Organising an Office Detox
What is an office detox?
An office detox or black bag day is a special event, where everyone in a unit or team is
encouraged to take time out from their work to look at their paper and electronic documents and
consider which need to be kept and which need to be thrown away. An office detox can
promote efficient working, highlight problems, and help a team or unit to reflect on the records
that they create and the ways in which they maintain them. An office detox can also be useful
when a relocation is imminent. An office detox should be supplemental to regular record
destruction carried out in accordance with the University’s records retention schedule.
How to organise an Office Detox
Before the event:
 Start preparing for your event in good time and give advanced notice so that as many people
as possible can be involved.
 Use publicity to raise awareness and interest. Be creative – you can use posters, leaflets,
emails and screensavers, etc (some posters are available for download on the Office Detox
webpages).
 Make sure that everybody understands the aims of the event and the potential benefits.
 Circulate a link to the University’s records retention schedule
(http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/govrn/cocom/recordsmanagement/recordsretention/recordreten.html
), the guidance on using the records retention schedule and the guidance provided in
Appendix A, a few days before the event.
 Make the event a time out from other office activity - let people come to work in their casual
clothes.
 Consider spreading the event over a week to give as many people the chance to make time
to participate as possible.
 Contact Estates, on ext. 74477, in advance to put in a job request for the additional rubbish
and recycling to be removed after the event.
 Contact Manual Handling, on ext. 74320 (handling@cardiff.ac.uk) in advance to put in a job
request for the additional confidential waste to be removed after the event.
On the day:
 Encourage as many people as possible to join in. People may be persuaded with incentives
such as free coffee and cake or prizes for things like the tidiest office, the oddest object found
or the most interesting record unearthed for the Institutional Archive.
 Make sure you only tackle the filing cabinets and folders that you and your section have
responsibility for.
 Be ready with stocks of archive boxes, black bags, green bags and confidential waste sacks.
 Set aside a meeting room or a corner for people to bring any unwanted office equipment such as fans, binders, foot rests - and exchange it for items that they might need.
 If anyone is in any doubt about what needs to be kept or thrown away encourage them to
contact the Records Manager on ext 79403 (Phillipssj7@cardiff.ac.uk).
 Contact the Records Manager if you find any records which you think should be transferred
to the Institutional Archive for permanent retention or that the retention schedule advises
should be reviewed for archival value.
 If you identify things that need to be kept but which you have no room for, contact the
Records Manager to try and arrange some off site storage space.
 Make sure people document their disposal decisions, so that you know what has happened
to records – it is necessary to create a record of what records have been destroyed, when,
why, and on whose authority. Use the disposal list template in Appendix B as a guide.
After the event:
 Provide statistics of what has been achieved (number of confidential waste and recycling
bags filled) to demonstrate to people that the event was worthwhile.
 Make sure that you thank everyone for their participation.
Appendix A: Guidance for Office Detox participants
 Destroy any published documents, circulars, magazines, brochures, and copies of
documents that you were sent from other departments, if no longer needed for information.
 Use the records retention schedule and the guide on how to use the records retention
schedule to identify any documents that are records and the length of time for which they
should be kept.
 The retention of a whole folder should be decided upon using the longest relevant retention
period in the retention schedule as a guide, avoid weeding individual documents out
according to the retention schedule.
 Assign a disposal date where possible to folders that are to be retained, to make destruction
easier in the future.
 Any paper records containing personal information or confidential information about the
University and its operations need to be placed in confidential waste sacks for destruction.
Avoid leaving confidential waste sacks for pick up in insecure areas as curious passers by
will have easy access to the papers they contain.
 Any other paper records should be placed in green bags for recycling.
 Remember to look at your electronic records (including your email account) as well as your
paper records. Deal with these in the same way, looking at the records retention schedule to
identify how long they should be kept. If your electronic records relate to paper records you
are also looking at, use the same criteria for both. Is it clear whether you have the final
versions or drafts? Are final versions of these records retained elsewhere? Also consider
retaining only the electronic version or the paper version, if the record is present in both
formats. Please see the Email Detox leaflet for guidance on tackling an unmanageable inbox
on the Records Management webpages.
 If you have any research papers that you or your unit have published consider depositing
them in ORCA (the University’s Institutional Repository).
 When tackling records that are no longer used, and the person who created them has left,
flick through them to try and find out who created them and what function they were carrying
out. Avoid contacting them, as the records are likely to be University property. Look at the
records section by section, based on physical appearance. Look at a small sample of
individual folders to start with, to see if they have similar content. If they have similar content
apply the same retention criteria to all of them. If they have varied content, make retention
decisions on each file.
 Make sure you document your decisions so that you know what has happened to records – It
is necessary to create a record of what records have been destroyed, when, why, and on
whose authority. Use the disposal list template in Appendix B as a guide.
 Personal or confidential records you wish to destroy on CD-ROM, audio tape, magnetic tape
or floppy disk should be sent via Manual Handling (ext. 74320) to the Records Manager for
confidential destruction.
Appendix B
Disposal List
School/Division:
Description of records
(i.e., name of file or series and dates it
covers)
Unit/Team:
Reason for destruction
Authority for destruction
(i. e., reference number from Retention Schedule)
(i. e., name of manager)
Date of destruction/date sent
for destruction