office admins' hideout

Emails: Continuing the Trouble Part 2

2009-02-04T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here's the second part of Mark C.S. Bassingthwaighte's article.The Trouble with Email, Part Twoby Mark C.S. Bassingthwaighte, JDRisk Management Coordinator, ALPS RRGIn part one of this two-part series, the focus was on how incoming emails could create liability. In part two, things get turned around. Here the discussion will focus on liability from outgoing email.Must email communications with

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T20:17:00.000-08:00

Just want to greet you allMERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

ISO 9001:2000 Visit Plan

2008-12-24T02:56:00.000-08:00

Fresh from a long day meeting! Wheu!It was the final meeting before we schedule our first internal audit. Run down all the requirements.. papers, papers, papers.... and papers... oh I forget... documents also (still papers!).Anyway, today I just want to share to you the Visit Plan we had during the process. Who will visit? Sorry, I forgot to clear some things here. Ok, We hired (let's name them)

Emails: Continuing The Trouble

2008-12-22T19:54:00.000-08:00

The following article is written by Mark C.S. Bassingthwaighte, Risk Manager for APLS RRG. This is related to our previous post regarding emails .Thanks Mark for allowing us to post your article.THE TROUBLE WITH EMAIL, Part 1byMark C.S. BassingthwaighteRisk ManagerAttorneys Liability Prevention Society,A Mutual Risk Retention GroupEmail can certainly be a great time saver. One no longer needs to

ISO Certification: 9001 and 14001

2008-12-22T00:40:00.000-08:00

I am currently working on our ISO Certification: both 9001 & 14001. Too much work to be done. That's why most of the time I prefer to take a sleep than blogging!Anyway, for those who are not much familiar with ISO Certification, let me give you some idea:International Organization for Standardization (ISO???? It should be IOS!!!) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1947 in an attempt to

Emails: The Trouble of Having Official Submittals

2008-12-15T04:20:00.000-08:00

Few years ago, I attended a symposium about latest trend on electronic documentation. All presenters were well prepared with their scripts and slide presentations and most of the audience were excited to hear their subject of interest. Even though how much been prepared, when the open forum started, everything went on a surprise as everyone were eager to raise a question.With all the questions

Office Tip # 4: Doing More Than Paid For

2008-12-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

I know that this sounds familiar or somehow related to other quotes you already heard.It is one of the Law of Success which Napoleon Hill mentioned in his book, THE LAW OF SUCCESS. Most of the popular quotes about exceeding expectation comes from this brilliant idea of Napoleon Hill whose works were been published during the Great Depression of 1930's."By rendering more service than that for

Tech Review: Google Docs

2008-11-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

Today on Tech Review, let's talk about one of our office productivity software we discussed previously: GOOGLE DOCS.With Google Docs, you can create basic documents using a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation online.Let's get some information from their site:"Create basic documents from scratch or start from a template.You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists,

Office Tip # 3: Phone Calls

2008-11-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

The way we handle phone calls reflects the personality of our company. So give some little care about it.Here are some few tips...Opening CourtesySmile first before answering any phone call to set an approachable mood.Transferring CallsBefore transferring a call, make sure that you had explained to the caller that you are going to transfer her/his call and will be put on hold.Taking a messageGet

Your Skills Versus Technology

2008-11-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

I remember during college, me and some of my colleagues went to an assembly of workers protesting on what they called "some unfair labor practices" by their employers. Allegedly, they were part of a mass lay-off being implemented due to "cost-cutting" strategy of the company.Before, whenever I hear mass lay-off of employees, I thought that the company was on a crisis and retrenchment would be a

Creating Forms Using MS Word or other Word Processing Programs

2008-11-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

Please note that the term FORM that I used here refers to a plain document we usually fill out and not the one with fancy buttons and drop-downs plus back-end programs we found on online transactions. That kind of FORM functions will be discussed sometime on a separate article. Thanks!You were assigned by your office to create a new document transmittal form to be used for a new project. The only

Creating a Reference Number for Letters

2008-11-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

I found it a bad practice in document archiving and management system using DATE as your reference. Although for others there is no problem encountered with this procedure, but on the long run this will create chaos in archiving documents.Whether your organization writes two or more letters a day, use a unique reference number to identify a specific letter followed by a date when it was created

