Professional Assistant Blog

APRIL 10, 2016

After reading more reviews of the top bread machines, I was more than convinced that I should buy one of these appliances. For starters, I was tired of the taste of store-bought bread, and I wanted to control the ingredients that I use in my bread. I also wanted to save some money because bread has become quite expensive, especially gluten-free products.

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Expenses UPS 100

Professional Assistant Blog

APRIL 11, 2016

1 Tbsp. Butter. 4 Large Red Bell Peppers. 1 Large Sweet Onion, chopped. 3-4 Cloves Garlic, minced. 4 oz. Dry White Wine. 1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream. Salt and White Pepper to taste. Optional: Cayenne Pepper to taste. Preparation: Roast the red peppers over a grill or stove burner until black on all sides. Place into a plastic bag and let them sweat for 15-20 minutes.

UPS 100

UPS 100

Professional Assistant Blog

MAY 16, 2016

There are a variety of reasons I love it, and several shortcuts I’ve picked up with time. One of the most interesting things I’ve learned—cooking is a lot like writing. There’s the KISS principle: “Keep it simple, stupid.” If I don’t have a lot of time, I can’t plan anything fancy. And oftentimes, simple taste better, anyway. So I’ve practiced a few simple meals that we rotate through the week.

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Staples Learning Stress UPS 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 1, 2016

Rebecca Tan shows you how to cut onions with no tears, defrost meat in minutes, and more! The post Cooking Hacks – Hack It! appeared first on The Professional Assistant.

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100

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Image by tiseb. T his is a guest post from Diana Ferreira from Secretariando. There is a lot to be made here in Portugal regarding this career. The first problem is that being an Assistant is still not seen as a career at all. Executives have a career and assistants have a “small job” which consists of serving executives. The role of assistants inside corporations or public companies only recently started to change but changes are always difficult and slow.

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AT&T Customer Service 100

Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

Image by 401K. A s you have noticed, I haven't written anything on this blog for quite some time. I am, however, accepting guest posts. On the flip side, I have started a Personal Finance blog called My Personal Finance Helper. If you are interested in helping yourself become better financially equipped for yourself and your family, please check it out.

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Finance Equipment 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 18, 2012

Image by Engin Erdogan. T his is a guest post from Maureen Santoro from Atlas Meetings + Incentives. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an emerging segment of corporate meetings that is likely here to stay. There is a good deal of debate among corporate managers over whether companies should engage in CSR. Although altruistic as well as a good PR move, there is a cost associated with performing a CSR volunteer activity both in terms of money and risk management.

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Professional Assistant Blog

DECEMBER 19, 2011

Image by cogdogblog. U nfortunately, I got let go from my job due to restructuring and am looking for work now. This was the bad news. The good news is that I now have free time to start my own business (if I don't end up finding something permanent) and hope that this new venture will take off like a rocket! Having said that, I am starting a Virtual Assistant business.

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Calendars Phones Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel 100

Professional Assistant Blog

AUGUST 25, 2011

Image by Office Now. T his is a guest post from Maureen Santoro from Atlas Meetings + Incentives. Across the country, companies large and small are putting “best practices” policies into place. One such resolution concerns measures that a company can take to mitigate the environmental footprint that their actions have on the planet as a whole and on their small corner of the world in particular.

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Policies Environment Management Travel 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 12, 2011

Image by WingateStateArena . T his is a guest post from Maureen Santoro from Atlas Meetings + Incentives. There was a time when corporate meetings were the definition of elaborate. Opulent hotels were booked, big-name entertainment flown in, and extravagance seemed the norm. For better or worse, those days are long gone. With the economic crisis, companies are looking for new things to do when they plan a corporate-wide meeting.

Administrative Professionals 100

Administrative Professionals 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 30, 2011

Image by Irargerich. A n interesting thing happened to me today. One of the managers that is going to be moving into our offices from another location asked me if I could do her a small favour. Of course, I wanted to help out. She asked me if I could hunt down an iPad charger for her, as she left hers in her office and needed to give it a little boost for a meeting that she was having later today.

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Microsoft Outlook Management Customer Service 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 28, 2011

Image by espensorvik. Y ou're working on some research your manager asked you to do. Things are going well, but you notice that your Internet browser is running really slowly, especially, when trying to load pages with quite a bit of content. Has this ever happened to you? It has many times for me. Personally, I think that using Internet Explorer is not the way to go.

