I remember one day at a former job when I cleaned my desk. You can't imagine the shock waves it sent through the office. Not a passer-by who peaked in didn't exclaim in some fashion or another. But my favorite statement of surprise was my producer's expressionless comment: "It looks like you have nothing to do."
What a Dilbertian thing to say! Immediately I realized the implications of what he was suggesting: cover my desk with papers and magazines and mail and suddenly I look frantically busy. Remove it all (even if it is filed away in an organized and productive system) and suddenly I look as though I could do my nails all afternoon. I had no idea the terribly important and productive aura I projected with my paper-strewn desk. I didn't realize that to my underlings, it looked like the boss was swamped. With a clean desk, they undoubtedly whispered among themselves about how I did nothing but write personal e-mails all day.
And maybe they were right. In a later job, I found myself as the underling of a boss with a very clean desk, and I assure you we whispered regularly about how little he had to do (while we slaved under our piles of paper and floods of e-mail). But truth be told, when I had gotten to the bottom of my piles I realized that much of it could be easily shuffled away into a file or the trash. I was left with a small, but significant, "action item" stack and a very clean desk.
In reality, I am frantically busy at times, and at other times I have a few minutes to clean off my desk. But if it makes the staff feel better about my contributions to the team to have a desk littered with papers, then papers it will be. After all, I must do my part to keep morale high in these perilous times.
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