Brew the Darn Pot!

There has been an unfortunate rash of burnt coffee pots.  Admin Gal is contractually restricted from hunting the offenders down and showing them the error of their ways.  

The end results is appealing to the variety of higher powers that are observed in the department. 

Admin Gal believes if any of the higher powers were as caffeine addicted as the offenders were, they would brew the next pot.  If this doesn't work?  She will instal a badge swipe machine to meter coffee usage.

That'll boost Admin Gal's popularity.

A Challenge

Admin Gal has a challenge for all her readers.

No, she is not asking anything of a felonious nature.

Simply, that over the next seven days you reach out do something to improve someone's day.

Random acts of kindness have been known to increase productivity and moral exponentially.

Added bonus?

It makes your boss and others wonder what you're up to.

Feel free to report on your collective mayhem.

Don't You Know Who I Am?

Admin Gal must give a shout out to a friend in the west.  She is faced with many of the same dilemma's, and handles them with much grace.  In particular, her latest post is a delight with Things You Say That Will Make Me Doubt You.


Her last point in particular struck a nerve, “You don’t understand, you are going to do what I tell you.  Don’t you know who I am?”  


Unfortunately, I could relate to that poorly worded demand.  My response is pretty standard, "Actually, no, I don’t know who you are. I know all the important people by name and sight."  All the while smiling sweetly or having a sweet tone in my voice if the person is on the phone uttering such an unfortunate statement.


My internal meter for lying is pretty accurate.  When someone is pushing the 'Don't you know who I am?' card, it generally means they have absolutely nothing to back themselves up with and are blow hards. 


Now, if said individuals had asked politely for assistance.  Explaining the situation and the urgency to them, allowing for some give and take, nine times out of ten they would find that the aid/information/meetings they were trying to bully themselves into would be given freely or opportunities for other options would be opened up to them.


Instead - they are dead in the water.  Shark bait.

It must be hard for people to be important in the small land of their imagination.

Smile

I read the most delightful blog entry this morning entitled "I'm Bringing My Preschool Attitude to Work".  This entry just tickled me pink.

You see, I've found that everyone gets buried in their jobs and responsibilities and forget simple courtesies.  People forget the value of a smile, a hug, and a 'good job'.  Especially in today's economic climate where everyone is working hard to just keep their job.

No matter how I'm feeling I do my best to greet everyone who comes my way with a smile, a warm greeting and a positive thought (Hugging doesn't go over well in my office environment).  I'd rather be making an effort to make my environment as positive as possible than dragging it down through negativity.
Worse case scenario, everyone is alway wondering what I'm up to.

Random Acts

Every once in awhile you find yourself the recipient of a random act of kindness, not for anything in particular just for doing your job. Yesterday, was a day for random acts of kindness for me. Both to give and receive.
To Give:
I received a frantic call from one of my fellow Admins in our New York office with an AP question. This was an arena I could find a solution to her problem, the people I needed were all around me. With help from my network, her issues were swiftly solved. I made sure to that my friend who spearheaded the fix, by emailing a quick ‘good job’ email to her boss. This is something I would do for anyone who has gone out of their way to help me. My friend said to me she was only doing her job, to me she moved a mountain. I had to make sure that her effort was acknowledged.
To Receive:
The same day, someone came to me looking for a typewriter. We have one on the floor, but it hasn’t been used since I started with the company. She had forms that had to be manually filled out. We plugged in the dinosaur and found out that the ribbon was dry as a bone. I looked at the form and realized that I could make an ADOBE form out of the form if we scan the document. Really, it was an easy fix. It took a few minutes to do and a few tweaks after that to perfect it. And Voila! No need for a typewriter. I was just doing my job.
This is what she sent my boss:
“Hi XXXX
Every once in a while, even though great people perform above the bar daily, someone really exceeds expectations, and I wanted you to know that XXXX "saved the day" for me. All I needed was a working typewriter to fill out a form for some of our XXXXXXX employees. She was right on it....looking to ease my burden of having to use a typewriter. She created a form with Adobe......something I didn't even know was possible.
She is always great with requests and today she exceeded my expectations and helped with making the process more efficient....She saved the day!
And she taught me something!
We're fortunate to have her.
Just wanted to let you know.....”
It’s moments like this that make my day.