I used to work for a really – and I mean REALLY – demanding boss. She always wanted everything that she had just assigned me done yesterday, and she constantly showered me with new projects that I was not ready for or that I did not have enough training to complete. However, in her defense (sort of) she was always willing to put up whatever money or time was necessary to get me the skills I needed in order to get her stuff done – as long as I learned on my own time, and did it fast.

As you can imagine, this situation quickly became untenable. I was stressed out, and even when I wasn’t officially working, I was unofficially training – off the clock, of course. My husband and kids never saw me, and when they did I was usually in a foul mood because I was tired, irritated and under a lot of pressure. I felt like I was always running behind.

Finally, I snapped. I couldn’t take it anymore. I still feel like I was totally justified in the earful that I gave that woman when she berated me for not completing a project properly – and early – because I had not yet completed the course that I was taking that would teach me how to manage the software. And I hadn’t completed it because of something else that she had assigned to me last-minute! Needless to say, I let her know just how much of a nightmare boss she really was, and then I hung up on her and that job…

…which left me in the unenviable position of being unemployed. However, I spruced up my resume and set out on a job hunt. I was in for a big surprise. All that training had paid off! I had more qualifications than I could have dreamed of, and there was not a single interview in which I was forced to say “I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with that system.”

This is not to say that you should take loads of abuse and work yourself to the bone for no pay in order to build your resume, but I do think it bears pointing out that sometimes, a little unpaid overtime can pay off big time. I have a decent boss now who doesn’t usually hit me with surprises that I can’t handle, but if he does, I always check to see if the training is available and workable for me before I tell him that I can’t do something. Because in the end, the more you know, the more you are worth.

If you don't have something nice to say, don't say nothing at all.

Because email is such a conversational medium, many people have a tendency to overlook some basic rules for professional communication when they email. While this may be just fine with an employer or client who has known you for years, it can create problems when you are corresponding with someone new. In fact, you can even end up alienating a potential project-manager or future boss if your emails are too familiar or casual.

If you have known an individual for some time or their own email style is extremely casual, then you are probably safe to mimic their emailing habits. However, when emailing strangers on a professional basis, follow these rules to keep your emails looking sharp:

Use effective subject lines

When you are emailing for work purposes, your email subject line should clearly convey exactly what the email is about. Give your email a subject that lets your intended reader know what project you are dealing with, and avoid cute phrases or commentary. Let your work speak for itself.
 

Stay on subject

If you are like a lot of people, you write your emails much in the same way that you converse. This often can mean that you may tend to wander off subject or include more information than is absolutely necessary for the correspondence. When writing professional emails, only include information and opinions that are relevant to the topic.
 

Punctuate – correctly!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: you must punctuate your emails correctly! It is so important to use professional punctuation, which means that not only should you avoid misuse of punctuation, but also overuse of it. Keep sentences simple and to the point. You will convey information more accurately and your emails will be easier to read and understand.

Professional-sounding emails can play a major role in your success in any business. Make sure that your emails are impeccably constructed to insure that everyone reads your every word.

Most of us don’t think much about a short drive to work. If we drive 15 to 20 miles, it may not seem like that much of a commute. And if it’s less than that, then we probably hardly counted it at all when we moved into our home or evaluated that aspect of our current job. However, a short distance during “off hours” for traffic can turn into a nightmare during high-volume traffic times of day. All that sitting and waiting, stopping and starting, and idling could be costing you a lot more than you think.

Commuting has a lot of costs outside of the monetary ones that we often don’t factor in. Assume, for the moment, that you know what terrible gas mileage you’re getting because of all the traffic  and you understand the wear and tear on your car that the odometer won’t reflect because it doesn’t tally minutes sitting and idling – and all too often, overheating! Let’s look at the other costs of commuting that I know I, for one, did not even notice until I started telecommuting several days a week:

Fatigue
It sounds crazy, but sitting in traffic will wear you out! This leads to less energy for the family and interferes with your focus when you finally get to work. It can also cause you to neglect health issues like daily exercise and healthy eating in exchange for a fast, easy out like fast food and no cardio at all.

Stress
People who sit in traffic on a regular basis, according to some studies, are a full three times more likely to experience heart attacks in their lifetime. Sound overblown? Think about the stress and the utter futility that you experience when you are trapped in your car on the freeway – or even just when you are navigating city streets with low speed limits and lots of twists and turns trying to get to work on time. That is indisputably stress on your heart!

