Time’s Up!

As an admin, there are many things I tolerate in the commission of my duties.  Cluelessness, Obliviots, etc.  Normally I can manage around all of this, but there are a couple of things that tend to send me over the edge.  One of those things is meeting management.

The reality is when facility resources are limited keeping meetings on time it ABSOLUTELY essential.

The situation that I find myself in is difficult. I don’t like being a bad gal.  But I can be a spectacular Bad Gal if the situation calls for it.  Sometimes I need to knock on doors and remind people that they are running over and delaying other meetings.  I give them a  2 minute high sign.  If they can’t wrap things up in that time, they will then need to adjourn and table the discussion for another time.

When the meeting run past the allotted 2 minute mark, well then I get mean.  I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Here are a few helpful hints when running a meeting:

1. Be aware of your subject matter – Are you scheduling enough time? Do you have an agenda to keep everyone on task?
2. Know your people – Are they talkers?  Do you need to account extra time to accommodate?
3. Is the conference room you’ve scheduled booked immediately after?  - Be courteous to the next group.  They are on equally tight schedules.

If you can at least follow these few strategies when planning your meetings, you will have successful meetings.

More importantly, you won’t have me knocking on your door saying ‘Time’s up!’

Give A Gal A Bone

Admin Gal feels like a dog with a bone and ten toys, guarding her stash.

I walk a fine line with my resources so that the business needs may be met by the employees in her care while working with the consultants that are in the midst of the company transition.

Frankly I’m exhausted!

Help me do the math.  200 employees, 5 functioning conference rooms, 20-30 meetings on any given day.  Add to this volatile mix, consultants who are doing data transfers who require quiet places to hold hour plus long conference calls at indeterminate times.  The math doesn’t work!

There are no guarantees that I can get the consultants a conference room, so they are in cubes conducting these calls on speakerphone.  Things are tense already.

I’d say give the Admin Gal a bone, but right now I’m guarding my stash and won’t come out of my hole.

So, giving me another bone to guard might not be a great idea when I’m ready to snap.

Valuable Resources

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.

I am a valuable resource.

No, You May Not

As an Admin, I find myself the wrangler of many resources.  Projectors and other widgets.  All of these items are to be checked out using our calendar system so that everyone might have the resource as they need it.

After spending time instructing people on how to reserve the resource, I am flabbergasted when they come to me 48 to 72 hours in advance of their meetings wanting to have the resource so they might be prepared.

REALLY!?!?!?!?!

Never mind that others have reservations for the item. Never mind that the world DOES NOT revolve around them.

They leave my desk muttering about mean and power-hungry admins when I explain that a) it would be an inconvenience to the others who had reserved the resource, b) I don’t want equipment that I’m responsible for not in place that I can’t account for it, and c) NO, YOU MAY NOT have the resource in advance.

If they want to get familiar with the equipment, here’s an idea.  Check it out in advance.  Get use to it.  Return it.  Then on the day of your reservation you’ll feel comfortable.

Use some common sense people!