Admins

You work like a dog for the organization every day. You stay up at night trying to keep pace with the constantly changing rules and regulations of employment law. You’re even called to put your own career on the line when the organization is hauled into court. Why is that?

If you’ve ever wanted a new challenge to keep your administrative job from feeling “same old, same old,” consider how Catherine Russell must feel. She has played the same role in an off-Broadway play for 25 years. She offers good advice for staving off the feeling that your work is repetitive:

Strike the right chord with a new boss by trying these tactics from other experienced administrative pros:

“I hate taking minutes. What do I write down? How do I know what’s important?” Streamline your minute-taking by recording notes as bullet points. Distill any conversation down to its essentials.

Administrative assistant Linda Bates was on her way to a ski vacation when she got a frantic phone call: “The copy machine is jammed! What should I do?” Bates says the path to creating a self-sufficient staff begins with teaching them how to use equipment as it comes into the office.

Focus on knowing where to get information quickly rather than knowing how to do everything ... Watch what you say on Face­book: More than 90% of job-screeners say they’re using social network tools to weed out applicants ... Take the lead in developing your own professional skills.

Being a stellar admin requires the skills of a mind-reader. So it was a boon recently when admins heard two executives speak candidly at the 18th Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence about the administrative profession.

One person’s everyday computer shortcut may be another person’s “Cool! I didn’t know you could do that!” David Pogue, who writes a technology column for The New York Times, recently penned a long list of “Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User.” Here are a few suited for the efficiency-minded.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. This old management adage ex­­plains why most bosses want administrative professionals to create measurable goals. But how do you measure results in a job that’s often about responding to others’ needs?

One admin wrote: “Our company just reorganized and changed our job titles from administrative assistant to ‘office assistant.’ None of the job functions changed. I feel demoted. Should we go to our manager and speak to him about our displeasure or just be quiet and not say a thing?”