Emmett said that his boss "..sets all of his gain pots to 12 o'clock". So, if we're going to leave a desk the way we (should've) found it, out of courtesy for the next person, then all the other EQ pots should be left at 12 o'clock, i.e. in the flat position, and therefore it would look neater if the gain pot lined up for the aesthetic, feel-good effect.
I've got a better idea - we leave the desk 'safe'. This means that all the EQ pots, etc are set to 12 o'clock, and all the gain pots are turned right down instead of being left at random positions.
There are several benefits from this. There's no chance of a desk input overload, and any unsuspecting jock will
have to shout loud if they can't figure out what to do. These shouting ones will be rather quieter on the radio (which can't be a bad thing...) and will also get sore throats through all that shouting - which will make them quieter still (by extension, an even better thing...), or have to take a couple of days off to recover from all the shouting (possibly the
best thing...)