Loss of personal time
You don’t get paid for that commute, and you don’t get much good out of it either. Many people attempt to override this problem by listening to soothing music and trying to relax while they drive or by trying to get some form of work done in the car. Either way, however, it is personal, unpaid time that you put in for work every time you sit in that car and wait for the light to change or the wreck to clear.

This is not designed to make you hate your job and its commute. Rather, I just want you to think about the time and toll that your commute may be taking. Possibly you can work out a way to make that time more useful for yourself or even determine a way to save all sorts of trouble and money by working from home.


 

Delegating work can get a job done more quickly or it can turn in to a huge pain in the neck. If you are like most people, you have delegated work out to a team at least one time after which you thought to yourself, “That sure would have been easier if I had just done that on my own.” All of us have had times where the idea of teamwork just didn’t pan out, but on the whole, the ability to delegate effectively will still save you a great deal of time and enable you to get more done in the long run.

When you are delegating, think hard about the work you are assigning to people and how it fits their personality. For example, while a young intern who is just happy to have a paying job that is gaining them experience in their field is going to feel very differently about filing than another administrator who has been essentially running her half of the office for 30 years. In this scenario, it makes sense to assign the filing to the intern, then find something for the secretary that demonstrates your recognition of the fact that he or she knows the “in’s and out’s” of the office better than most.

Also, when you delegate think about yourself. If there are projects that you are going to try and micromanage no matter how hard to try to resist, then you should keep those projects. Assigning them to others will just create bad feelings when you are constantly breathing down their necks about their work. You should keep projects that you are sure that you cannot let go of.

Delegating work is a fine line. You have to be fair and you have to also make the best use of everyone’s talents, regardless of what those talents might be. Do your best to explain why you have assigned certain work items in a positive light, emphasizing that you think that the person doing the job will perform extremely well.

Particularly in the summer months, many offices adopt a “Casual Friday” or other “Casual Day” during which employees can dress down from their usual professional attire. Often these days are designed to bring a little fun into the workplace, but a mistaken idea about what is appropriate for Casual Day could end up with you cooling your heels at home early or making a horrible first impression on someone that you will be working with. If you have not experienced a casual day in the office before, make sure that you err on the side of caution when you are dressing down.

In many offices, casual day simply means that you do not have to wear a suit (and tie) if you are a man and that you do not have to wear the equivalent level of dress if you are a woman. However, for women, the line is less distinct, since many women wear skirts and blouses on a regular basis, which slightly lowers their level of professional dress already. So before you wear jeans in to work, make sure that this is acceptable and that Casual Day is not really just “ditch your tie and/or heels day.”

Another way that offices may try to make Casual Day fun is by giving it a theme. For example, there might be “Hawaiian Shirt Day” or “Luau Day.” As with any other casual day, be moderate in your interpretation of what is appropriate. Avoid coconut bikinis and other beachwear, including flip flops, unless there has been a precedent set for this type of behavior! Even then, tread lightly so that your behavior is not misinterpreted.

Casual days can be a great way to lighten a mood or reward an office that has really had its nose to the grindstone. Just always be careful to keep propriety in the back of your mind, and think carefully about whether or not you will be participating if the day is not officially sanctioned.

When you are an assistant, it can be very tempting to put your employer’s needs entirely over your own. To some extent, this is your job, since your role as a virtual assistant is basically to help keep things running on schedule, pay bills and generally smooth the way for your employer and his or her business. However, if you completely eliminate your professional needs from the equation, a job that starts out as a great opportunity can start to feel like a real dead end.

In order to keep the “spark” in your  job, you need to make sure that you are working toward your goals as well as those of your employer. And you should also make sure that your employer is working toward your goals too. You can accomplish this harmonious relationship by talking to your employer about how you can better help the company and yourself in the process.

Request a meeting with your employer when he or she has some time to talk. You can present it as a performance review if you like, since these types of reviews are often the point at which goals for the future are discussed. With your employer, review what your role in the company is and how that role might grow to expand the productivity of the company as well as yourself. Often, that expansion might require training, extra hours or additional education – all of which your employer may be willing to fund and which will make you more marketable and more valuable to the company.

