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Year: 2009

Salaries dip, but there’s hope

Projected starting salaries for administrative professionals could see a decrease by an average of 2.2% in 2010. The good news: If you’re good at adapting to unexpected situations and able to quickly learn new skills, you’re the sort of person who will still thrive.

Reversing the toll of rudeness

More than 90% of the 3,000 employees surveyed by the Marshall School of Business said they had experienced incivility on the job. Of those, 50% said they had lost work time worrying about the incident; 50% considered changing jobs to avoid a recurrence; 25% cut back their efforts on the job. The remedy?

To get ahead, ignore naysayers

As far as you’ve come in this life, people still try to impose limits on you. That’s what Kamala Harris, district attorney for San Francisco, warned newly minted graduates at San Francisco State University last year. Her message: Ignore those people.

Create the next healthiest workplace

Last year, “Vitality Project,” sponsored by the United Health Foundation, set out to create the healthiest hometown in America. Its experts began working with town leaders in Albert Lea, Minn., to transform the way residents eat, work, exercise and play. To boost the health and well-being of the people in your office, follow Albert Lea’s best tactics:

Transitions make the words flow

Using transitions in your writing is like taking readers by the hand and guiding them exactly where you want them to go. Transitional words such as “however,” “meanwhile” or “likewise” create relationships between your sentences and paragraphs so that readers can understand why you’ve written sentences in a particular order.

Business etiquette: after the job interview

Question: I know that applicants should send a thank-you note after a job interview, so I normally fax a letter within one or two days. However, I have some questions about the process. When I’m interviewed by several people, should I include all the names on one letter or send an individual note to each person? If I send separate letters, can they all have the same wording or should each one be different? — Puzzled

2 cool tricks for smartphones

Here are two ways to use smartphones to make daily tasks easier: 1. Track your expenses with an iPhone application from Shoeboxed. 2. Map your way. Move over, TomTom. Phone-based navigation systems are becoming more popular, says Forrester Research.

Co-worker wasting all day on Facebook?

An administrative assistant recently posted this dilemma on our Admin Pro Forum: “I know my office co-worker chats on Facebook most of the day … and now I have proof. Do I say something to the co-worker, or do I bring it up to the boss? I am usually not a tattletale, but there are times when I am overwhelmed with work and I know she’s chatting on Facebook and not getting her work done.” Forum readers weighed in with advice:

Social technology eating into your time?

If you find it hard to keep up with Facebook, Twitter and other social-media tools, you’ll love this idea for a New Year’s resolution: Stop trying to keep up with social technology. Alexandra Samuel, CEO of Social Signal, says you could spend half your life trying to figure out the latest, greatest tool—so don’t even bother trying. To refocus your relationships: