The office admin staff are usually the most undervalued staff in the entire company. Without them, the entire office would most likely fall apart.
Phone calls would go left unanswered, important paperwork would fall through the cracks, meetings would be disorganized, and executives would miss important deadlines.
Without their support – chaos.
All of these duties usually come with a lot of stress. And oftentimes, the admin staff are overworked.
If you’re part of the admin team and you’re feeling burnt out, these 3 tips will help you get on the right track.
1. Be Assertive
If you feel you don’t have the authority to speak up, you’re wrong.
You run the office, so own your position.
If you need something that’ll help you be more productive, just ask.
Do your eyes feel fatigued and you need some indoor sunglasses? Ask. If your lower back hurts because of the $30 chair you’re sitting on, ask for a better one. Do you feel you’re always behind with your work and can never seem to catch up? Push to get an assistant.
2. Get Extremely Organized
Seriously, you should be OCD about it. Most people in the office aren’t organized, so the admin staff is usually the final barrier between utter chaos.
Everything should be labeled, you should strive for inbox zero, and you should always utilize a to-do list software like Todoist to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Always seek input
Don’t shy away from feedback because it makes you more effective in the long run.
Constantly ask your employees how you could improve or if there’s anything that they would want to change.
Additionally, be proactive.
People love when you anticipate their needs before they are desperate for it.
For example, if you notice that one of your employees gets up 100 times a day to refill their water bottle, offer to get them a nice Hydroflask so that they don’t have to get up so much.
Or, if you see one of the employees always stretching their back, ask them if they would like you to do some research on a lumbar support pad to add to their chair.