MarieKondo,the
goddessoftidyingup,
turnshergaze
tothedailygrind
ByBretBegun62
MarieKondo’sJoyatWorkarrivesatanawkwardtime.What
doesit meantobe“atwork”nowthatwe’resocialdistancing?
Andhowwouldonefind“joy”inanything,saveforthefact
thatit’s11:08a.m.,I’mwritingthisinmypajamas,andI’m
somewherebetweensecondbreakfastandfirstlunch?It’s
notKondo’sfaultthatherbookis beingpublishedduringa
pandemic,butit’simpossiblenottoreadit inthatcontext.
Workis changingfundamentallyrightnowforhundredsof
millionsofpeoplearoundtheworld.
JoyatWorkisn’ta manualforservice-sectoremployees
whomaynothavepaidsickleaveandcouldfindthemselves
needingguidanceonhowtomakethebestofeconomicruin.
WhenKondorefersto“work,”she’stalkingaboutwhite-collar
typeswhoarelikelytoreceivea bimonthlypaycheckwithout
muchdisruption.Herbookis forpeoplewhoseemgenerally
discombobulated—whoseownmessespresentnologiceven
totheircreators—andaresearchingforremedialorganiza-
tionaltools.InthefirstchapterwemeetAki,whoroutinely
hastroublefindinga pen.Howis Akigoingtostayemployed
inthecomingmonths?Oneofthebenefitsofbeinginan
officeis thatthecollectivegazeofdisapprovalforcesusto
getours---together.
Kondo’sfirstbook,TheLife-ChangingMagicofTidyingUp,
hasbeentranslatedinto 40 languagesandhassoldmore
than11 millioncopiessince2011.The 2019 Netflixserieshas
beenshownin 190 countries.Kondo’spremiseis simple:
Beingmoreorganizedwillmakeyouhappier,andif
you’rehappier,you’llhavea betterlife.Youorganize
by discarding anything that doesn’t “spark joy.” No
task is too mundane for examination. Kondo suggests
folding your socks as opposed to balling them
up, for example, because their holiday in
your drawer is the only time they’re not
under stress. She introduced me to a new
dimension of fastidiousness that I’m either
trapped by or thriving in. I had hoped Joy
at Work would do for my desk what Tidying
Up did for my closets.ILLUSTRATIONBYJACIKESSLERLUBLINERCRITIC Bloomberg Pursuits March 30, 2020Written with Stretch author Scott Sonenshein, an
organizational psychologist and business school professor
at Rice University, Joy at Work offers 200-plus pages of advice
about the benefits of tidying your physical and digital work-
space and figuring out how to make meetings and network-
ing less onerous. Any thought one gives to being happier at
work is helpful, but to answer the obvious question, no, I
can’t say that the book sparked joy.
The advice is often rote—“Be especially careful with the
‘reply all’ button. If you have a clarifying question that’s only
applicable to the sender, then ask the sender only”—or not
all that relevant in an apocalypse: There’s a lot of emphasis
on using index cards but no mention of Slack or Zoom. And
the conclusions sometimes imbue cleanliness with a great
deal of transformative power. Mifuyu cleaned her desk and
became “far more stable emotionally. Not long before, she’d
been diagnosed with depression due to overwork and had
had to take sick leave. Tidying up, however, seemed to have
restored her emotional equilibrium.” In another instance,
“Lisa’s relationship with her son dramatically improved, she
lost 15 pounds within a month of tidying her decisions, and
she gained a rekindled sense of optimism.”
I believe Mifuyu. I’m excited for Lisa! But I’m not getting
to the other side of this pandemic without putting on a solid
15, and the prospect of leaving my apartment only to buy
produce is not inspiring optimism. These are the realities of
work now, no matter how disciplined we are at sorting our
komono (“miscellaneous items”). I wish the book had left me
with something to look forward to once things return to nor-
mal. But who working in an office doesn’t already know about
the perils of multitasking, the time suck that is email, or the
fact that 62% of your LinkedIn connections are random mar-
keting dudes from Cincinnati? The truth is that most people
have no control over their workday, and paring down our
paper clips probably isn’t going to change that.
When we’re back in the office, however, I’m going to apply
a few tips I learned about meetings. My favorite comes from
Tony, a “midlevel employee,” who tells his boss, “If I go to
this meeting, it will detract from work that actually adds value
to our shareholders.” I plan to say this verbatim, even
though Bloomberg LP is a private company, and I hope
to look feral enough from self-quarantine that my col-
leagues just let it go. Can Work
Be Fixed?