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Question: A co-worker told me that he brings a voice recorder to work to catch people talking behind his back. He will tape it underneath a desk or hide it behind a picture. We used to be friends, but I now seem to be on the list of people that he hates. I’ve started searching my work area every morning to be sure his recorder isn’t there. Although this guy’s weird behavior makes me sick, I’m not sure what to do about it. Should I bring this to the attention of human resources? —Nervous in Indiana
Maria had been emailing back and forth with a colleague all day about a work issue, when she finally decided to cc the boss. It felt like the right thing to do. But that’s not how it turned out. Instead, it came back to bite her. How to avoid cc’ing up and other email faux pas:
What should you do when no one seems to fill you in on what’s going on in the office? Admin Sandra writes about the problem on our Admin Forum: “I constantly feel like I’m left out of the loop!” she says. She’s not alone. Other administrative pros weighed in to say how they navigate the same challenge:
Find you have a spare five minutes? Don’t spend it perusing email or surfing the web. Ask yourself, “What can I do for five minutes to make tomorrow better?”
Never before have decision-makers looked more closely at their return on investment, but I believe the greatest return you will ever receive is from the investment you make in yourself. Here’s why:
Set aside a few minutes each week to answer questions in the Q&A section of LinkedIn … Tack on your own comment at the top of any forwarded email messages to help the recipient understand why it’s landing in her inbox … Keep things from falling through the cracks with Boomerang for Gmail …
“One of the dumbest excuses for screwing up is ‘everyone else does it, it is industry standard,'” says Robert Sutton in his book Good Boss, Bad Boss. “Don’t mindlessly compare yourself to others … the people you imitate might be complete dolts,” he says.