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Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 27, 2011

Image by Erin! Y ou get an e-mail from your boss asking you to do a very urgent task. You realize that you are leaving in an hour and can't stay behind. You explain to your boss that you would be able to complete the task in time, but due to the lack of time on your side, there might be errors made and would prefer to postpone it until the following day.

Customer Service 100

Customer Service 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 24, 2011

Image by Valerie Everett. ? D o you get numerous requests from your staff on a regular basis? Of course, who doesn't. But the question really is, are you able to prove that you did the task that you were asked to do? I'm sure that everyone one of us has encountered this at least once in our careers, more so for the veteran Administrative Assistants.

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AT&T Management Microsoft Outlook Customer Service 100

Professional Assistant Blog

MAY 27, 2011

Image by Marshall Astor. Y ou have an important meeting to set up and you've prepared the handouts and the PowerPoint presentation on your boss' laptop. The speakerphone and projectors are in the room. Everything is fine and dandy, until. uh-oh! The speakerphone isn't working properly! What do you do? I'm sure that this has happened to the best of us at some point in time.

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PowerPoint Management AT&T UPS 100

Professional Assistant Blog

MAY 26, 2011

Image by idogcow. Y ou send an e-mail to a colleague only to get an e-mail back stating that you should ask another person they mention. Don't you just love it when this happens? You ask a simple question and the person doesn't know the answer, but either thinks or knows another person knows the answer. Then they send an e-mail back to you stating that you should contact this person.

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Microsoft Outlook 100

Professional Assistant Blog

MAY 19, 2011

Have you ever had a problem at work that you couldn't solve right away? Did you keep asking your manager on the status of the ordeal? This recently happened to me. My department merged with two others and moved to a different floor. I sat at the same desk for just over 5 years, so the change was a little scary at first. Everything seemed fine, as I got a brand new cubicle with windows behind.

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Cubicle Management 100

Professional Assistant Blog

APRIL 22, 2011

Well, I have to admit, it was nice to be on hiatus for quite a bit of time. Wow, time flies! I can’t believe that my last post was back in July of 2010. I had quite a bit of things to do in the last year or so and will try to start posting on a regular basis again. There’s been quite a bit of changes on this blog, as some of you veterans have already noticed.

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2010 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 29, 2008

Home About Me Advertise Closing Shared Files While Away From Desk By The Professional Assistant on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 Filed Under: Productivity D o you share files on a network within your office? Are you the type of person that needs to run between your desk and other places on a regular basis? I am one of these people. Since I help out a staff of 30, which includes 6 managers, I constantly am away from my desk doing different tasks such as going to the printer on the other side of the o

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Filing 2008 Google Docs Cubicle 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 20, 2009

Home About Me Advertise Snacking At Work? Healthy Or Junk? Dilemmas, Dilemmas! By The Professional Assistant on Monday, July 20, 2009 Filed Under: Productivity D o you snack at the office? Do you bring your own food or do you run down to the vending machine/convenience store to get something? Studies have shown that people start to gain weight on a slow, but regular basis because of this alarming trend.

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2008 2007 Cubicle 2009 100

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Home About Me Advertise Finding The Best Travel Deals - Online! By The Professional Assistant on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 Filed Under: Meetings , Research , Travel A re you trying to book a flight, hotel or car rental for your manager? Do you feel like you are going to lots of websites to find the best deal? I originally wrote a post on this entitled " Travel Plans " explaining that you can use Travelocity and Expedia to find the best deals.

Travel 100

Travel 2008 Google Docs Cubicle 100

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2009

Home About Me Advertise Too Many Applications Driving You Crazy? By The Professional Assistant on Wednesday, October 07, 2009 Filed Under: Organize , Productivity D o you have too many applications open on your computer? Have you passed by a co-workers desk and noticed that they have 20 different things running all at once? Believe it or not, this can lower productivity.

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2008 Cubicle Google Docs 2007 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you have an extra hard drive lying around that you can't use any longer? Do you want to give it to your IT Department or would you rather use it for your own department's use? I was thinking to myself the other day of what I could do with my extra hard drives that I have at home, since we do have an IT Department and they take care of these types of things, since I work for a large publishing.

