob lem in a fairly satisfactory manner, while others have endeavored to solve it by establishing one rule for all desk workers, a procedure which is manifestly wrong. A clerk's desk system will certainly not suit an executive. The activities of the clerk are usually expended upon routine work which arrives at and leaves his desk with regularity. Whatever portion of it remains on his desk at the close of the working day is merely the work which came to it on that day and which time did not allow him to complete. The operations performed by a clerk on the surface of his desk are altogether different from those performed by an executive. The top of the latter's desk should be as free as possible from papers, and its interior will, besides supplies, only contain papers under consideration, with perhaps some data that are almost constantly used, and possibly a very small amount of unfinished work at certain times only. A stenographer handling routine stenographic work will operate under entirely different work conditions from a secretary stenographer, who, besides writing letters, acts as an assistant to the executive, and who requires a miscellaneous equipment, and places for much special data. In like manner, special clerks, such as bookkeeping machine operators, file, mail-opening, sorting, and card entry clerks, will require not only special supplies, but special work conditions on the tops of the desks they use. THE DESK AS A WORK PLACE Regarding the desk, then, as a work place, let us glance at the various conditions to be considered. The top, or surface, of the desk is usually the place where the work is actually performed, and observation in an unstandardized office will show that in this connection there is very little system or order. Clerks will be observed making many false or wasted motions in searching for materials with which to work; they will be noted exerting much more effort on each cycle of operations than is necessary. Clerks handling books will have them located in most inconvenient places, and much unnecessary walking, twisting, stooping, bending, and stretching will be observed in every direction. On the other hand, some clerks may be noted who do not appear to be exerting any noticeable effort, yet who are accomplishing as much as those who are constantly under a physical strain; closer observation, still, will usually discover that they are really accomplishing more. The secret of this apparently perplexing difference will be found, upon analysis, not to reside in the work itself as a whole, but in its minute subdivisions. If the efficient worker is closely observed, it will be found that the tools and materials he uses constantly are always placed in the most accessible position for immediate grasping, while those less often required are in the next best location, and the objects that are seldom used will be relegated to the most remote places on the desk top. The late Frank B. Gilbreth analyzed this work by dividing a typical desk top into a number of visible squares, and attaching lights to the head and hands of the worker and then taking a still photograph of the clerk at work. The result showed a somewhat confused series of lines over the top surface of the desk, but it was very easy to trace the number of times the hands reached out to the distant squares. Now it is quite evident that in the travel of any particular body through space, be that space great or small, the distance traveled has an important bearing upon the time occupied in traveling; but it is not at all certain that each worker will naturally choose the shortest path for each motion he makes, and these photographs demonstrated that fact undeniably. The drawers of the desk or table are generally used for the accommodation of tools, materials, supplies, and equipment, and a study of the arrangement of these receptacles will invariably show a wide variation of conditions; very seldom will it be found that there is behind the arrange |