Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 14, 2008

By The Professional Assistant on Monday, January 14, 2008 Filed Under: Client Service , Organize , Prioritize , Productivity Y ou write an e-mail to a staff member about a client having an issue with something. The staff member writes you back, but you don’t quite understand it. You write them again, asking for clarification.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 26, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! Home About Me Advertise Why People Gossip At The Office By The Professional Assistant on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Filed Under: Meetings , Office Gossip , Productivity D o you gossip at the office? Do you get sucked into the gossip of others? Gossip has never been a positive matter.

Gossip

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 21, 2008

There are some companies that, unfortunately, don’t allow for purchases such as stationary , fax machines , toner , etc. You can even get new items, if you aren’t into used items or feel that they might not work as well. Since I work for a large corporation, this is my case as well. Whats next?

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2008

By The Professional Assistant on Friday, October 17, 2008 Filed Under: Travel Y ou’re standing in the elevator and everyone is crammed like a can of sardines. You start to notice a particular smell, yet you know it wasn’t you, but you wonder if everyone thinks that it was. This is you now!

Etiquette

Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2007

See what you can change about yourself, don’t try to change others. At times, the person that conveys this tone doesn’t realize they are coming across in a harmful manner. If someone is making a difference by helping you or your teammates, let them know. Try to understand that change will happen, no matter what.

Gossip

Professional Assistant Blog

AUGUST 18, 2008

I couldn’t believe it either. I personally couldn’t do this, but it’s quite interesting that people would actually think of this. I work in a back office environment, where 99% of our client interaction is via the phone, e-mail or outside of the office, so I can wear jeans and a t-shirt.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 10, 2008

In my weekly recap last Friday I pointed out a Lifehack.org article arguing that the current climate for hyper-productivity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If I didn’t have a full day’s worth of tasks to complete I wasn’t being efficient enough. Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter!

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 20, 2007

This doesn’t mean that you have to go out for beers or go to a movie. I don’t mean take charge of the office – you might make some serious mistakes. Don’t whine and complain about every little task that is given to you. Don’t break your promises. Take some risks!

2007

Laughing all the Way to Work

DECEMBER 5, 2009

Take notes during the interview so you don’t forget what you wanted to ask. If you don’t get it, it wasn’t the right job for you or the right time. Taking stock We don't know what we don't know ► June (1) Playing nice in the sandbox ► May (2) Whose meeting is it anyway?

Time Zones

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 3, 2008

Hopefully, you weren’t also affected by the FPL power outages. It’s a reminder to all of us that depending on one system alone works fine, right up until the time that it doesn’t. In this case, commercial email services were affected, but the next time it could be your server at work.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

T here is a great site called OpenTable.com , which allows you to book reservations online with particular restaurants all over the world. By The Professional Assistant on Monday, September 22, 2008 Filed Under: Organize , Productivity A re you asked to make reservations for your manager(s) at particular restaurants?

Restaurants

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 27, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! Save the new e-mail distribution list by giving it a name that this corresponds to whatever it is being used for. All e-mail distribution lists are bolded. Just create a second e-mail distribution list and include the first one in it.

UPS

Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Do you even receive voice mails that are left by people trying to sell you something, but you didn’t even hear the phone ring? By The Professional Assistant on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Filed Under: Productivity D o you receive junk mail, junk faxes and the occasional irritating phone call from telemarketers?

Fax

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 7, 2008

But don’t forget, some office fax machines require you to dial 9 before any numbers, so don’t forget that. I had the same trouble in the past, since I have to fax quite a few documents to clients on a regular basis. There’s a really easy solution to this. I found a great website called Time and Date.com.

Fax

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 20, 2009

My weight gain happened as a result of being so busy in my new job that I started eating out because it was easier than having to make my own breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner at home and I stopped going to the gym because I just couldn't seem to find the time. It really does help, doesn't it? Healthy Or Junk?

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2008

But of course, you don’t want to disturb others around you with the bell going off or some even have chickens clucking as the alarm. Having a timer at your desk can be a great tool. This way, you will only have to focus on your project for that particular amount of time and not have to worry about other projects falling behind.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

DECEMBER 5, 2007

We hold meetings every so often (since everyone’s busy and can’t really figure out when these meetings work for everyone), but we do try to meet at least once every quarter. This is definitely good for sharing ideas and skills among teammates and other departments.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 15, 2008

You don’t have to do much to lend a helping hand, just go out there and join an association, volunteer or whatever would make you feel “balanced&#. I never thought that I’d want to be a Professional Assistant, but somehow it just jumped out at me. But that’s another story.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

DECEMBER 17, 2007

I can understand that certain items need to be handled via e-mail, so you have a record of the matter, but if it’s something that doesn’t need to be recorded, such as asking the person where they would like to have lunch or how their weekend went. This actually happens quite a bit at my workplace as well.

Cubicle

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 11, 2008

One of my readers asked me for some tips on handling annoying co-workers that don’t throw out their tea bags, leave used paper towels around the sink area or just leave their dirty dishes in the dish rack. Do you start wondering if they treat their own house the same way? You’re not alone. right away.

