There are certain offices that defy description – piled deep with boxes, paper, reports and other clutter.

It’s a wonder how people working in that kind of space ever do their jobs. And by extension, you wonder what their homes look like.

Mira Kosevich, one of the few fully certified professional organizers in Canada, says that these people likely aren’t doing their best work – they are neither as efficient nor creative as they might be.

Concurrently, they are probably under more stress than necessary, adds Kosevich, whose Calgary-based business, Paper Tiger Consultants, operates by the motto “Transforming Chaos into Peace.”

Mike Dempster photo, Business Edge
Professional organizer Mira Kosevich teaches clients to ‘cleanse’ working and living environments.

In the past year, Kosevich has observed a significant shift in the business community’s attitude toward workplace organization. She is receiving more calls to help individuals, teams and departments to clean up their act.

It’s part of an overall attempt by companies to help their employees become happier, better balanced, and ultimately, more productive.

“Some companies are hiring me to go in and help employees whose offices look like they’ve been hit by tornadoes, and to organize their homes as well.”

With clients across Alberta, south to Los Angeles and as far east as New York, Kosevich has a keen eye for shedding clutter – big and little things that curb our potential.

She has seen some offices that have left her speechless. The worst case to date was a Calgary engineer’s office. Kosevich couldn’t see a thread of carpeting for the 70 boxes of files on the floor, nor could she at first determine if the office had a desk because the heap of paper was piled so high.

And she’s been in nice homes – “more than once” – where she had to clear a path in the basement in order to walk about.

Helping a worker “cleanse” themselves of clutter in the home and office works hand in hand, because often stress and negativity begin the moment a person crawls out of bed.

As part of her one-on-one coaching, Kosevich tours people’s homes and usually focuses first on the client’s master bedroom.

There, she tells the client to get rid of the kids’ toys scattered on the floor, remove the desk and computer (she sees this a lot), tidy the closets and toss any clothes that haven’t been worn for six months or that don’t fit.

“Once that’s done, they are motivated to go through the rest of their house,” Kosevich says. “It makes them feel better, and they sleep better if their bedroom is stress free. Then they wake up to a positive environment, not one cluttered with negatives.”

In the office, she has the client explain the need for each and every file, report and piece of paper scattered about. There’s a sense of relief once the employee begins to eliminate the distractions.

Kosevich says it’s been proven that people hoard clutter because it’s an “adult security blanket.”

“People, for some reason, are not willing to let go of something from the past. That’s why when you go through your paperwork and go through your home, a lot of stress and negativity is released.”

With more than two decades in the HR field, she believes the workplace is on the cusp of a new era.

“I am hearing more and more from senior management and CEOs that they want to spend the time to help their employees to get more organized. They want to avoid people getting stressed out and taking disability leaves.”

As part of her job as a certified human-resources professional, Kosevich has, in the last year, conducted more than 70 surveys of Calgary-based companies asking employees to rank their workplace needs. Consistent with recent national surveys, employees are putting salary demands farther down their wishlist of priorities. They are seeking work/life balance, better communication, respect and help with reducing stress.

In the U.S., companies have already recognized and reacted to the trend. In Calgary, Kosevich says, CEOs “are really beginning to listen to their employees.” (She says that Edmonton businesses are about a year behind Calgary’s pace.)

She cites one Calgary company that has reorganized its workplace at the employees’ request to allow staff to work 10 days in a row, and then take four days off.

“When they were in a normal Monday-to-Friday schedule they’d come back from two days off and weren’t coming back to work relaxed,” Kosevich says.

“Now they have four days in a row. One fellow, each month, goes out to Vancouver and sails. He returns energized, and feeling that his boss does care for his well-being.”

She also says that while there has been a trend to provide more “mental health days,” a day off here and there isn’t a cure-all.

“Sometimes there’s even more stress at home than there is at the office. People come back worse than when they left.”

To help, companies are recognizing the need for time-management training and are creating systems within the organization that help employees prioritize work, avoid duplication and deal with backlogs.

Kosevich says that far too often, she works with companies that have costly practices.

“One thing that happens all the time is when an employee quits, the information he has accumulated ends up being filed in boxes and sent off to storage.

“That’s money that’s filed on a shelf. And then a company will spend thousands of dollars redoing work that’s already done. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand was doing.”

That’s why it pays for individuals and companies to get better organized, Kosevich says. She suggests that anyone can take a first step by cleaning his or her own office, or bedroom closet. She promises we’ll feel better immediately.

Web watch: www.papertiger.ca