Four Tenets of Office Management

When it comes to office management, there are some standards and practices you should always adhere to, regardless of your company’s specific product chain or your service industry. These tenets will help you to have a more successful office atmosphere, and keep your company on track for success in both the financial and human areas. One may be just as important as the other, because one naturally feeds into the other. You’ve of course heard the old saying about sharing the wealth.


An office that is making money hand over fist is a happy office, most of the time, or at least it should be. Of course, this won’t necessarily be true if the employer is underpaying the workers, but as long as that is in check, everything else should flow smoothly. The following are the four basic tenets of office management that can keep an office running smoothly.


Employment


Unless you are a company of one, employment will be a factor in your yearly decision making. Therefore, it is wise to have policies and rules in place for when the situation arises. It does not make sense to sort of throw your hands in the air and hire someone in a different fashion. That creates inequality in the workplace and confusion among the employees. Not to mention, things usually work a lot better when they are standardized. Does that mean taking the human element entirely out of the equation? Absolutely not.


No company should base their hiring practices on a set of rules so stringent that an answer to interview question (A) means an outcome of (B), or a resume that state (1) should always means (2) occurs afterwards. There should absolutely be room for judgment calls and the like. However, there should be policies in place as to how that employee is trained and brought into the working environment.


Project Management


One area where quite a few office environments fall behind is that of project management. Without strict guidelines and strong project leadership, employees are like a ship at sea without a compass or any sense of purpose or direction. A project that should have taken a week is turned in three months later. And whose fault is that? Is it the employees? Not really. Not if there aren’t guidelines in place about how these things should be handled. Without those guidelines, people in general are not going to work to the best of their abilities. Sure, there will be those who will rise to the occasion even without those policies, but they are relatively few and far between. It is much better to have the guidelines in place so that employees know their deadlines and have the tools necessary to meet them.


Office Furnishings


You could run a company budget dry trying to keep up with every piece of technology and office equipment on the market. On the other hand, an office could well be behind the times if the manager doesn’t spend at least some time considering what tools the office could use to maximize efficiency. It’s important to strike the right balance here. There are some great internet office supply stores that would be at home in the bookmark folder of any top executive. Take the time to peruse these stores and even sign up for email alerts about new products. That way you can take each product on a case by case basis and evaluate how it would help your company versus the money it would cost to purchase it. They will also let you do direct side by side comparisons of different brands. You may need a new multifunction copier. Do you go with Brother or Canon? These decisions can be made by carefully looking at price and feature comparisons.


Communication


This goes hand in hand with the last tenet. It is up to the office manager to decide how his employees will communicate with each other and with the outside world. With today’s technology, communication has changed in many ways. What was yesterday’s memo board is today’s email alert, what was yesterday’s meeting with a client might be today’s teleconference. Make sure you avail yourself of all the new communication options and implement the ones that make the most sense.

Five Ways to Reduce Office Stress

Stress is one of the leading killers and causes of illness in our society, and most of it is due to the working environment. Executives and those in authority seem to suffer from this stress most acutely, as the pressures of meeting deadlines, pleasing the boss, making the bottom line make sense, and the responsibility inherent in employing others can get to the most calm of individuals.

 

In this article, we will take a look at five things you can do to relieve some of that stress that has been accumulating over the years. Each day brings its own challenges, but it is up to you to find ways to deal with those challenges without letting them make you miserable, or even sick. Without further ado, here are some techniques you can put to work right now to start melting the stress away.

 

#1. Get Your Office Clean

 

It is amazing how much stress can build up just by being surrounded by clutter and confusion. If this rings true for you, it might be time to take a full scale, dedicated day to clean up your office and get things organized. ACCO folders are a great way to get your papers in order and clean up the confusion that you might have regarding your own filing system. A lot of stress can be manufactured by not being able to find what you need when you need it. If you have a quality filing system with parameters that make sense, this stress can be eliminated. Even if you can’t afford a full day spent reorganizing and cleaning your office, make it a point to do one thing per day that will get you on the right track. Change your filing system, rearrange the furniture, etc. It might even be worth it to stay after hours to do this, as the benefits will outlast this temporary inconvenience.

 

#2. Do Stress Relieving Exercises

 

About a half hour before you go home each day, take the time to get rid of the stress that has built up since that morning. An easy way to do this is by practicing a few proven stress relief techniques. The worst thing you can do is go home with all of that stress intact. Then it begins to affect your family life and your free time. These techniques do not have to be anything outrageous or complicated, just some light meditation and stretching should do the trick nicely. Roll your shoulders, close your eyes, and visualize the boulder of stress and responsibility falling off of your back. Then, when it is time to go home and leave work behind, you can do just that.

 

#3. Start on Tomorrow’s Work

 

If you have the time (and most people find that they do), a great way to relieve stress is to get some of the next day’s work done today. You will come in the next morning and not be overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to get done. We know, we know, it’s a trick–if you do this every day, then nothing has really changed in terms of your daily workload. Still, you will perceive it differently. Plus, there will always be that day when you just do not feel motivated. On that day, you will be glad you have less work, and you can skip out on doing any of the next day’s tasks.

 

#4. Aromatherapy

 

Many men scoff at the healing powers of aromatherapy, but it might be worth a try. Pick some candles or scents that you enjoy, and light them up in your office. See if it doesn’t make a little difference in the way you perceive the day. Anything you can use to let yourself feel calmer is a good thing.

 

#5. Remember To Laugh

 

Finally, the key to a happy workplace is laughter. Even if you have to force yourself to laugh a little throughout the day, it will do your mood and your stress relief some good. If you don’t find much laughter in interacting with your coworkers, find a funny website and visit it at least a couple of times a day to get a laugh. This can do wonders for your spirit and it may just give you the extra help you need in finishing out the work day.