UPS

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 19, 2008

I worked as an Investment Advisor’s Assistant, completed my CSC (Canadian Securities Course), but soon after, I realized that this wasn’t really for me. One thing that always bothered me in my last job was when I had my door closed, people would still knock and ask me questions that weren’t urgent.

Policies

Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 3, 2008

Then he mentioned that he didn’t want all of the details of each product listed. I recently ran into this problem as well. One of my managers wanted me to use our sales tracking software to create the sales report for a particular product. He only wanted the total amounts shown as a bundled figure.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 6, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! This is a typical work day for her: She comes in late EVERYDAY (not just a few minutes, but 15-25 minutes with an excuse for WHY shes late - traffic - and she lives 10 minutes away). Next she starts complaining about people around her, her friends, her spouse’s friends, kids, etc.

Gossip

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 16, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! She is the largest share holder of the company, obviously. But she is very high strung and doesnt know how to relax even when among friends or on vacation. She can be very trying at times, just a very difficult person. I consider myself and have been in the past, to be an over achiever.

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

APRIL 1, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today. Post from: Assistant Tips 4comments for this post Jodith One thing I find helpful when having multiple people performing file updates is to keep track changes turned on.

Filing

Professional Assistant Blog

AUGUST 14, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, August 14, 2008 Filed Under: Productivity , System Security F orgetting your Windows password happens to everyone from time to time. Yes, even I forget it at times. Then you have to try to remember all of these passwords! When does it ever end?

2008

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

Thanks Manish Posted on 23 October, 2009 1:20 AM The Professional Assistant Hi Manish, Unfortunately, I don't have any other answer to this except to resize each one individually. Posted on 4 July, 2010 9:05 PM The Professional Assistant Hi, Unfortunately, you can't change the size of the file, but you can with Paint or Photoshop.

Microsoft Word

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 28, 2008

Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter! I am very interested in working for you and look forward to hearing from you once the final decisions are made regarding this position. Please feel free to contact me at anytime if further information is needed. My phone number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Postal Code

Laughing all the Way to Work

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

They said it works with most phone services. I actually didn't know this and this is something I need because I tend to blather on a little bit and get carried away! :) February 12, 2010 Patricia Robb said. But, as I learned the hard way it doesn't work on all systems. Thanks Patricia! Thanks everyone for correcting me.

Time Zones

Laughing all the Way to Work

DECEMBER 12, 2009

If he is travelling, I send it by e-mail, but it has been my experience that I will get better results with a face-to-face meeting. He can ignore e-mails, but it is hard to ignore me :) When you are copied on an e-mail, read the whole message, don’t just skim it. I also use Tasks in Outlook to follow up on electronic items.

Time Zones

Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 20, 2008

Administrative Assistants have a list of things they specialize in including business writing, proofreading, minute taking, meeting planning, travel agent, desktop publishing, editing, public relations and client liaison to name a few. Until next time, T ake care - of your clutter!

2008

Laughing all the Way to Work

JANUARY 23, 2010

Whether they had or hadn`t I was never sure, but I know today that offices do fundraise for charities and workers are happy to participate. Whether they had or hadn`t I was never sure, but I know today that offices do fundraise for charities and workers are happy to participate. He raised over $1,000. 5, 2010 at 12 p.m.

Time Zones

Laughing all the Way to Work

SEPTEMBER 19, 2008

I put it in the order of when he will need it and flag anything that he will require for teleconferences, meetings and travel. For instance, if your boss is travelling on the Monday, you will have to give him or her everything they will need on Friday. I do this for each day of the week. 5, 2010 at 12 p.m.

Time Zones

Laughing all the Way to Work

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

By the same token, I appreciate it when someone lets me know by when they will have something for me and if they can’t have it done by that date, then I like it when they get back to me to say when I can expect it. So that is what I like, but it isn’t always what I get. I can only guess when I might get it.

Time Zones

Laughing all the Way to Work

DECEMBER 28, 2009

Taking stock We don't know what we don't know ► June (1) Playing nice in the sandbox ► May (2) Whose meeting is it anyway? I gave at the office Calendar "ah ha" Introducing The Administrative Bloopers Blog What ever happened to the "us" in Service? That is pretty dedicated.

Time Zones

Laughing all the Way to Work

JULY 12, 2010

Taking stock We don't know what we don't know ► June (1) Playing nice in the sandbox ► May (2) Whose meeting is it anyway? Lets enjoy our day together.© HPTI) in Reston, Virginia, has been awarded the 2010 Stevie® Award for Support Staffer of the Year. Morgan Chase & Co. 5, 2010 at 12 p.m.

2010

Laughing all the Way to Work

MAY 9, 2010

Taking stock We don't know what we don't know ► June (1) Playing nice in the sandbox ▼ May (2) Whose meeting is it anyway? I gave at the office Calendar "ah ha" Introducing The Administrative Bloopers Blog What ever happened to the "us" in Service? Lets enjoy our day together.©

Time Zones