Before the meeting, decide what you want to accomplish. Do you want more hours? More responsibility? More education? A higher salary? Determine how to best present your needs so that your meeting these goals actually furthers the progress of the company. Then, ask your boss to help you identify the company’s goals and how you can further them. Together, the two of you should be able to identify ways in which you can grow while at the same time supporting the growth of the company that requires your main focus.

As an assistant, from time to time it will fall to you to settle differences of opinion among co-workers on what types of behavior are appropriate for the office. While sometimes there will be outright conflict, in most cases you will find that one individual has a problem with another’s behavior but prefers not to address it personally. Your job is to resolve the issue without creating more turmoil.

One way to do this can be to address the issue as if you noticed it on your own. This is particularly effective if the behavior in question is in violation of the set office etiquette policy. For example, if your office requires women to wear skirts below the knee, then a request for an employee to refrain from mini-skirts is easily made and justified.  Similarly, if your office prohibits radios without headphones, then asking an employee to invest in a pair of earbuds or give up the afternoon “Swap Talk” show is entirely understandable.

However, many times the lines will not be so clear. In these cases, you will have to determine what behavior is appropriate and address the issue head on. In most cases, this should be done without the complaining party present unless the conflict has escalated to the point where both parties must reach some type of resolution together. For example, if it has been brought to your attention that “Lacey” has a tendency to loiter in other people’s offices and go through things while she is talking to them, you probably will ultimately need to have a confidential conversation with Lacey about not violating confidentiality between other employees and the people with whom they work. When this type of sticky situation arises, always check with your employer or human resources department before addressing it in case there is paperwork to be filled out or a specific course of action or vocabulary that needs to be used to protect you and your employer.
 

Some workplaces do not have strict rules for etiquette. Others have myriad rules that you may feel govern every aspect of your life from how you answer the phone to the soap you wash your face with in the morning. While workplaces with extremely strict behavior policies can be frustrating, most of the time you simply will have to learn to live with it if you want to succeed in that environment. Fortunately, you do not have to bring your workplace's stringent rules home with you, which should help you continue to work within workplace etiquette while you are at work.

One of the most important things to remember about workplace etiquette is that it is in place so that people can work together more effectively. Is it always effective in this endeavor? Well, not necessarily. However, it is something that you have to learn to live with, so go ahead and adopt a tolerant attitude if you are required to answer the phone with something ridiculous (my personal favorite was "It's a beautiful sunny day at _____ Apartments!" even if there were tornados right outside the window) or mark your location every time you leave your desk for more than 30 seconds to use the restroom. The ability to laugh about the apparently "silly" requirements will help prevent you from obsessing about them or getting angry every time you have to do them.

Next, remember that work etiquette stays at work. When you walk out the door, you are free! That means that you should not spend a lot of time at home complaining about work etiquette at home, when you can do basically whatever you please. Make the most of your "me time" and your family time by focusing on yourself and your family. This will also help relieve frustration that you may feel about work etiquette and also help keep your family from resenting your work issues and even your job every bit as much as you do.

Dealing with seemingly crazy workplace etiquette can be difficult. However, as long as you work in that place, you likely will have to learn to adapt. Drawing a clear line between your professional and personal life will help you work within workplace etiquette without losing your cool in the office.

If you think scheduling a conference call is easy, then you may be in for a surprise the first time you are instructed to get four to ten people on a line for a phone meeting. While getting two or even three people to sync their schedules is difficult enough, when you try to get a bunch of busy individuals together it can prove frustrating and nearly impossible. Fortunately, by taking a systematic approach to the issue, you can generally simplify the process for yourself and everyone else dramatically.

Start out by doing some personal analysis of the people on the call. In your experience, who is the hardest to get in touch with? Who can the meeting absolutely not run without if they cancel? Try to get a feel for the priority of the meeting members, and structure your actions accordingly. For example, if you must have the president of the company in attendance, then you will likely want to start with him or her, and then move downward from there.

Set a date and an alternate date. Do not offer the alternate date up front. Simply call the various participants or their assistants and find out who can make the date and time. Remember that there may be different time zones involved. Once you have an idea of whether the date and time are going to work, then you should touch base with the person who originally scheduled the call to determine if the absence of one or two people will mean that the call cannot move forward. In most cases, as long as key players are present the rest of the people on the call are considered to be flexible.
 

