Gifts to Buy for Co-Workers

It seems like it is always someone’s birthday, wedding, baby shower or something in the office doesn’t it?  All those special events can really empty your wallet quickly, but you do not have to spend a lot of money to show your co-workers that you are thinking of them.

It helps if others in the office are pitching in but even then it can get expensive.  Instead of chipping in $10 each, try a $3 or $4 contribution and you will find that you can still get them something they will like.

Here are some ideas for presents for co-workers if you are buying on your own:

Birthdays:

• Baking – Do you have a talent for cooking?  Make them a fresh batch of cookies or some banana loaf or something that you know they like.
• Coffee/Tea – Get a nice mug and fill it with flavors of tea or coffee.
• Stationary – You can never have too much pens/pencils; get them something that reflects their personality.  You can also buy them small things like organizers or fancy sticky pads.
• Calendars – Everyone needs a calendar and you can buy desk calendars and wall calendars at reasonable prices.

Christmas:

• Chocolate covered pretzels – They are easy to make and if you put them in a little holiday bag and tie with some ribbon they are attractive.
• Christmas wisk – Buy a cheap metal wisk at a dollar store and fill it with Hershey’s kisses; tie it with red ribbon and a little card that says, “I wisk you a Merry Kissmas”.
• Ornaments – Buy inexpensive ball ornaments and put their name on it with glitter glue.  They can put it on the company tree or take it home.

Baby Shower:

• Necessities – Every new mom needs things like wash cloths, diaper pins, burping cloths; these can be bought at a very low cost at dollar stores.
• Wall plaque – Buy a small canvass at an art store and paint a decorative wall plaque to hang in the baby’s room.
• CD – Buy or make a CD with soothing baby music.

Get Help - Hire a Practicum Student

Are you at the busiest time of the year and you could use an extra pair of hands in your office but you can’t afford to hire someone full-time?  Or maybe you need some temporary help but you don’t have the time to go through the interview process?  It happens to every business once in awhile.  And the place that they most often need help is in the admin department.

They need someone to answer the phones, file papers, get the office cleaned up of excess paper work that is floating around, or just need someone to meet and greet people while they come in.  They need someone to take care of those little things so that other office staff can deal with the more important matters that have been piling up.

You should consider hiring a practicum student.  A student that has been taking an administrative course can be very helpful in your office.  Even though they might not have the experience they have been trained to deal with people, file, use all components of Office software like Word and Excel, and they are eager to help.

Robertson College has several administrative programs (payroll, veterinary, general administration, law, and medical) and each student is required to complete a practicum period of 4 weeks.  Imagine how much work you could get done in 4 weeks if you have someone to handle all of those little details that keep interrupting you day!

Call Robertson College in Winnipeg, Calgary, or Brandon and we’ll match you up with a student that has recently finished or will be finishing their program.  We’ll help you get set up and the student will help you get work done!

Top 10 Tweeters Admins Should Follow

Image via CrunchBase

You might be asking yourself, "Why would I want to follow admin assistants on Twitter?" or maybe even, "Why should I use Twitter at all?"  Twitter is the social media platform that is about sharing information and networking.  Sure, it's kind of addictive but there are many advantages to "tweeting" as well.  But this isn't a Twitter lesson - I'm by no means a guru.  I'll just say that Twitter can help you get jobs, learn more about a career that you're interested in, gather information, and make connections with others that can be helpful in a wide variety of ways. 
Sign up for a Twitter account here and then once you are signed up follow me here.
Now that we've got that done, here's my top 10 list of tweets that admins should follow:

1. @presentationski - This tweeter gives great tips and ideas on improving presentation skills with PowerPoint. 
2. @JillChongva - a virtual assistant right here in Winnipeg that specializes in WordPress set up and troubleshooting.  
3. @DianeCovilleAOA - a virtual assistant with skills in desktop publishing, marketing, bookkeeping, and more.
4. @NorwichPA - a personal assistant that offers a wide array of services.
5. @RealEstateVAs - interested in being an admin in real estate?  You need to follow this one!
6. @AskViki - business support services
7. @claudiaguzman - virtual assistant that also specialize in social media marketing
8. @Missbookkeeping - bookkeeper and VA
9. @netmanners - great advice on netiquette!
10. @InterviewQs - we all need to go to interviews at some point and these people know what they are talking about

So, that's it.  My top 10 people to follow on Twitter.  There are so many more though.  If you're interested in a specific field then look for people in that field.  There is loads of information, knowldege, and tips being tweeted every day and you're missing out on it so get tweeting!

What is a Comma Splice and How Do You Fix It?

Comma splices are not hard to identify and they are very simple to fix.  The problem is that most people just aren’t aware of them being a problem!  If you want to write good business text or if you want to write and get paid for it, you should learn how to identify and fix a comma splice.
Try to choose which of the following three sentences is a comma splice:

1. John and Marie went to the movies and dinner, to the coffee shop, and then drove home.
2. The dogs, cats, and other animals in the shelter went wild!
3. The dogs, cats, and other animals in the shelter went wild, they escaped out the back door.

Were you able to identify the comma splice?  The comma splice is in sentence number 3.  You can identify a comma splice when you see two independent clauses that are joined by a comma.  Or in simpler terms, when both clauses in a sentence can stand on their own, it results in a comma splice.

There are two clauses in the third sentence: The dogs, cats, and other animals in the shelter went wild and They escaped out the back door.  Either clause could be a complete sentence on its own but by connecting the two clauses with a comma it becomes a comma splice.

Now, the big question – how do you fix it?

There are several ways you can fix a comma splice.  You can join the two clauses with a coordinating conjunction (and, or, not, but).  With this method the sentence would now look like this:

The dogs, cats, and other animals in the shelter went wild and they escaped out the back door.


You can turn it into two sentences so the sentence would look like this:

The dogs, cats, and other animals in the shelter went wild.  They escaped out the back door.


You could also join them with a conjunctive adverb like however, consequently, or therefore. If you choose to use this method you will need to use a semi-colon.  Using this method our sentence would now read:

The dogs, cats, and other animals in the shelter went wild; consequently, the escaped out the back door.


By learning how to avoid comma splices and how to fix them your writing will become more concise and clear.  If you have questions, please leave me a comment and I will try to answer it for you.