Ask a Manager

OCTOBER 12, 2016

We have to provide food to our managers for Boss’s Day. The staff where I work have received the usual cringe-worthy email from the office manager, notifying us we are to provide a breakfast potluck plus afternoon desserts for our bosses. I really like my work here, and I have no plans to take the cat-grooming full-time.

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Food Salary Office Management Legal 32

Ask a Manager

FEBRUARY 2, 2017

Coworkers keep eating the food for meetings that they’re not attending. I work in an office where it is common to have catered lunches for executive meetings. It’s entirely reasonable and normal to tell people to leave food alone if it’s for a meeting that they’re not part of. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go….

Food 31

Food Interviewing Legal Catering 31

SnackNation

MARCH 20, 2018

(Many of these office bulletin board ideas came straight from our Facebook group of office managers. Office Bulletin Board Idea #1: The Buzz Board. Photo courtesy of Joanne via the State of the Office Manager facebook group. Office Bulletin Board Idea #5: The About Us Board.

Office Management 62

Office Management Food Finance Cleaning 62

Ask a Manager

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

This post, the thief and the hero, the crockpot discrimination, and other stories of potlucks at work , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. Here are 12 more of my favorite stories you shared about potlucks and other food gatherings at work earlier this month. Part one was yesterday.). The cook-off. ” 2.

Food 53

Food Cubicle Catering Office Management 53

Ask a Manager

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

The fast food revenge. Our manager promptly responded by disappearing to the back. His only help was to tell them that they had to get their food and leave before he ran away. They then wandered around asking their friends if their food was right. The office was all open plan with the phone reps, so it was very noisy.

Food 53

Food Customer Service Supplies Cleaning 53

Ask a Manager

MARCH 28, 2023

I work in an incredibly dysfunctional office. The tone is set by our office manager. He’s in his fifties, has always worked in an office setting, and is difficult. If it makes a difference, the office manager and I are on the same level, as is the person I was meeting with.)

Problem-Solving 54

Problem-Solving Office Management Food Planning 54

Ask a Manager

MARCH 26, 2023

In theory, if every employee contributes $10, this would cover the cost of food, drinks, plates, and cutlery. Not every employee contributes money to the potluck, but every employee takes the food that is offered. She is now getting into monthly disagreements with coworkers who she feels should not take food if they did not pay for it.

Controlling 34

Controlling Food Catering Mailing 34

Ask a Manager

OCTOBER 6, 2021

“I once worked at an otherwise-excellent nonprofit agency in which the office manager was…very controlling. Since I worked in a branch of the agency that was several blocks away from the main office, this was NOT just a matter of walking across the hall to get new tapes! The office manager was a very nice older lady.

Supplies 70

Supplies Purchasing Office Management Security 70

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NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Two years ago, she walked into our holiday party (which my coworker annually nearly kills herself arranging during one of her busiest normal work periods) and looks at the beautiful table of food and wine and all the happy people and says ‘no music?’ A clean, freshly-shaven, ironed-shirted Buddy walks into the office.

Logistics 45

Logistics Food Catering Banking 45

Ask a Manager

DECEMBER 20, 2021

Our office nurse thinks Covid is a hoax. The food-service manager at our site who was also employed by the state was deeply disturbed by the fact that the nurse wouldn’t wear a mask. Finally, the food-service manager contacted the nurse’s supervisor and reported her.

Mailing 31

Mailing Consulting Food Planning 31

Ask a Manager

MARCH 31, 2019

In theory, if every employee contributes $10, this would cover the cost of food, drinks, plates, and cutlery. Not every employee contributes money to the potluck, but every employee takes the food that is offered. She is now getting into monthly disagreements with coworkers who she feels should not take food if they did not pay for it.

Controlling 29

Controlling Interviewing Food Catering 29

Ask a Manager

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

We had a one-room completely open-office plan and all of us were on phones all day. ’ He excitedly told us we were going to sing this song at each meeting and he planned to hire a professional choreographer to create dance moves for it. 2) does it make any sense for that thing to be implemented where we worked?

