Archive for Uncategorized

36 results.

Working from Home

Feb05
by Adminderella on February 5, 2011 at 4:22 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

I know that many people think that working from home means that you actually took the day off and pretended to work.  And I suppose that there are enough people who actually do that to have given working from home a bad reputation.

As someone who has done quite a bit of freelance work, I am pretty familiar with working from home and it is not a day off when I work from home.  I settle into my desk at the normal time (if not earlier than normal) and work until the normal ending time (if not later than normal).  I deal with the distractions of the day that are different from, but similar to, office distractions.  Sure, maybe I am not answering phones but I do have to be firm with the cat that just because I am home, I cannot spend the day petting her.

Thanks to the “major ice event” that happened where I live this week, I worked from home every day but Monday.  I actually learned a great deal from the experience and there are some things I want to do so if I ever have occasion to work from home again, my experience will be smoother (not that it was overly difficult this time around, but there were things I wish I’d had access to that I can remedy).

I realize that I am probably much more a workaholic than the average person, though, so maybe most people wouldn’t have taken the work at home opportunity as a time to think about what they could do to make it easier if they needed to do it again.

Hopefully we will thaw out this weekend and I can get back in to the office on Monday.  Til then… WEEKEND!

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The Icy Road to Ruin…

Feb02
by Adminderella on February 2, 2011 at 12:21 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

The streets where I live are covered in ice today. I was sure when I left The North and came to The South that I would not encounter the icy roads anymore.  How very wrong I was.

And yet, “winter” here in The South is usually only REALLY inconvenient for a total of about 2 weeks.  Oh sure, it may be “cold” (cold being a relative term to someone who has waited for a bus in -50 windchill weather) at times but for the most part there is not snow and/or ice and when there is, it ‘s gone in a day or two.

Over the weekend, it was in the 70′s.  So, I think it’s just a bit whiny to gripe about the ice today and yet… I worked from home today because folks here in The South don’t seem to grasp the concept of things like “safe following distance” and “icy roads are slippery”… I don’t know if everyone is stupid, extremely well-insured or perhaps a combination of both, but I sure as heck did NOT want to be trying to navigate icy stairs let alone try to navigate icy roads.  I tend to think that even on sunny days when the pavement is dry, most people in The South get into their cars and recite the infamous Klingon motto “Today is a good day to die” and then motor on with little attention to the apocalypse their abysmal driving could trigger.

That would certainly explain the complete lack of turn signals, cutting blithely across four lanes of traffic, weaving in and out of traffic whilst either speeding or slamming on brakes… and don’t get me started on how the prime modus operandi of drivers here being “Ignore that silly speed limit sign, do 75 at all times and slam on the brakes with wild abandon… let the person behind me worry about whether they can stop in time”.

I’ve also seen people make U-turns while they still had a red light, 4 or 5 cars whipping through a yellow light at breakneck speed and an apparent “I get bonus points if I can wipe out both the stroller and the mother pushing it” mentality.

So, forgive me as I sit in my Ivory Tower home office and listen to the multi-car pileups on the road outside.  I want to live to work another day, strange as that may sound….

But at least in The South they (seldom) come to a DEAD STOP at the end of a freeway on ramp… (it’s the little things, right?)

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Prioritizing

Jan27
by Adminderella on January 27, 2011 at 1:35 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

For many years I did freelance Admin. work as well as being an Admin. in my “day job”.  I have 20+ years of experience being an Administrative Assistant/Office Manager/Office Coordinator/Facilities Coordinator… all of which are very similar jobs.

I’ve worked in the medical field, the legal field, mental health, economic development, technology and social services.  I’ve done everything from make coffee to organizing conferences.  I’ve worked with small businesses and multinational corporations.

I do LIKE being Adminderella, but the pursuit of freelance clients when I have a “day job” that is Admin. related is something I am starting to reconsider.  I can’t really do justice to anyone outside of my day job and I just don’t have the time to give someone 20 hours a week of my non-day job life anymore.  I have other things I want to do.

That being said, there’s no reason that I can’t do projects now and then… it just isn’t going to be my key non-day job focus anymore.  Or at least not right now.  Who knows, maybe in 6 months or a year when I have more of a “flow” at my day job and maybe move somewhere closer to where I work, I will reconsider what I’m going to do.  Or maybe I’ll get some sort of offer I can’t refuse.  I have absolutely no desire to even entertain the notion of doing something other than what I am doing now for my day job.  I like the company, I like the people and I’m happy.

I had a couple of people who I was going to talk to about this, but the reality is that they’re professionals and if I am going to talk to them about this, I need to be able to pay them for their time.  So, I am going to just go ahead and re-prioritize and take it on faith that it is the right thing to do.

Adminderella, the website, will go forward.  It just won’t be a site where I am trying to market myself to potential clients anymore.  Time for some new directions and to focus on acquiring new skills!

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Goody Spin Pin Review

Jan22
by Adminderella on January 22, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

I’m always looking for something new to do with my hair.  It’s about shoulder length and sometimes the good ol’ ponytail just isn’t sophisticated enough.  If there are important clients or a big meeting, I want to do something that looks polished and professional.

Enter the Goody Spin Pin. These nifty little items make creating a bun that will stay put a simple procedure.  If you’re like me, you want a hairstyle that you don’t have to fuss with/have someone else’s help with to get the look you want.  There are plenty of products for creating fabulous looking buns and up-dos but I find many of them too difficult to manage  (which, in all fairness, has something to do with the length of my hair and is not the fault of the products).

The Spin Pins gave me a secure bun on the first try.  All you do is twist your hair into the bun, screw in the spin pins (look at the product and you’ll get an idea of what I mean when I say “screw in” the spin pins) and I had a nice looking style that stayed put all day long.

You can find Goody Spin Pins at several retailers.  I picked mine up at Target, but they also sell them at Walgreens (per my link above) and at other places online.

**Adminderella was not paid or compensated in any way for this review nor was she given the product to try by the manufacturer.  The views and opinions expressed in this blog entry are purely Adminderella’s.  If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

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Time Ticks By…

Jan19
by Adminderella on January 19, 2011 at 2:33 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

I had a carefully planned schedule of posting blog entries and then last week happened and I somehow didn’t post anything.  I’m still not quite sure why everything got so busy, but I really got a whole lot of nothing accomplished last week in my off-work hours.

Work last week was very busy and tense.  Big deals being negotiated, end of year accounting being done.

In my personal life, I decided to switch tactics from “How to Win Friends and Influence People” to “The Art of War”.  Not a decision I made lightly.  There just comes a point at which you realize that being nice and playing fair and bending over backwards to make sure you don’t hurt feelings just isn’t always the best tactic.  It’s lovely if/when it works but I find more and more that it just doesn’t work like it used to or maybe I am just tired of being a doormat.

In news completely unrelated to anything except the bizarre… my cat seems to like bundt cake.  Who knew?

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Planning

Jan06
by Adminderella on January 6, 2011 at 1:34 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

I’ve been reviewing what worked and what didn’t work in 2010 and making plans for 2011.  Deciding which projects to let go, which to move forward on, which I will need more information about before I can move forward.

I am fortunate to have found a really nice day job and have one person I am doing some job-search coaching with.  I have one very past-due project I need to work on.

And, of course, I have all sorts of things from 2010 that need to be filed, archived, stored, cleaned up and packed away.  As organized as I am, I still need to get MORE organized, especially filing-wise.  It’s one of those tasks that is easy to put aside until “later” and then when “later’ comes, you have an overwhelming amount of work to do.  Still, 98% of the time, I can put my hands on things when I need them.  I just need to clean up that last, pesky 2%.

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