Getting Coffee: Personal Errands Personified

Should you get coffee for your boss?  I find this question over and over in the searches on my site.  Why are admins asking this question.  Why is it important?
Personal Errands
Getting coffee is really just the tip of the iceberg.  What most admins are asking about is running personal errands for your boss.  Getting coffee, picking up lunch, dropping off dry cleaning.  You all know the kinds of things I’m talking about.  I’ve talked about running personal errands before. While many bosses are hesitant to ask their admin to run personal errands for them, other bosses think it [...] Continue Reading…

Eating At Your Desk – Should You?

Should administrative support personnel eat at their desks?  Some organizations allow it.  Some don’t.  Professionally, though, whether it’s allowed or not, is eating at our desks something we should do?

Like many professional dilemmas, the answer is a resounding maybe.  For some administrative support jobs, occasionally eating at your desk shouldn’t present a problem.  For others, it should be absolutely forbidden.
Front Desk and Public Positions
Let’s face it, if your job is to be the face of your company at the front desk as a receptionist or in another public position, you should not be eating at your desk.  Just think [...] Continue Reading…

Working Virtually

Today’s blog is a guest post over on Joan Burge’s blog on Office Dynamics about how to support your boss in a virtual environment.  Go on over and check it out.  Don’t forget to subscribe to Joan’s blog while you’re there.  I find many great tips for Administrative Professionals on her blog, as those of you who follow me on Twitter or read my Links Round-Ups know.

Links Roundup – August 24, 2010

Here’s a list of the links I tweeted during the last few weeks.  If you’re into Twitter, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/admnarts. What I’m Reading: 10 Excel Secrets Every Admin Should Know – Admin Secret adminsecret.monst… What I’m Reading: Add a Cover Page to a Word Document online-tech-tips…. RT @mmangen: #ExcelQueen Tip: CTRL+D Uses the Fill Down command to copy the contents and format into the cells below. RT @TechTipTweets: Need to print a #booklet in MS Office, make it into a PDF first. news.office-watc… [...] Continue Reading…

No Budget for Training? Do It Yourself

Today’s article is a guest post from Wendy Stoneman.

In my time with my current employer, I’ve been involved in training a few of our new admins.  At some point in their first year they generally ask about training.  Can they get some sort of training to improve their skills in a particular software program or office process?  (Unfortunately, at our office the answer is “no”.)

Rarely though, is anyone referring to total immersion in a software program when they ask that question.  Usually, they’re getting bogged down with a few tasks in a particular software – they can’t fix footers [...] Continue Reading…

Administrative Assistant Job Descriptions

Probably the most frequent questions I get and that I see asked on the internet is what is appropriate work for an Administrative Assistant.  You will rarely find any cohesive answers for this question, though, because the job description for any Administrative Assistant position will vary widely depending on the industry, the company, the department, and even the individual boss involved.  However, regardless of the specifics, most duties fall within certain general guidelines for Administrative Assistants.
Generalized Administrative Assistant Duties

Answering Phones and Screening Calls.  Your description may say something about “transferring calls appropriately”, which is just polite speak for screening [...] Continue Reading…

My Job Changed, Why Not My Title

I hear the lament over and over, not just in the administrative support field, but in just about every field and industry I know.  It happens all the time.
The Job Changes
When you start a new job, you usually get a job description.  We all know, though, that jobs have a tendency to change over time.  As your boss learns what you can do, he starts adding on more duties.  You, being the up and coming assistant that you are, offer to take on duties.  Over time, the job just changes.  Not the job title, though, and bosses often seem [...] Continue Reading…

Guest Posting

Do you have some great tips on how to be an Administrative or Executive Assistant?  Software tips?  A funny experience from work? Maybe just an opinion that you want to share? I’m soliciting guest posts for Administrative Arts.  If you would like to share something here, send it to me by e-mail.  Include: The blog post A brief bio A link to your blog or other site you would like linked A photo to go with your bio (optional) I know there are [...] Continue Reading…

7 Posts You May Not Have Read

Those of you who know me will know that I’m an avid reader and huge fan of Problogger, a blog written by Darren Rowse on…well…blogging.  Last week, Darren talked about reintroducing content that your readers may not have read.  He called it the 7 Link Challenge.
Well, I’m always up for a challenge, and I know a lot of my more recent readers may not have read some of my older but still applicable content.  So, here it is, 7 Posts You May Not Have Read:

My First Post: Travel Arrangements To Wow Any Boss Part One.  Almost three years later, [...] Continue Reading…

Ask the Admin: Records Retention

I got this e-mail from Kelly:
What is the business standard for the length of time to keep meeting minutes?

Thanks for your question, Kelly.  You didn’t specify what type of minutes you need to keep.  How long you retain meeting minutes will depend on the type of meetings you are referring to.  Most record retention schedules I’ve seen have recommended keeping board meeting minutes permanently.  Those are the only meeting minutes that are referred to in most retention schedules.
For other types of high level meeting minutes, such as executive management meetings and the like, you will probably want to get [...] Continue Reading…