Which is correct: “E-Mail” or “e-mail”? “Red, white and blue” or “red, white, and blue”? “A.M.” or “a.m.”? Would everyone in your office answer the same way? If not, you could probably use an internal style guide.
It’s not unusual to be asked to help pay for celebrations at the office, such as birthdays and baby showers. Avoid asking colleagues for too much too often by keeping in mind these guidelines from OfficeTeam:
Reader Sharon Wentzell sent us this question: “When you use parentheses at the end of a sentence, where does the period go: inside or outside the last parenthesis?” Answer: When you have a full sentence inside parentheses, and it isn’t positioned inside another sentence, it should begin with a capital letter and end with a […]
The reason Taco Bell’s admin team came up with its “Team of Two” training program is clear when you listen to admin Karen Walters describe managers in her building. “There were a few managers in the group who maybe weren’t using admins to their greatest capabilities,” explains Walters. “In their defense, they didn’t have a good model.” So the admin team decided to give them one…
You probably already know about double-clicking in Word to select a word or paragraph. But did you know about these double-click tricks for getting through your work faster?
The meeting’s over. Within moments, everyone is scurrying back to check voice- and e-mail messages, quickly forgetting about the action items they just took on. Your mission? To produce minutes that remind everyone what needs to happen next, and assure them that their meeting time was well spent. These five suggestions will help you write […]
The monthly department meeting is next week, and you’ve already heard from four people who want to appear on the agenda. You expect a few more to chime in. It’s your job to create an agenda that affords adequate time for each item, as well as to make sure the meeting runs smoothly and ends on time. Your best approach? Annette Marquis, co-owner of TRIAD Consulting, recommends building an adjustable meeting-agenda template in Excel.
Problem: "I’m in charge of turning on the dishwasher each night before leaving. To some, this translates to my also being in charge of cleaning up after everyone. Several memos have been distributed … but have not been successful. Any ideas? I’m tired of being known as the office maid. My name is not Hazel!"