Resource Management

When offices consolidate, space becomes premium. Old habits of squatting wherever you want are hard to break.

Admin Gal has been forced into the role of Space Police. If a conference room has not been booked by the inhabitants, Admin Gal has to play Bad Cop. This is not fun when the person out ranks you. Evicting a Director, Vice President, or President is a dicey situation. But when it is a consultant, Admin Gal has no issue.

Granted their assigned space is limited, but so is the actual working space of the working environment of the company. Courtesy says you do not just plop yourself down and claim squatter rights. Where most of the time possession is 9 tenths of the law, when it comes to resource management, not so much.

Admin Gal is happy to try and find space for people. But don’t act like a toddler if you don’t want to be treated like one.

A Day Away

When an Admin is away, be it for vacation, training, or whatever, strange thing happen to their desks.  Mountains of paper gravitate mysteriously to any flat surface forming precarious piles. Anything of questionable nature lands haphazardly on the desk chair, the desk or the floor around the desk.  Plants mysteriously sicken and are never the same again, this Admin thinks they've been traumatized by what strange things they've witnessed.  Needless to say, time off is a terrifying proposition.

While the time off is often needed and wanted, a small part of our brain way back in the back is ticking down the time to our return.  Doing our best to ignore it, we turn off our cell phones, promising our selves we will ignore all calls from the office. We approach all computers like they are live ordinance, fighting the urge to log on to our email client just to get a jump- start.

Sometimes the urge is to strong and we give in, only to be horrified by the sheer volume of people ignoring the Out Of Office (OOO) message.  The assumption that we will take care of them during our time off because they are special.

If the Admin is smart, they book  a cruise were cell phone reception or internet connectivity is non-existent and have a long cold drink.

The Air is Filled with Music

Songs fill the air as unattended cell phones ring forlornly for their owners.  Pieces of songs from Alicia Keyes, Black Eye Peas, Metallica, Gershwin filter across the floor.  Then the annoying message alarms that range from Beep, Blat, Honk, Clash and Boom.
Admin Gal admits that she likes a relatively quiet workplace.  Not silence, just everyone doing their job. If someone is listening to music, that's what ear buds are for.  This need to abandon a cell phone on the desk and leave it off vibrate is just plain inconsiderate of others in the work place.
Yes, we live in the age of unilateral communications.  Be considerate, keep you cell phone with you so the rest of us don't have to listen to people try to get a hold of you.

Idle Chatter

Every office has one.  You know the person.  The one who can't be quiet. Who has to fill a void that doesn't exist with noise.  Standing in the cube aisle making idle conversation, annoying those around them. The one who makes chit-chat.

Chit-chat in and of itself is benign.  Something to be done when nothing else is to be done.  However, when you have a person in the office with apparently nothing else to do but chit-chat among others who have actual duties to perform, the effects can be devastating on productivity and moral.
That aimless person, unless managed effectively, curtails the productivity of others.  Sowing seeds of resentment in their wake. They seldom recognize boundaries, leaving the person they are bothering to be blunt.

Times are tough.  Everyone should be putting their shoulder to the wheel, showing their value to their employer regardless of the state of the company.  If your company is in the midst of downsizing, your work ethic will be recognized by recommendations after the job has been eliminated.  If you are lucky enough to be in a company that is stable, you will likely to be around for another day.

The old adage 'idle hands are the devils workshop' hold true in this day and age.  Idle chit-chat brings nothing but problems.

How RUDE!

Earning an income is a simple equation:
Work x Application = Income
This isn't rocket science (unless of course you are a rocket scientist, then it's a whole other ball of wax).
Admin Gal has an ax to grind with Sales People.
Admin Gal gets the fact that sales people need to make a living.  If they are respectful of her, she will do what she can to get them to the right people to open a dialog.  No, sales people do NOT need to speak to the top of the totem pole at the first swing.  Let me get you to the correct person.
DO NOT call incessantly hoping, beyond hope, to catch Admin Gal's boss on the phone when she is 'off duty'.  It isn't going to happen.

A - Admin Gal's boss won't pick up a number he doesn't recognize.

B - Breathing heavy then hanging up is just plain RUDE.

C - Just do what Admin Gal has asked you to do.

Well-Being

Admin Gal's current employer is in the process of several large initiatives.  One of the larger being the move into a new building.  Admin Gal's division is not slated to move down into the new building until other initiatives have run their courses.

This being said, there is a miasma of concern and defeat that has settled over the division.  Facilities seems to have abandoned us for the luxuries of the new facilities.

While Admin Gal's Division has been assured that we have not been forgotten, IT related tasks ordered have taken much longer complete. Admin Gal has had to be resourceful in getting things completed.
Admin Gal was brought to task today by someone regarding a telephone wire running across a cubicle.  Admin Gal acknowledges the Health and Safety issues of the problem.  But her gripe is the following.  This has been a problem for 3 1/2 weeks.  The cube inhabitant has not followed up with Admin Gal to let her know that the problem is not fixed.

Instead, when cube inhabitant FINALLY lets Admin Gal know, Admin Gal is threatened with a cessation of work because the cube inhabitant will disconnect her phone and cease to use the tool until the wire is no longer a threat to her well-being.

Never mind that Admin Gal spent 20 minutes she didn't have to duct taping the telephone line to the floor.  A task that is not hers to do.  Admin Gal scoffs at such a notion.  Her philosophy is 'Find A Way!'. Makes life easier.

Never mind the cube inhabitant showed not one wit of gratitude.

Never mind in the entire time that the problem existed the cube inhabitant did NOTHING to find a solution for the problem herself.  It wasn't her job.

Never mind the cube inhabitant decided to feature Admin Gal as the villain an email to her supervisors about the company Health and Safety issues.

What the cube inhabitant doesn't realize that Admin Gal had already documented the entire incident with the cube inhabitant's boss's boss.  As in the email the cube inhabitant had spun her version of the truth to look good.

For Admin Gal's well-being, she will cease all interaction with this cube inhabitant.

Boundaries

Admin Gal is nothing if not patient and forgiving. She tends to be generous as well. After all, a workplace should be a nice place to work. But lately, her boundaries have been breached. Maybe this is because she has become indispensable. Seen as one of the Executive Team.

The sad reality is she is not. In the world of her company, Admin Gal is non-exempt. Yes, that’s right. Non-Exempt. Admin Gal is not subject to the large salaries of her executive teammates, she is not paid enough to live and breath her job 24/7.

She is not deemed important enough to be given a company cell phone. Yet, the personal cell phone that was given in trust to her boss has been abused greatly lately.

How you ask?

During her lunch hour, numerous calls placed to her cell phone regarding things that could wait until Admin Gal was back on company time. On her day off, her phone rings for information that is readily available if one does a simple search of the company intranet.  The phone number was to be used in case of emergencies.  Meetings, information, and convenience does NOT an emergency MAKE!

Admin Gal is NOT Amused with the current circumstances and may have to take drastic actions.  She may have to change her phone number.  Wouldn’t that confound the buggers?

While she ponders her options, Admin Gal will continue to do her job leaving her victims blissfully unaware of their impending doom.