| << Home |
The Story of Agnes,
The Best Employee Marty Ever Had,
And How She Nearly Destroyed His Company.
|
|||
| We respect your privacy. | |||
Dear Professional,
My friend Marty was CEO of his company, but he often told me he wasn’t its most important employee. For 22 years, Marty liked to say his most important employee was Agnes.
Marty’s company was running out of a garage when he hired Agnes. With Agnes at his right hand, the firm grew and prospered. They hired a few people, then dozens, then hundreds more. Move followed move, until they arrived at their current headquarters on the 17th floor of Stamford, Connecticut’s, best downtown building. Through it all, Agnes remained at Marty’s side – loyal, smart, dedicated, the most competent administrative assistant a boss could wish for.
Too competent, perhaps. With Agnes taking care of business, I’m afraid, my friend Marty lulled himself into a false sense of security.
The day Agnes died, Marty’s company nearly died too.
From Day One, Agnes was in charge of “putting stuff away” – paper files at first, then a records-administration system she created, then a subsystem for medical records, then another for résumés, all supported by a sophisticated computer backup system that Agnes oversaw. Marty’s firm kept growing but there was no reason to change the system. When they couldn’t find something, they’d just ask Agnes.
One day, though, Marty requested some files even Agnes couldn’t locate. After someone else finally dug them up, Marty got a little uneasy. He mentioned to Agnes that maybe it was time to look into a more formal system. She smiled and said she’d get right on it.
The next day, Agnes collapsed at her desk.
Marty himself called “911” – and watched helplessly as Ellen from down the hall administered CPR and they waited for the ambulance. But Marty knew it wouldn’t do Agnes any good.
Deep in sadness over the loss of his sidekick, it never occurred to my friend that, within 24 hours, the you-know-what would hit the fan.
My friend Marty was CEO of his company, but he often told me he wasn’t its most important employee. For 22 years, Marty liked to say his most important employee was Agnes.
Marty’s company was running out of a garage when he hired Agnes. With Agnes at his right hand, the firm grew and prospered. They hired a few people, then dozens, then hundreds more. Move followed move, until they arrived at their current headquarters on the 17th floor of Stamford, Connecticut’s, best downtown building. Through it all, Agnes remained at Marty’s side – loyal, smart, dedicated, the most competent administrative assistant a boss could wish for.
Too competent, perhaps. With Agnes taking care of business, I’m afraid, my friend Marty lulled himself into a false sense of security.
The day Agnes died, Marty’s company nearly died too.
From Day One, Agnes was in charge of “putting stuff away” – paper files at first, then a records-administration system she created, then a subsystem for medical records, then another for résumés, all supported by a sophisticated computer backup system that Agnes oversaw. Marty’s firm kept growing but there was no reason to change the system. When they couldn’t find something, they’d just ask Agnes.
One day, though, Marty requested some files even Agnes couldn’t locate. After someone else finally dug them up, Marty got a little uneasy. He mentioned to Agnes that maybe it was time to look into a more formal system. She smiled and said she’d get right on it.
The next day, Agnes collapsed at her desk.
Marty himself called “911” – and watched helplessly as Ellen from down the hall administered CPR and they waited for the ambulance. But Marty knew it wouldn’t do Agnes any good.
Deep in sadness over the loss of his sidekick, it never occurred to my friend that, within 24 hours, the you-know-what would hit the fan.
|
|||||
| We respect your privacy. | |||||
First it was the phones. A software failure, Marty surmised. Heck, he didn’t know – he’s a CEO, not an engineer. With a phone system that served 350 employees on three floors, the problem could lie anywhere.
His tech guys were on the case … for 10 minutes … until they discovered they couldn’t locate the installation manuals. No one knew where they were filed. And Agnes wasn’t around to ask.
His people were using their cellphones when who should walk in but … the state OSHA examiner to schedule an audit. Looking disdainfully at the chaos around him, he informed Marty that the company would need to produce all employment and personnel records going back three years, plus reports of any accidents and related legal actions going back five years.
Marty didn’t know where this stuff was kept. Nor, apparently, did his staff. Dozens of files still were missing at the end of the week. Agnes could have found them in 10 minutes.
Life became h*ll for months. Everyone worked 80-hour weeks, Marty included. Paper files were only the beginning. Marty named a three-person task force to search every hard drive and backup for key files. The worst moment? When the letter arrived from the IRS asking for five years of records to support prior tax deductions. That’s when he began thinking about selling the company.
Then one fateful day, Marty’s new administrative assistant, Sandra, saw him moping at his desk and handed him a little book. “Here,” she said, “take a look at this. It might cheer you up.”