Computer 46

Computer Sales Cubicle Purchasing 46

Ask a Manager

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

I work as an admin/office manager in an office of about 15. Overall it’s one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had but sometimes there are the typical small office conflicts. Martha has asked about my goodbye happy hour plans. general office jobs, not food service or sales). Here we go….

Problem-Solving 35

Problem-Solving Interviewing Planning Equipment 35

Ask a Manager

JULY 21, 2022

Worse, when it rained, I would hang my clothes off the radiator in the side office. After probably a month of doing this, the CEO had to politely tell my boss (office manager) that the office got used for client meetings and having wet socks on the radiator was not okay. All so obvious in hindsight…. The flatulence.

Interviewing 42

Interviewing Supervising Supplies Cleaning 42

Ask a Manager

MARCH 24, 2020

I found our office manager’s pornographic bookmarks on my laptop. I work remotely and was having some issues with my work-issued laptop that required me to send it in to a main office for our office manager to handle repairs. Everything is erased from my computer. Can I bite my nails with my camera on?

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Computer Interviewing Supervising Office Management 25

Ask a Manager

APRIL 29, 2016

About eight months ago I was hired as a marketing coordinator for a fairly small office. About four months into my position, our office manager was fired and has not been replaced. You could try talking to your manager and saying something like: “Could we talk about the long-term plan for handling accounts receivable?

Training 20

Training Interviewing Security Supplies 20

Ask a Manager

APRIL 14, 2020

It went quiet for a little bit, but then he started laying into her about how there was “too much f—–g food” and he couldn’t find anything or put anything away. I was an office manager for a small company that shut down mid-March due to COVID-19. My boss laid me off but wants me to keep working.

Legal 29

Legal Mailing Payroll Insurance 29

Ask a Manager

FEBRUARY 26, 2017

My question is this: I’m considering making some kind of awesome baked goods to bring on my first day of work, but I don’t want to be seen as overly feminine, mom-like, or the de facto “office manager.” Their loss!). I’m not sure if I’m doing my job at the expected level.

Interviewing 20

Interviewing Networking Food Mailing 20

SnackNation

OCTOBER 5, 2018

The Office Manager Responsibilities List You Won’t Find in a Job Description. What does an Office Manager (OM) really do? Manage the office? To create a comprehensive—and descriptive—Office Manager responsibilities list, we went straight to the experts: practicing OMs. Managing calendars.

Office Management 42

Office Management Onboarding Problem-Solving Supplies 42

SnackNation

MAY 27, 2016

Plan your mural on a sheet of graph paper using available post-it colors. Provide healthy food options. Like gravity, inertia, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle , the healthy foods to morale correlation is one of those immutable laws of nature. Why we like it: Nutritious foods boost productivity, and engagement.

Banking 69

Banking Food Problem-Solving Teamwork 69

Ask a Manager

APRIL 5, 2022

Rejection email called me “shite” and said I should work in fast food. My office has constant free food, and I have an eating disorder. I enjoy the work I do and my coworkers (both in my immediate team and the office at large) are great. Read an update to this letter here. – 2017. We have reviewed your application.

Food 49

Food Interviewing Manufacturing Supplies 49

Ask a Manager

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

Rejection email called me “shite” and said I should work in fast food. My office has constant free food, and I have an eating disorder. I enjoy the work I do and my coworkers (both in my immediate team and the office at large) are great. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. We have reviewed your application.

Food 23

Food Office Layout Manufacturing Supplies 23

Ask a Manager

JULY 18, 2022

I could see the trainwreck coming as I was talking so had an extra moment to plan, but STILL somehow I said the word again as I tried to recover: “No, not queef, *brief*.” In my mid-20s I worked at a fast-food restaurant. The office manager came in, nose buried in her shirt, armed with a can of air freshener.

Banking 50

Banking Cubicle Interviewing Purchasing 50