An in-tray is the shallow tray where incoming work lands. A full in-tray, clear the in-tray, straight into the in-tray.
It survives as a figure long after the trays themselves went, so people speak of an in-tray meaning a workload. The pair to it is the out-tray.
1nounin-trayThe shallow tray where incoming work lands.
“He came back to an in-tray four inches deep.”
in-tray is a tray.
Practised in Office & Admin