officemate moving in on my space with her clutter

[beesknees]

i share an office with a relative, and we each run different companies. our office is divided down the middle with her having an extra foot as it is.

 

my side is pretty empty except for my desk and i use it to meet with clients. my officemate has cluttered up her side, which never bothered me so much because it's her side and my clients usually don't see it.

 

but, lately she has decided to move large boxes of supplies from her house to store in the office- far too many which will barely fit in her side, and i mean floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall boxes. now this- the clients will see! it looks bad. she has a big house she's kept them in for years, so i don't understand why she has to move them to our little office. i also hate clutter, and i fear she will start inching over little by little because she's run out of space.

 

she's asked that i put her gigantic printer on my desk. she lets me use it all the time, so i'm apt to let her put it on my side, but i need all my desk space, and if i put it next to me, my drawers won't open.

 

what should i do? i don't want to hurt her feelings, and we are related. we cannot afford the office without each other to help pay the rent.

[curiousnycgirl]

Since the printer is a shared resource, in which she invested, I would figure out a way to accomodate it in your side of the office. Have you considered a printer stand?

 

As far as the boxes go - I would have a very direct/professional conversation with her. I would not bring up the fact that you dislike clutter - I would simply say that you feel the boxes are making your office look like a warehouse and you are not comfortable with your clients being confronted by it.

 

If she balks I would say that you really cannot continue to work in this environment and offer to help her move her boxes to a self storage unit.