We've all been at work and had one of those moments where you just want to lay your head down on the desk and cry. No matter how much you love your job, sometimes it can feel like too much. While you are going to have a "manic Monday" every once in a while no matter how well you plan, you can use these tips and tricks to get ahead and work and make sure that your workdays run as smoothly as possible

Set Deadlines for Your Deadlines
If you know that something is due in two weeks, put it on your calendar as due in a week and a half. This will help you delegate your time so that if there are last-minute changes or emergencies, you have the time left over to deal with them. 

Designate Time to Check Email
Some studies indicate that it takes up to 30 minutes after checking email for your focus to return completely. Check it only a few times per day unless your job dictates otherwise, and the rest of the time, close that browser window and let yourself work!

Work as Long as Possible Before Lunch
Most peoples' productivity is cut literally in half after lunch. So while it is tempting to have that break as soon as possible, if you can snack at your desk and push your actual lunch hour as late as 2pm you could dramatically increase your productivity and focus for an additional 2 hours

By following these tips you will find that your workday runs more smoothly and is far more rewarding than ever before!

Whether you work for yourself or you are part of a larger company, you will from time to time find it necessary to send emails for work. While most people are not aware of this issue, emails have been used in courts to prove obligation, meaning that if a client or customer or even just a potential business associate can "prove" that you emailed them to the effect that you would provide a good or service for a given price, they may be able to sue to you if you do not ultimately provide that service and that price. This is of particular import for investors and other types of financial companies.

It may be tempting to think to yourself, "I'm just the administrative assistant. This has nothing to do with me." However, if you send out emails from a company email account, you need to make sure that your "bases are covered." This means making sure that any ambiguous correspondence on your part does not lead to a successful legal action on someone else's end.

For starters, ask your employer if he or she has a legal disclaimer. There may be something that you need to append to the end of all your emails anyway. If this is the case, then be sure to do so in order to protect yourself, your employer and your correspondence. If your employer does not have a disclaimer, ask them about having one drawn up. It is extremely important. In the interim, consider affixing your own at least to emails sent from your personal account simply stating that nothing in your emails constitutes a binding legal commitment.

Next, find out if there is any list of prohibited language for emails. Some employers make it a point to never talk about certain business in email. At a minimum, you should never email account information or passwords, since email systems are hacked all the time. You may have heard that Google recently found that thousands of accounts had been exposed! Since emails that you send are stored in your account history, even if you delete them after receipt or delivery a malicious person may still be able to find that information.

When it comes to legal issues and email, it is always better to be safe than sorry. Protect yourself and your employer by taking the time to find out what methods are in place for safeguarding information and how to insure that your emails do not become a legal liability for you or your boss.

Keeping a good calendar is essential to your success as an assistant. Gone are the days when a big calendar on the wall would suffice. Now everyone needs access to everything from at least 3 different geographic areas and electronic devices, and it is up to you to make sure that people see what they need to see - and do not have access to the stuff that they don't!

In addition to all of these issues, you, yourself, will need an additional calendar full of personal information that you will need to use to sync up your own personal events with office work and projects. You may also be required to keep a similar calendar for your boss or assorted other parties in your office, depending on how in-depth your organizational responsibilities go.

There are several different takes on how to best handle calendar creation and maintenance. Here are some of the most popular. You will need to experiment to determine what works best for you and your employer:

Develop a Grand Monster Calendar
This calendar will have everything on it that you could ever need to know about anything. The benefits are that it centralizes all the information. However, you may have trouble finding information because the calendar is so crowded, and you will likely have to break this calendar down into individualized calendars for the individuals on the calendar, since it is unlikely that they all need access to each other's personal and professional schedules in detail.

Set up a series of individual calendars that you and the owners can both update
This is useful because it enables you and the other party to contribute to keeping the calendar current. However, you will end up spending a lot of time checking individual calendars to determine who can and cannot make events and you may end up missing items that have been updated recently or that an owner neither told you about nor added personally.

You can personally maintain "group calendars"
These are calendars of people grouped by association. This may be people with similar office responsibilities or who are parts of different teams but work together regularly. Generally these calendars should be maintained just by you so that people do not accidentally add or remove items that do not pertain to them. This somewhat eliminates cross-calendar checking, but it may mean that you also have to keep individual calendars so that not everyone in a group knows what every other person is up to at all times.