Every office is made up of individuals, but when you start to examine workplaces around the country and the people who work there, you start to notice patterns of behaviour that repeat from office to office, coast to coast. While some of these characters are funny or quirky, others can be quite destructive, and one such person is Spilly Steven. This member of your office chaos team is known for his carelessness and clumsiness, and his recklessness can wreak havoc in the workplace.
How to Spot a Spilly Steven
Have you ever lent a mint-condition book to a friend only to get it back a few months later with the cover ripped, the spine creased, and the pages dog-eared and stained from dirty fingers? That is the work of a Spilly Steven.
Spilly Steven is an easy person to point out, because he’s the one who’s always spilling drinks, dropping files, and getting your records out of order with his sloppy behaviour. You'll be able to identify him from the coffee stains on his tie after breakfast, the ketchup spills on his shirt after lunch, and by the way his paperwork is always rumpled, stained, finger marked, torn, ripped, and otherwise carelessly managed. Spilly Steven is probably quite disorganized as well, which means he may also:
- Lose or misplace important documents
- Drop files and paperwork frequently
- Leave documents behind when he needs them
- Get paperwork wet or dirty
Spilly Steven’s Impact in the Office
The big problem with Spilly Steven is that his carelessness doesn’t just affect his own appearance and work, but also extends to the projects of his coworkers. A Spilly Steven is sloppy with everybody’s work, not just his own, so this means any file or document he gets his hands on is at risk of complete or partial destruction. Spilly Steven may be responsible for ruining projects, forgetting important documents at home, causing disorganization in your file room, and destroying vital paperwork. Other team members can’t trust Spilly Steven with certain tasks, and this means others must take on more responsibilities to compensate for his careless behaviour. Not only does this make more work for others, but it may also create some resentment among Spilly Steven’s coworkers.
Learning to Work with a Spilly Steven
The good news is that the worst of Spilly Steven’s behaviour in the office can be mitigated, and the secret is backing up your documents and storing them electronically, rather than relying on paper copies. That way, when Spilly Steven completely ruins a file by dropping it in a puddle or spraying mustard on it instead of his sandwich, he hasn’t lost valuable information forever. Instead, the data will be safe, secure, and easily retrieved thanks to your electronic system.
Spilly Steven can be a very destructive member of the office chaos team, and if you don’t take steps to reduce the impact he has in your organization, you could lose crucial files and paperwork forever. Not only does this affect the office, but it also makes other team members wary of working with Spilly Steven, and this can make cooperation and office harmony difficult to achieve. Fortunately, electronic document scanning and storage can protect all your files and paperwork from the ruinous hands of people like Spilly Steven.