Tip # 43     Workplace safety

Government authorities are breathing down the necks of companies to implement work safety facilities and procedures.  Companies must comply with regulations and must ensure the physical well-being of employees. 

If you notice that there are potential causes of accidents in say, the parking lot (e.g. broken bottles, ice, large potholes, sluggish security gates and card readers) report it immediately to the appropriate department.  Don’t wait for an accident to happen. 

Tip # 44        Get to the bottom of things

If your boss requests that you investigate an incident, do a thorough job, not a half-baked one.  Use your detective skills so that you submit a full report giving all the facts and circumstances of the incident.  By doing a thorough job the first time, you avoid having to do a re-investigation because there were questions from the boss you couldn’t answer.

Tip # 45    Ah, those back-to-back meetings

There must be something about board rooms and conference rooms that make people gravitate towards them.  Is it the mahogany wood, the jelly croissants that are served every morning, the new projector, the cushy leather chairs?  Meetings take up a lot of time. 

Not that they’re useless, but there are far too many meetings being held.  If you take the number of man hours per day that are taken up by meetings, multiply that number by 5 days and then multiply that again by 50 (excluding Christmas and New Year). 

Compare that figure to the company’s annual generated revenues.  If we took half of those man hours and made managers stay at their desks doing their work, imagine how much more revenues can be earned.

Don’t doubt it - meetings are a great time to daydream and give in to our distractions.  It’s a “perfectly legitimate” excuse not to review last month’s accounting expenses that are due soon.

Tip # 46    “You’ve got 28 voice mails” and “you have 55 unread messages”

How much time would it take to go through all those messages? Voice mails and e-mails take you away from your main functions.  Deal with the important ones and decide which ones can be dealt with this afternoon, tomorrow, and next week.  And do file them away in a sub-folder so they don’t take up visual space on your screen. 

Some workers tend to answer each and every message they receive, since it’s a great escape from the real task at hand.  For non-urgent matters, devote 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm (when things begin to wind down) for answering non-urgent messages. 

Tip # 47    Are you a morning person?

Fitness trainers ask people this question a lot because exercising at a specific time of the day is an effective method for maintaining discipline.  The same applies to the office.  If you’re a morning person, tackle your difficult responsibilities when you’re most energetic and productive before lunch.  

Leave the less essential ones for another time.  And then there are some people who like to work through their lunch hours because that’s when they reach peak energy levels; that way they leave the office early to have that extra hour to spend with family.