My boss's girlfriend just came up to me and gave me a heads up that my boss would throw a strop about some bags of clothes being left in reception to be picked up tomorrow, with the classic gem of "you can see how it looks untidy, can't you?"
No, I can't. I walk in and I see an office block that's a hub of activity and facilitates it's tenants. A place for meetings where staff are happy to help with requests, or an office where you don't have to fight with the landlords (because that's ultimately what we are) to get small concessions. A place that cares more about improving the community (which as a social enterprise is our purpose) than minor appearances. I'd probably think it was untidy if it was in the way for days on end, but the bags are gonna be back against the wall, behind the reception desk, for less than 12 hours.
What is it with people valuing things being out of sight? There's a pragmatic element to general neatness, making it easier to clean, getting hazards out of the way, and looking nicer, but I don't understand people throwing a fit because things are temporary less neat.
Anyway I moved the bags all of 5 metres into a meeting room next to reception. See if he whines about them making a mess of a room that isn't being used until the middle of next week.
That's exactly the phrase that was eluding me, thank you.
Luckily there's no intermediary, it's some guys from one of the local refugee charities coming to pick them up, but keeping them behind the front desk for tomorrow morning saves a single mother with long covid from having to drive over to the office just to open a door so they can access them. I didn't have to put the bags there and the receptionist tomorrow morning won't have the take them out to the car, so it's not even like we're expending our effort to save her some - even the space it was in is only otherwise occupied by a dead battery for a long-forgotten piece of tech. I just can't rationalise all the extra effort involved in keeping it perfectly neat, and I'm kinda worried that if it gets brought up by him it's going to be one of those things that turns into a shouting match between us.