Managing Expectations

A good Admin will always ask for a deadline for when a task or project is due.  That way we can prioritize what we have on our plates.

Sometimes, one person's deadline must fall secondary to another high priority deadline due to management seniority or urgency of the project.

Woe be unto the person who submits a project and says, "I know you'll have this done in 5 mins, so I'm just going to send out an email saying its done!" As they scuttle out the door.

Just because you say it will be done and run, doesn't mean it will happen.  Sending out a preemptive email only makes YOU look unaware.

We Admins will manage our work loads. Thank you very much!

Voice Mail Etiquette

Have you ever gotten a voice mail that has exceeded the time on the voice mail system and the caller has called back to call AGAIN?  Admin Gal has twice - on a Monday - before 8am.

A voice mail is a simple finite message.  It should include 3 things:

1. Your name
2. Your method of contact 
3. A BRIEF message with pertinent facts.

No more and no less.

Exceeding the 90 second space allotted on your voice message with your resume, your sales qualifications, content that should go into an email but you are too lazy to type and you know the admin will have the privilege of transcribing your rambling, is NOT appropriate.  Adding insult to injury, creating another voice mail that will fall in front of the old one, therefore out of sync, just annoys the admin.  Your messages will then end up in the our phone system has been acting up lately file (oops!).

If you can please apply the simple and finite rules listed above will ensure your message reaching the appropriate person.

BEEEEP!

A Word to the Wise

When asking for a favor to an Admin who does not support you, you the recipient of said favor should do everything in your power to make things easier for her.

If you do not,  said Admin might do one or all of the following:

1. Conveniently move your task to the least priority pile.  The pile that gets done when hell freezes over.
2. Mail your Visa application directly to the Kremlin, even though it was for Brazil.
3. Schedule hardware maintenance on computer without providing a replacement.  
4. Cancel your smartphone contract and charge the cancellation fee to your personal credit card.
5. Revoke your access to all essential drives that contain anything that might be remotely useful in the day to day operations of your job.

As an Admin, we are required to be helpful, not be taken advantage of.  

In Case of Emergency..

Admin Gal would like to remind you to walk, not run, down the stair case in case of emergency.

Dear Potential Vendor,

We here at ABC, Inc. realize that times are difficult.  That you are shaking every tree for any possible business opportunity.  Let us make a few points clear:

1. Yes, our terms our non-negotiable.
2. When we ask for X amount in liability insurance on your part, we mean it.  This is not a suggestion but an expectation of doing business.
3. Yes, we do follow the governmental safety and quality standards as put forth by said agencies.
4. Just because you went to school with the cousin of the sister-in-law of the CEO's estranged brother, will not automatically get you a coveted vendor slot.
5. We have a prohibitively strict gift policy - NO GIFTS.
6. Calling me everyday for 3 months will only make me annoyed.  
7. Sending multiple emails a day, makes you SPAM.
8. Sometimes, the answer is simply - NO.

Thank you for considering doing business with ABC, Inc.

Sincerely,

Admin Gal

Admin Life is Tough on the Body and Mind

Admin Gal is amused.  Very amused.  Did you know that her desk job is making her unhealthy?  MSNBC has a full article about how desk jobs are adding to the obesity problem of America.  How the sedentary life style of the working schmuck is the ruination of the nation!

Really?

Here Admin Gal thought that her job was just plain making her crazy.  If she didn't have to answer phones for perfectly capable individuals, maybe she'd have more time to get away from her desk. Perhaps, if Admin Gal didn't have to manage and manipulate the schedules of adults, because they have a difficult time assessing their own time management needs she'd have less stress.

So, perhaps the obliviot who wrote the article might have a point.  Admin Gal's desk job is ruining not only her mind, but her body too.

'C' is for the Crazy of the Calendar

Admin Gal started her job, not referring to herself in the third person.  She started as a nice, normal woman who had dreams and aspirations of world domination.

No where in her mind did she ever think she would get to know that the 'C' in Calendar really stood for ding-a-doodle Crazy.

Admin Gal can only do so much in the tersely worded instructional emails left in the dead of night, to engineer some miraculous meeting, over multiple continents, languages and, sometimes she thinks, species.

If the email says 'As soon as schedules permit...', she can only assume that is the intent of the message and plan accordingly. Any hidden subtext is just that...HIDDEN.

Calling Admin Gal, after the invitation has been sent to the appropriate parties, in a kerfuffle, saying that the meeting must take place as soon as humanly possible (in direct contradiction to your email), expect a polite freeze from your ever efficient Admin.

For Admin Gal does Crazy, but she doesn't do brain farts.

Copier/Printer Courtesy

If a print job looks to have multiple pages, common sense AND common courtesy says to leave it be until the job is done.  Ensuring the job will have no pages missing OR out of place for the person who must pick it up.

Unfortunately, common sense and courtesy seem to be lacking in the work place.  Bits and pieces of print jobs floating on counters like flotsam cast on the ocean.  To the person picking up the bitter pieces of this mess, this is a slap in the face.  An irksome job that demands retribution.

As an Admin, I do have some recourse.  I have an in with IT.  I'm going to get a code put on the color printer.  Limiting it only to mine and my boss's use.  We'll see how long it takes for the obliviots of the company to understand the one simple and finite rule...

YOU DON'T SCREW WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S PRINT JOB!