The book was called Taming the Paper Monster: Records Management, Compliance And File Security.
Marty picked it up – and didn’t put it down until 11 o’clock that night, after he’d read every word and sketched out a plan of action. At 8:30 next morning, things at his firm started to turn around.
$2,000 a Year to Maintain a 4-Drawer Filing Cabinet?
Taming the Paper Monster became Marty’s blueprint for establishing a formal records-management program. It showed him that –
His tech guys were on the case … for 10 minutes … until they discovered they couldn’t locate the installation manuals. No one knew where they were filed. And Agnes wasn’t around to ask.
His people were using their cellphones when who should walk in but … the state OSHA examiner to schedule an audit. Looking disdainfully at the chaos around him, he informed Marty that the company would need to produce all employment and personnel records going back three years, plus reports of any accidents and related legal actions going back five years.
Marty didn’t know where this stuff was kept. Nor, apparently, did his staff. Dozens of files still were missing at the end of the week. Agnes could have found them in 10 minutes.
Life became h*ll for months. Everyone worked 80-hour weeks, Marty included. Paper files were only the beginning. Marty named a three-person task force to search every hard drive and backup for key files. The worst moment? When the letter arrived from the IRS asking for five years of records to support prior tax deductions. That’s when he began thinking about selling the company.
Then one fateful day, Marty’s new administrative assistant, Sandra, saw him moping at his desk and handed him a little book. “Here,” she said, “take a look at this. It might cheer you up.”
The book was called Taming the Paper Monster: Records Management, Compliance And File Security.
Marty picked it up – and didn’t put it down until 11 o’clock that night, after he’d read every word and sketched out a plan of action. At 8:30 next morning, things at his firm started to turn around.
$2,000 a Year to Maintain a 4-Drawer Filing Cabinet?
Taming the Paper Monster became Marty’s blueprint for establishing a formal records-management program. It showed him that –
- His people were keeping tons of stuff they didn’t need. The average office spends $2,000 per year to maintain a single four-drawer filing cabinet, says Taming the Paper Monster, even though 46% of all company files are nonessential.
- And they were throwing away stuff they did need. Taming the Paper Monster identifies 93 types of records that must be kept permanently. Marty’s company had routinely been tossing out dozens of them.
- Company “rules” for records retention were based more on myth than method. Agnes had created a system for naming files and some of it was personal indeed. (Those phone manuals, for example. When they finally were tracked down, they were filed under “I” – for “Installation, Telephone.”)
- No one was in charge of throwing stuff out. That was changed quickly, using the “Originator’s Rule” set forth in Taming The Paper Monster: Whoever generates a document is responsible for its retention.
- Some types of records are not official “must-keeps,” Marty learned, but companies mishandle them at their peril. For example, even though there’s no overriding federal law governing how personnel records are handled, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act each contain specific requirements on storage and confidentiality of medical records.
Taming the Paper Monster can provide the tools your company needs to get control of records and bring your organization into the 21st century. You’ll discover:
- The 8 steps to effective records management (p. 7)
- The 7 categories of records you must keep more or less forever (pp. 8-10)
- The 3 life-cycle stages of every business record (p. 13)
- Rules of thumb for disposing of duplicate, unnecessary and obsolete records (pp. 13-14), plus 10 things to exclude from your corporate records-retention program (p. 15)
- Best practices for storing records electronically (pp. 14-15)
- Onsite vs. offsite storage – what to consider, how to decide (pp. 15-16)
- How to select a records management supervisor (p. 17)
- “Vital,” “Important,” “Useful,” “Nonessential” – how to tell what’s what and which is which (pp. 21-22)
- Those boxes stacked up in the basement – how to tell which are safe to toss … and which are not (pp. 22-24)
- Special considerations for treatment of –
- Personnel records (pp. 24-25)
- Occupational-safety records (pp. 25-26)
- Environmental protection records (p. 26)
- Tax and financial records (p. 26)
- 4 features your on-site storage facility needs to have, and an 8-point checklist to evaluate the facility’s value (pp. 34-36)
- What to watch out for when selecting a vendor for electronic records storage (pp. 36-37)
- 9 data security measures to consider, from low-cost to super-secret (pp. 37-38)
- The 3 most space-saving ways to back up computer files, plus a backup horror-story that befell one unsuspecting company owner (p. 40)
- 3 guidelines for protecting confidential files, and 7 things every personnel-records privacy policy must include (pp. 42-43)
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – its requirements on medical-records privacy, who may examine confidential medical records, and under what circumstances (p. 43)
- E-mailing on the job – the 3 issues every employee must understand (pp. 44-45)
- A 21-point program to raise employee information security awareness (pp. 45-46)
- Periodic destruction of records – the legal rationale (pp. 46-47)
- What to do when legal action threatens (p. 50)
- How to decide how long to keep records when no requirements exist (p. 52)
Taming the Paper Monster also includes –
- Record-keeping requirements of important federal laws including –
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 1967
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 1992
- Clean Air Act (CAA), 1997
- Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), 1985
- Drug-Free Workplace Act, 1988
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), 1988
- Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 1974
- Equal Pay Act, 1963
- Executive Order 11246, 1965
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 1938
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), 1993
- Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), 1954
- Immigration and Nationality Act, 1986
- National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 1935
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), 1970
- Rehabilitation Act, 1973
- Social Security Act, 1935
- Tax Reform Acts (formerly Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Acts), 1986, 1993
- Toxic Substances Control Act, 1976
- A Records Retention Guide – five pages of tables that identify hundreds of types of records and documents, and tell you how long each one must be retained.