New Category: Document Control and Management

2008-11-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

Today, we are going to add a new category to this site. I consider this as another field of study in our endeavor and an interesting discussion for most of us.Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome... E. Document Control and Management (DCM)In this category, you and I will share best practices and tested solutions in handling corporate documents and other correspondence. It doesn't matter how

Shortcut Keys for MS Word

2008-11-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

Since most of us are using MS Word for making a document, here's my gift to you... shortcut keys for MS Word which I found very useful.Just pick at least 5 shortcut keys a day until you get used to all of it.Enjoy! Shortcut Action Ctrl + A Select all contents of the document Ctrl + B Bold/unbold highlighted text

Office Productivity Suites, Our Best Buddies

2008-11-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

Let's face it! Our work will not be the same without acknowledging the benefit which computers and office productivity softwares help our lives as office personnel. In this period of jpegs and pdfs, having an average knowledge in these softwares is a must.What are these office productivity tools that I am referring too?For everybody's guidance (and for us to have one idea on the subject), office

Office Fellow: With Dedication and Learning New Things

2008-11-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

Today's post for our O.F.O.F., let us welcome Mimi.From Manila, she moved to Dubai to work in a project management company. She shares to us her dedication to work and some unforgettable experiences she encountered."I believe that having a harmonious relationship with co-workers is one of the most important factors to enjoy your work." Mimi JimenezProjects Secretary cum Document Controller 7 1/

Office Tip # 2: Treating Your Officemates As Your Customers

2008-11-06T02:59:00.000-08:00

As part of an organization, you should identify two types of customer: one who gives business to your company and those persons you are working with - your officemates.Treating your officemates as your customers will not only smoothen your relationship with them but also boost the spirit of teamwork in your company. Isn't it your boss is like a very important client that you need to give special

Meet Your Fellow Office Admins

2008-11-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

This category will give tribute to some of our fellow office admins sharing their experiences and insights of what it takes as the most important person in the office.From time to time, we will feature a fellow office workaholic here and learn from his or her experiences.Wanna be featured sometime? Let me know!

Office Tip # 1: Know Your Routine and Simplify

2008-11-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

How much of your time are being utilized by your work?Some of us might say eight hours a day as per office timings and can give some extra hours of work if required. Or if you are working at your home office, it depends on the work load you received and agreed to accomplish. Personal secretaries might find this question very hard to answer, if not answering "while my boss is awake!".Although we

Who Are We?

2008-11-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

If you are:- an office manager- any kind of secretary (personal, executive, chief, etc.)- document controller- office assistant- logistics personnel- purchasing officer- accountant- messenger- human resource personnel- or whatever your organization calls youyou are considered (for the purpose of this site only) an office admin.You are most welcome to read all posts, contribute and share what you

Technology Review

2008-11-04T05:08:00.000-08:00

We believed that using the right technology will make our work easier (and more time for internet browsing... amen!).Finding the right software and hardware for us means more performance efficiency (or more youtube-ing.... yes!).We will try to give you some of the useful technology out there and allow us to review it. To add more fun, you can give your review and assessment also.Suggestions for

Survival Tips for Office Admins

2008-11-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

We titled this as "Survival Tips for Office Admins" due to the fact that technology is about to replace our daily routine work and we need to do our work well than an average office administrator or else be extinct.In order for us to exceed management expectations, if not being lay-off, this Office Survival Tips category is made for you. You can find here helpful tips on basic information, how to

What To Expect On This Site

2008-11-04T03:38:00.000-08:00

On this site, we will tackle everything that affects our life as office admin:... doing office works under minimum supervision... confident office manager... tips on how to file documents easily and effectively... pointers in filing and all basic informations needed in our record book or log sheets (or whatever you may call it)... software reviews related to our daily tasks (office productivity,

Welcome OFFICE ADMINISTRATORS!!!

2008-11-04T02:46:00.000-08:00

Hello there fellow office administrators...Welcome to OFFICE ADMINS' HIDE-OUT!... where highly organized individuals of the corporate world meet.This is where most important persons in a corporate office exchange ideas and share their skills by helping fellow office administrators in their daily office routine.What is a Office Administration?According to wiki :"Office administration is a set of