Let's Take a Break

Admin Gal once had a boss who once had the gall to say, "I own your time, you don't get a lunch break."

I worked on an hourly model, the boss was reluctant to pay for the time I worked 'off the clock'. (We won't get into legalities here.)

The boss was surprised at my response of 'Until you actually pay for the overtime you owe me, you don't get more than the 40 hours a week that you pay me for.'

No, that particular employer and I did not have a long nor fruitful relationship.

It is a myth that says we need to put all of our time into the job.  CNN had a great article about the productivity of a lunch break. Taking a break rests the mind, allowing opportunity for insight, rest and decompression when the environment is stressful.

Take a look around you, those who never step back to get a fresh perspective find themselves stuck in professional holes of their own making.  While those who take breaks, tend to be creative, innovative and energized.

Personally, everyday I take my lunch hour.  The result is a happy, well balanced employee who looks favorably on her work situation.

Shark vs. the Guppy

There are some days this admin feels like a guppy surrounded by a bunch of sharks.  Small, without a lot of merit.

Those days tend to be few an far between. Why, faithful reader, do you ask?  It's simple.  As I dart in and out of the different sharks swimming along their various paths, I realize a have a mobility and an ability to change direction in a blink of an eye. Staying out of the way of the serrated teeth that might look at me as an appetizer.

And if I get really annoyed, I'll give the shark a firm punch on the nose. Sending them off to sulk in the depths of the sea to think about what they might have done.

A good admin, swims among the sharks with finesse and savvy, biting back when necessary.

A Word to the Wise

Dear Sales Person, Employee, and/or Person in General,

Administrative Assistants around the world are not creatures who sit around doing nothing.  We are productive members of any business environment.  We contribute to ongoing projects, we maintain office order, calendar cohesion, document management, personnel moral, in addition to a myriad of other tasks and projects that are assigned to our functions.

Copying our supervisors on an email about a task that is not priority will not miraculously cause it to surface to the top of the list.  Flagging any correspondence with ‘HIGH PRIORITY’ only indicates your own sense of inflated ego.

To the sales people in specific, if an admin tells you their boss will not be meeting with you now or in the future – that is the truth.  Sending the boss an email with available dates and times and copying the admin is the epitome of classlessness.  Be prepared to be shut down.

We work with our bosses to prioritize our projects and tasks to benefit them, not for someone who is not in our organizational structure.  While the persistence and ingenuity can be admired, the audacity can only be considered appalling.

A word to the wise, flagging, prioritizing, or copying our supervisors/bosses with your projects and tasks only makes us annoyed.

Sincerely,

The Admins

What Defines You?

Everyone has a job to do.  That is a simple truth.  You can be a baker, butcher or a candle-stick maker. In the corporate world, a receptionist, a manager, or an executive.  Or anything in between.

What you do is not as important as how you do it.  Do you have a passion for your job or are you just watching the clock  to pick up he paycheck at the end of the pay period?

If you are the later, you are doing yourself and the people you work for and with a HUGE disservice.  My question to you is why do you bother?

I enjoy the challenge of being an Admin.  Without my particular skill set my current organization would suffer.  My job is to be the glue to hold my organization together.  I am a liason between management and the floor.  Keeping a pulse on the morale is an important part of what I do.  I am defined by my demeanor of professionalism that I maintain during stressful times.  By the genuine caring of the good people with whom I work with.

So, back to my original question. What defines you?

My actions in life define me.

Unique Patterns

The work environment is an ever changing kaleidoscope with shards of glittering glass mixed in with ordinary objects to create one-of-a-kind experiences.  Each twist of the prism brings a different vision, a different perspective.

Sometimes, this creates a rich, robust atmosphere where people can truly offer the best of themselves. Sometimes, it creates growth opportunities.  Sometimes, this creates a clear vision of the changes that must happen to make the organization stronger.
Then there is the daily routine which grinds all that amazing sparkling fabulous stuff into dust. Where your best can be looked as threatening to the over all good, because you are standing out from the over all mediocrity.

I'm tired of being forced to live to the standards of mediocrity that are posing as perfection.  I stand against the forces that force people to conform.

I propose a revolutionary idea.  The idea is simple.  Take a journey of discovery.  Own your talents and utilize them to the utmost.  Don't be afraid of what makes you a spectacular person.

Own the shards and pieces that create the amazing kaleidescope of your personal and professional life.  If you can't create the pattern that makes you unique where you are, then perhaps you aren't in the right place.

Melting the Myth

Admin Gal is irritated. Why do you ask, oh fabulous reader? I’ll tell you!

Admin Gal is irritated with the double standard of perfection. Yes, that nasty, unobtainable expectation that is set forth before us in our performance evaluations. Yet frankly, never achievable.

Perfection on the job is a high subjective thing. One person’s perception of perfection will be completely counter another person.

The dilemma Admin Gal faces is she can’t read minds. This automatically sets her up for failure in the eyes of the person expecting perfection.

Maybe Admin Gal is becoming Zen or numb. But she has come to the realization that perfection is as elusive as the frost on a window. Pretty to look at, but under scrutiny it melts into nothing.

