I have nothing personal on my desk at all. In fact, I have very few nick-knacks on my desk at home, and I don't generally put up pictures or artwork or whatnot anymore. Most of the time when I do, it is at the urging of someone else,especially my wife. I'm a utilitarian in that respect and have become a lot moreso of one since college, married or not.

Does that make me a person you should distrust, Alex?

*looks around quickly*

Whew.

Well, like I said, it's instinctive. I know you so there's not any issues there. If I were to just meet you today, though, it would probably affect my opinion of you in a negative way - at least until I got to know you.

It's probably less so for childless kids than for those with kids that are utilitarian as you describe and don't have any pictures of them in their office.

Are you kidding? Ms. TP was quite emphatic that she did not want me to have such a photo of her in my office, and vice-versa.

TP,

How odd. When this quasi-random thought occured to me last night, one of the first things I did when I saw Eel was ask if she would have a picture of me and the kids up were we to get married and have them. Happiness when she said "of course."

On the other hand, neither of us have a picture up now, though my cubicle is small and her space also such. We also don't have really good pictures of each other yet. On the other hand, we're not married at this juncture.

Had this random thought never occured to me, I could see myself not having a picture of my wife (when I've got one, of course) up just cause I don't always think about such things. But once kids are in the picture, they'd be going up as soon as possible.

Hmm, I think I'm probably just the opposite.

I think I gravitate more towards folks like TP who clutter their work area with few personal effects. To me, they seem more serious about, well, work.

At work, I don't especially care about your family. I don't care about your politics. I don't care to have to ask you about the photos of the little delightfuls on your desk.

I do care if you can interpret petroleum legislation. If you can run economics models. If you can tell me about production in places I care about. If you know something about an upcoming or past bid round. Etc.

That probably sounds very Howard Roarkian. Oh well. :)

I keep pictures of my family on my desk for those days when I wonder, "Why do I bother with this crap?"

It serves as a pretty good reminder for me.

Different strokes for different folks. I follow you on the update.

Kevin,
I definitely think one can go too far. A couple of coworkers at C&P probably have. But...

Craig,
EXACTLY! That's precisely where I'm coming from. While I don't have a wife and kids yet, running it through my head I would have to have a picture or something to keep me going and reminding me why I'm doing all that. Maybe if I were to have a job as interesting as Kevin's or challenging as TP's, I'd see better where they're coming from.

TP,
Good. The thought occured to me that I might be overstating my opinion somewhat - something I do here somewhat frequently.

I was fascinated to see you bring this up because I noticed something odd in this regard myself. I used to babysit for a guy with three daughters, and he also got me a summer job doing computer programming for his department when I was in college. He had multiple pictures of all three of his daughters, but not one of his wife. I thought that was really weird. Then by the time I graduated from college they were divorced. Obviously there are other reasons for the missing picture (spouse being against it, as TP said) but it does cross my mind that it's a little odd.

OTOH, I don't think my husband has a picture of me at his desk at work, but he's got a collage photoframe with 8 pics of me that he put together, sitting on his desk at home, so I can hardly complain.

P.S. Kevin, you big old crab. ;) You don't have to ask anybody anything you don't want to ask them. :P When I worked in an office, I had pictures of my coworkers above my desk and it didn't affect the quality of my work any. I think I might do worse in a sterile environment, actually -- I find it a bit depressing.

Alex,

Your comparison to people who type things like "how r u 2day" almost made me laugh. That describes my wife to a "T". Wanna try for a third strike? :)

In the words of Futurama:

Ipgee: So I told Leela, "Your request for a date is most flattering but I must decline." These office romances never work out. Afterall, that is how I met my horrible wife.

[Everyone except Leela laughs.]

Leela: But you never wore your ring. I didn't know you had a wife.

Ipgee: And my wife doesn't know I have a job. I keep my personal and professional lives serparate.