- And an Appendix listing contact information for government offices, regulatory agencies, associations and other organizations that offer further resources for effective management of files, records and electronic data.
|
|||||
| We respect your privacy. | |||||
A Money-$aving Move
One thing I haven’t yet mentioned is how much money Marty’s company saved by instituting modern, effective, secure record-keeping and storage systems. Just from scanning paper records, they were able to transform four rooms of dead storage into lively office workspaces. And while there was a significant up-front cost for new hardware and software, the long-run savings more than paid for it.
Another nice thing about Taming the Paper Monster is that it’s written in the language most of us speak – plain English. Even though it deals with complex legal topics, it’s free of jargon, legalese and gobbledygook … and filled with real-world experiences of executives and employees like you and your colleagues.
But What About That Darn Book?
After Marty’s company “tamed the paper monster,” it went on to great things. By his retirement day, they’d tripled revenues and its stock was listed on the NASDAQ. I attended the retirement gala along with hundreds of other well-wishers.
We were recalling old times when Sandra joined us. Marty clinked her glass and gave her a hug.
“You’ve been great,” he beamed.
She beamed back. With a twinkle, she said, “But not as great as Agnes, right?”
“There’ll never be another Agnes,” Marty said solemnly. “But it was you who started things back on track. That book you gave me – what was it called, Taming the Paper Monster? I’ll be grateful forever.”
Sandra looked at Marty, then at me. Then she blushed. “I can’t really take credit,” she said. “You see, one day I was going through this old box of Agnes’ stuff …”
If ever a book saved a company, that book is Taming the Paper Monster. Why not discover it yourself? Order your own copy now and examine it 30 days at absolutely zero risk or expense.
Sincerely,
Pat DiDomenico
Editorial Director
One thing I haven’t yet mentioned is how much money Marty’s company saved by instituting modern, effective, secure record-keeping and storage systems. Just from scanning paper records, they were able to transform four rooms of dead storage into lively office workspaces. And while there was a significant up-front cost for new hardware and software, the long-run savings more than paid for it.
Another nice thing about Taming the Paper Monster is that it’s written in the language most of us speak – plain English. Even though it deals with complex legal topics, it’s free of jargon, legalese and gobbledygook … and filled with real-world experiences of executives and employees like you and your colleagues.
But What About That Darn Book?
After Marty’s company “tamed the paper monster,” it went on to great things. By his retirement day, they’d tripled revenues and its stock was listed on the NASDAQ. I attended the retirement gala along with hundreds of other well-wishers.
We were recalling old times when Sandra joined us. Marty clinked her glass and gave her a hug.
“You’ve been great,” he beamed.
She beamed back. With a twinkle, she said, “But not as great as Agnes, right?”
“There’ll never be another Agnes,” Marty said solemnly. “But it was you who started things back on track. That book you gave me – what was it called, Taming the Paper Monster? I’ll be grateful forever.”
Sandra looked at Marty, then at me. Then she blushed. “I can’t really take credit,” she said. “You see, one day I was going through this old box of Agnes’ stuff …”
If ever a book saved a company, that book is Taming the Paper Monster. Why not discover it yourself? Order your own copy now and examine it 30 days at absolutely zero risk or expense.
Sincerely,
Pat DiDomenico
Editorial Director
|
|||||
| We respect your privacy. | |||||
P.S. Remember, there's absolutely no risk. If you don’t immediately see how you’ll have neat, at-your-fingertips records, we’ll refund the entire purchase price – no questions asked.
P.P.S. Get relief from those stacks of records in their dusty boxes. Order Taming the Paper Monster today!