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International Travel 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you feel that you have too many tasks to do? Do you feel overwhelmed most of the time, because of the tight deadlines and constant pressure to get things done? This happens to everyone, including myself on a regular basis. I am responsible for running 3 events on a yearly basis and all 3 events are only a few months apart. The rest of the year, I can breathe a bit easier.

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100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you find that too many people are accessing files on your company's network drive that they shouldn't be touching? Do you scratch your head and wonder what happened with the updates that you made a few minutes ago, just to find that they either have been changed or deleted? This happened to me on many different occasions. One thing that always drives me nuts is when people start to mess.

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Filing Networking 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you feel stressed at work? Who doesn't! Do you wish that you can take a magic pill or wave a magic wand and make everything negative disappear? You wouldn't believe how many times the general population feels this way. Stress is actually considered the number one health related issue in the world. What a concept! Yet employers don't realize this and wonder why people are taking way too many.

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Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you have trouble planning your holiday office party? Do you feel that there are too many people opposing to different things that you plan such as religious issues? I am sure that this happens within many organizations and each year, everyone has something to say about what they feel would be the "best" way to celebrate the holidays. Of course, you also have people that do not celebrate the.

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Holidays 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you reside in a country that is outside of the US? Do you keep using the English - US spell checker in Microsoft Word, but can't figure out how to change it and make something else the default? This happened to one of my colleagues. He was going crazy tryiing to figure out how to change the dictionary to English - Canadian and make it the default as well, so that he wouldn't have to change.

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Microsoft Word 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you get clients that are particularly rude towards you? Do you get e-mails or phone calls where they start complaining about something, yet you know that it's not your fault? I am 99% sure that this has happened to you at some point in your life. You get a client call or e-mail you and complains about something. Somewhere down the line, they start to personally attack you and you feel as if.

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Phones 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you find that you get disturbed around your cubicle because of excessive noise? Do you wish that you could build walls around your cubicle just so that people would keep quiet? I wrote a post entitled "Adhering to the 'Open Door' Policy", but this post is a little different, so please read on. I am sure that this happened to many of you on a regular basis.

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Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Does your manager fly quite a bit? Do you feel that you could get better airfare deals and service than what your current carrier offers? If you travel to Britain, this post is for you. My sister-in-law has been travelling with British Airways quite frequently, as she is studying in Britain and lives here in Canada. She told me that the service is impeccable and the prices are usually quite.

2009 100

2009 Travel Management 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you want to get your voice heard? Are there any questions that you might have but are afraid to ask? I have been blogging for the last 2 years now (on and off, as you can tell) and have provided mounds of information to all of you during this time. I really enjoy helping you with your everyday and not-so-everyday tasks. I am always willing to listen to any ideas and comments that you may have.

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Networking 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you have a large pile of papers on your desk? Is your desk disorganized and full of clutter? Do you feel that your mail tray's inbox keeps getting fed with more and more paper? Don't worry, you're not alone. You wouldn't believe how many people come to me with this problem on a regular basis. You should also see some of my co-workers' desks. It looks like a whirlwind spun through and left.

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100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Having trouble figuring out how to use your mail tray? Can't quite figure out how to get organized on how many you need and how you will use each one of them? I have seem some people at my office only use 1 mail tray, as their inbox. Others have quite a few, which I am not sure what the purpose of all of them is. I personally have 4 mail trays: The "inbox" tray - this sits at the top of all.

100

100

Professional Assistant Blog

JUNE 25, 2010

Do you have questions about project management, but can't seem to get a proper answer? Do you scour the Internet for some sort of clue to what you are trying to accomplish? Do you wish that a real human being would be able to help you out? A great website for this is Ask About Projects. This site enables you to create an account and post questions that you have about any type of project or task.

Project Management 100

Project Management Management Networking 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 5, 2010

Do you ever enter a washroom at your office, wash your hands and realize that the trash can for throwing out your paper towel is right beside the sink area? If this is how your office is set up, you’re not alone. This happens even in restaurants, other offices, public washrooms, etc. It can get quite annoying, since you washed your hands and now you have to touch the handle bar of the door.

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Restaurants UPS 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 5, 2010

Do people bother you during your breaks or lunch? Does your manager walk up to you and ask you to do a report or task of some sort, while you are “not on the job” so to speak? This happens to many people that I’ve spoken to, over and over again. Don’t you wish that you could just put up a sign that says, “On Break” or “On Lunch”? I actually used to have a “Do Not Disturb” sign when I was.

Management 100

Management UPS 100