So, Admin Gal ignores the unobtainable expectations of others dreams of perfections. She simply lives a life that is guided by integrity, diligence and the desire to always do ones best.

At the end of the day, those same people can seldom live up to their own expectations of perfection.

Why should Admin Gal?

On the Cheap

Nothing seems to be safe anymore in today’s employment climate. Gone is security of generations gone by. Very few people can stick with one company for their entire career. If they manage to do that, they have to reinvent themselves to stay ahead of the latest management model that leans toward automation, downsizing or out-sourcing.

I realize that there are many processes that can be outsourced, off-shored, and just plain automated. When all these cost cutting measures are taking place, what happens to the actual employee, who helped build the company? The general morale? The principles that built the company? More importantly the corporate history?

While the government gives lip-service to keeping jobs in the country, more and more companies are sending department functions overseas. Why? ‘Because it can be done cheaper elsewhere’. Sure, there are binding contracts that impose penalties if things are not done to the SLA's (service level agreements) of the corporation, but what happens to the customer service interface? There are no guarantees that expectations will be met.

To be frank the customer wants to interface with employees they feel confident will fulfill their needs. Not third-party vendors that have no clue as to why the company even exists.

As employees ride these waves of uncertainty in the workplace, they go through cycles of anger and fear. Rightfully so. Whether they have been with the company 3 months or 30 years, their livelihood is threatened. So the affected portions of the company are shunted off to the side, cut off from the rest of their corporate brethren. The isolation takes its toll on morale and perception.
While the management who has to manage the outsourcing process must be sensitive to the needs of the employees, the rest of the company is oblivious and often makes matters worse.

I don’t have a crystal ball that tells the future, but I do know that when a company treats their employee as well as it treats its customers there is a renaissance in business and vitality.

When a corporation treats its employees as so much dross, they will soon follow their greatest assets, the employee, into oblivion.

Upon Your Actions

The hierarchy of the workplace is a fascinating thing.  For some, their rise is a result of steady, quality work that is rewarded by promotion through the ranks.  For others, hierarchy is viewed as a maniacal game of strategy.  The farther they are promoted, the better the 'parachute' is on the way out the door.  For the rest of us, it is truly only a mindset.  Work provides only a base for our lives outside of work.
 The reality is we all put our trousers on one leg at a time and bleed the same color, red.
 Whether we drive a Yugo or a Lamborghini, you are only as important as you are in your own mind.  Respect is earned through your actions, not through your paycheck or title.
 Businesses are only as good as the people who manage them.  If managers are always seeking the next nifty, shining business model that promises to save the company and put the profits through the roof the end result is nothing.  But when managers use common sense, respect and hard work, their employees can see and respect that no matter the out come.
Countries have been won or lost based on the respect or lack of due to the actions and behaviors of their respective hierarchies.  The same can be said about companies.

Dress Code or How Not to Dress Like a Pop Tart

The summer has drawn to a close.  People have once more started covering their bodies with more layers of clothing in order to accommodate the wildly fluctuating temperatures of the fall.  HOWEVER...
That doesn't mean that some people do not try to keep summer alive.  The sad, sad truth is that companies need to put forth some sort of dress codes. If only to educate the clueless.
This summer my eyes have been assaulted with cleavage baring tops on people where more fabric is a necessity not a fashion statement.  Skirts that with a stiff wind or an inappropriate bend the world would be privy to their privates.  More knarly, sparkly flip-flops that were stinky bio-hazards that did not belong in a corporate environment.  All of the above a direct violation of the company's dress code.

People.  I am not the fashion police.  I'm sure that people look at me and say I could desperately use a make over.  But when I leave the house in the morning, I know that no fashion catastophe will happen.  All my bits and parts will stay properly covered and never see the light of day so that my co-workers will wish never had happened.

The advice of a good friend follows :   Folks – put a mirror in your foyer – one last look before you leave for work, doesn’t hurt.  If you have to question to yourself whether or not something is appropriate, it probably isn’t!

Mid-Year Evaluation Time

Time for the Mid-Year Evaluation.   I dread this time of year.  My stomach clenches, migraines lurk on the edge of my consciousness, every little stupid annoyance becomes a drama of epic proportion. Why?  Because I’m being judge by people who really have no clue about what I do.
Gone are the halcyon days when the average secretary was thought to just answered phones, typed memos and got cups of coffee (yes, I know this is a glittering generality).   The reality is the Administrative Professional is a project manager, an office manager, often times a human resource manager, an accountant, and a candlestick maker.

We do all this while making our boss look good.  The surface of our pond, lake, inland sea is smooth as glass, while the rip currents underneath are treacherous.  The people around us have no clue about what it takes to make things go smoothly.

So, I sit here filling out my portion of my Mid-Year evaluation, celebrating the triumphs and delicately explaining my defeats.  Because when push comes to shove, the triumphs aren’t what get in your personnel jacket.

Calendaring

Calendar: A list or schedule of planned events or activities giving dates and details.

An Administrative Professional: Person who creates and maintains said calendar in a timely and efficient manner.

Executives:  The Spanner in the Works!