j4 | Shall I at least set my desk in order?

There's so little to do at work at the moment, so little actual work that isn't just makework, just desk-tidying. I mean, in a sense my whole job is just desk-tidying; but usually it's more like helping to tidy other people's desks, or designing desks that are easier to keep tidy, or giving people shinier in-trays.

I mean, I started the day with a meeting to discuss moving someone's desk to another office. We all agreed over a year ago that the desk needs to be moved, but I can't actually move it, because the ultimate responsibility for that lies with (or somewhere between) two people who aren't here. One of them will be back on Thursday, when I'm off on holiday. The other one may or may not reappear some time in the next three days. Meanwhile, two people are working at this desk, frequently trying to write on the same piece of paper. One of them has to split their work time between this desk and another desk in a different building as well.

Then I sent an email asking three people why they haven't tidied their desks yet when they agreed two months ago that they'd do it by the end of February. Sometimes this job feels like it's all the nagging and bothering of raising kids without even the possibility of any decent end result, let alone any ice-cream or potato-printing along the way. The only reply I've had to that so far is an automated vacation email.

I've also got an email to send out to a bunch of other people saying "here's a snapshot of how your desk could look if we took all the rubbish off it," and asking if they're happy for us to go ahead and do this; but there's no point sending that out before Easter; if I do, they'll just forget about it over the break, and I'll end up sending exactly the same mail two weeks later. Also, previous interactions with them suggest that they'll throw a temper-tantrum (see comment above about raising kids) about how they have to have a messy desk because that's where their secret den is.

It's all just so much nonsense. I'd be better off tidying the house, or baking a cake. I could go home and make flapjacks, and bring them into work tomorrow, and it'd be a more productive use of the time. I mean, honestly.