to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor
In the work space, collaboration is essential to making deadlines, managing projects or people, and sailing through the politics of the office. When done correctly, everyone is an essential gear in a well-oiled machine.
Each gear and cog has a place and purpose. Sometimes the gears can be changed around, creating a different manner to reach the same conclusion.
HOWEVER, there are times when a person or two refuse to cooperate in the achievement of a common goal. The reasons vary. Sometimes, people do not have the skills to work in a team. The right team will help them understand a collaborative environment.
Other times, individuals feel that holding on to the information they know will make them more valuable. More often than not, it just frustrates people.
In today's work environment, no person is an island. Our jobs are interconnected.
Being the stuck or uncooperative gear will only cause dissension. When push comes to shove, the stuck gear gets replaced.
The best part of being an Admin is being part of a network of like minded individuals who can help each other in a pinch.
Admin Gal is part of such a network. She knows that in a crunch, anyone of the Admins in her vast network will help her. Just as she will render assistance.
Of course, our executives really don't realize that we are about to stage a revolt and take over.
The Administrative Assistant has come a long way from the days of “Would you like cream with your coffee, sir?”
While we still might answer phones and take meeting notes, we also manage offices and projects, balance budgets, act as unofficial keepers of morale, and general ombudsman of schedules. Sometimes our job descriptions have us working in a more personal capacity to our employer, for example running small errands for your boss, helping them in small details in their personal lives all so they can have time to get their jobs done.
As Admins, we often have the pleasure of training people new to the experience of having an Administrative Assistant’s skills at their disposal. For the newly appointed manager who has never had access to administrative help. An experienced Admin will work hard at determining their needs and creating a partnership that will be beneficial to both in the long run.
My personal favorite is the new MBA or clueless collegiate graduate who comes into a department with an admin. Lo and behold, they are incapable of sending faxes, getting coffee, composing letters or other tasks they consider menial because ‘that’s what an Admin is for’.
While I am willing to offer assistance to those in need, they are secondary to my primary function. That function is to support the executives that too whom I report directly.
This Admin firmly believes in teaching people how to fish. You see, I have one to two top executives that take the majority of my time. If they ask me to send a fax or compose a letter, it is because they do not have time not because they are lazy.
After one or two instances of people not in my direct chain of command pawning their work off on to me, I will have a conversation with them. If that doesn’t work, woe be unto them. I will then bring out the big guns.
You see my executives do not like to have their resources wasted.
MEETING - an assembly or conference of personsfor a specific purpose or event.
There is nothing more frustrating than having set up a meeting 45 days ago, then finding out the day of the meeting that two of the principle players couldn’t be bothered to participate. They accepted, but never chose to change their status so that alternative arrangements could be made.
This particular meeting had already been rescheduled 4 times. All participants tell me it is imperative to have said meeting. My boss, who was at the right time at the right place, was made to look bad. Which in turn made me feel crappy.
I get it, plans change. People get busy.
For Pete Sakes! Check your calendar and be courteous. Decline the meeting if you aren’t coming.
Like all companies, in these hard economic times, mine is on the look out for the best deal on anything. Recently we started taking a hard look at our email delivery system. We currently use a system that is so half-a#$$ed backwards that no reputable hacker would want to be known for hacking it. I break the email system on a regular basis. I'm not doing anything special. Just using it. But then I am an Admin...
I'm on a first name basis with the third-tier tech support for this software. In fact, when my name comes up I'm pretty sure the conversation goes like this:
Expert #1: OH NO! It's HER! I'm not picking up the phone!
Expert #2: I took her call last time. It's YOUR turn!
(Picture me on hold, tapping my fingers on my desk!)
The argument continues, fisticuffs erupt.
FINALLY! Someone picks up the line.
Expert #3: (who had to break up the fight, answers breathlessly) Hello XXXX, how can we help you today?
But I digress. We are currently in the beginning of a email pilot. I and an intrepid group of Executive Admins have been carefully selected to push this system to its limits and beyond. I've spent the last week in training. I'm bleeding Blue, Red, Orange, Blue, Green, and Red.
The pilot hasn't even started AND, I've already broken the calendar. The next thirty days are going to be fun!
Sometimes I liken my job to a fast paced game of Jenga. You know that game that starts out with a tower of wooden blocks, each player strategically removes one, then places it on the top of the tower. The object of the game is to not let the tower collapse on your turn.
The tower wobbles as you gently pull the block out of the position you have chosen. If you' re lucky, it is an easy block. But if your opponents have played the game well, all you have left are blocks that are critical to the the structure of the tower. Anything you remove with bring the tower crashing down.
The thing is that the inevitable outcome of the game is the collapse of the tower. And so it is with my job.
So many of my responsibilities and duties often rest on one block, one person. When that block is removed, everything can come crashing down around my ears. Does this mean that I've done nothing to shore things up? Or make contingency plans? Of course not, I've been planning for these moments so the impact is not as significant.
It always stings when the blocks come tumbling down around my ears. In the end, I always build a better structure
As an Administrative Professional, I nor my colleagues appreciate it when we are blamed for the lack of planning on the part of the people that we work so hard for. This doesn't happen often but when it does, it is a slap in the face, an offense, a sign that the person who has perpetrated said offense does not understand that the Administrative Professional is more than a lackey. Let me illustrate my point with a couple of examples: 1. A Manager who is supposed to be in charge of their own budget, aware of invoices, accruals, etc. Suddenly realizes that they didn't accrue several invoices for a significant amount of money that will reflect badly on their budget. Do they a) own up to their error and make the necessary corrections? b) act like they don't know what happened and fix things on the sly? or c) concoct and elaborate lie to blame the administrative professional? If you guessed 'c' you probably are thinking that this might be a gross exaggeration. But alas, no. It happened to a colleague of mine. 2. In their eagerness, a newby to a department with an Administrative Professional, decides that they can do all the 'work' that they are not inclined to do. A seasoned Administrative Professional will a) do the work given them with a smile; b) do the work given them and have a talk with their manager; c) give them the look and ignore them; or d) kindly educate them in the department policies and procedures. Honestly, I would have to say it would depend on how I was approached. ‘d’ would always be implemented with a smidge of whichever other option was appropriate to the situation. I have enough to do without someone thinking they can add to my load. Look, an Adminstrative Professional is an integral part of the team, not a lackey to pass blame on or push work on. We are the grease that keeps the wheels going. We work hard to make your jobs seem easier. All that being said, if you need to find fault, lay blame, or just be cranky at, I suggest you look in the mirror and let the buck stop where it is suppose to.
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.
Sometimes I liken my job to a fast paced game of