If it’s dark enough that you need the headlights on, it might be a good idea to take your sunglasses off.

It seems counter-productive… just sayin’.

Marry Up – /mar ee uhp/ (v)

1. to attach one or more ideas or tangible items to one another
2. to group together

Sentence:

“Let’s marry up the orders and ship them together.”

Today I went down to the cafeteria as I always do to grab some lunch in between meetings.

I got my usual, and got in line to pay.  I was next in line and the guy in front of me was waiting for his credit card receipt.  As the cashier handed him the receipt she said to him: “Be careful hun – your zipper is down.  You don’t want to be showing all the good stuff!”

I wanted to die laughing!  Out of respect for him though, I pretended I didn’t hear what she said.

If you’re like most in the working world, the amount of emails you get is ridiculous.  At my previous job I was receiving upwards of about 150 emails every day.  The sad thing about that is there were probably about 15% of those that I didn’t even need to receive and it was wasted energy opening it up and reading it only to find that the information on that email I was CC’d on was not absolutely vital to my work existence.

A few tips on creating an effective Carbon Copy list:

• Really think about your audience.  Does EVERYONE in your CC list absolutely need to know the information you are sending in order to do his/her job?  Remember, casting a wide net and hoping 1 of the 50 people in your CC list is not the way to go.  Less is always best!
• Do not CC the Main Recipient’s Manager.  Nothing says “I REALLY don’t trust you to do your job with this information!” like CC’ing that person’s boss.  I can guarantee you this is almost never received well by the Main Recipient.
• If you send an email to someone who is out of office, and their automatic Out of Office response lists a back-up person, I think it’s helpful to forward your request to the back-up and CC the person who is out of office.  Personally, I like it because I can open up my email, group them by subject and I know that my backup took care of whatever the request was.  It helps me figure out what was taken care of and what I need to follow-up on.

We all know ‘em and love ‘em so much that we almost hate them… our Blackberries.

The cell phone was invented and all of a sudden everyone was reachable no matter where they were.  The Blackberry (aka The Crackberry due to it’s addictive nature) took that concept and multiplied it by about 10000000000.

Text, Picture mail, Voice Mail, Call, even email and the internets all come from this magical little device.  “They” say with great power comes great responsibility…. and “they” are right.

Do:

• Use your Crackberry to reach your work world when you are away from your desk…but only when you are responsible about it.

Don’t:

• Answer calls or send text messages during a meeting. It’s rude and it’s distracting for those who are trying to pay attention.  I once sat in a meeting where a guy answered his phone call.  He didn’t even bother to step out.  When he hung up he just looked around like he had done nothing wrong.  Moron.
• Take your work Blackberry with you when you are out drinking on your own time…. at least for the first couple of years of your Corporate Life.  I know a guy who drunk dialed one of his company’s big-wig clients after a night out with his boys.  His boss wasn’t pleased when word got around to him.
• Forget your charger in the hotel when you are traveling for work. They are eff’ing expensive to replace!
• Forget to keep your ringer/alert tone at a reasonable volume. You don’t want it annoying the coworkers who sit around you, or disrupt the meeting.  It’s so annoying when someone’s phone keeps ringing and ringing and ringing… and it’s LOUD and there is no one to answer the darn thing!
• Have an embarrassing ringer. I once heard a co-worker’s cell phone play the chorus of Colour Me Badd’s “I Wanna Sex You Up”.  I’m assuming that was his girlfriend calling and it was a personal ringtone and not his default for all callers, but still…

Since we’re in the office for most of our waking hours, it’s inevitable that eating will be taking place there.  Here are some tips to eat and co-exist peacefully with your other colleagues:

1. Do not burn your popcorn — Even popcorn that isn’t burnt will leave a lingering smell around the microwave and wherever you eat it.  If you HAVE to have popcorn, don’t let it burn. Please?
2. Steer clear of smelly foods - Your food might taste delicious to you, but take a moment to consider those around you.  They might be struggling to breathe through their mouth so that they don’t have to inhale the grossness that is your lunch.
3. Don’t eat anything too heavy - If you know you have a really important meeting right after lunch, don’t have a really heavy lunch.  Something light, low in carbs and high in vitamins will help prevent you from getting drowsy after lunch.  If you’re worried that you’ll be hungry again later, have a light snack ready.  Heavy lunches will make your afternoon crash even more severe and it might turn into something caffeine can’t fix.
4. Check your teeth right after lunch - I realize that not everyone has time to brush & floss after lunch, but the very least you can do is pop in a mint and stop by the restroom to make sure you don’t have food stuck in weird parts of your teeth.  One of the worst feelings in the world is when you go into the restroom after that big presentation and you see a big spinach leaf stuck near your ‘canine’ tooth.  No bueno!
5. Step away from your desk - I know, I know.. you’re so busy and you don’t have time to eat in the cafeteria.  I’d argue that you do have time.  Stepping out of your desk area accomplishes so many things:
   1. It gives you time to rest your eyes – Humans weren’t made with eyes that were meant to stare at computers for hours on end.  It’s a great idea to give them a break from the bright screen… even if it is only 15 minutes.
   2. Networking – Great leaders don’t get to where they are by eating alone everyday.  Lunch is a great opportunity to meet and/or get to know others in your company.
   3. It gives your brain a break – Have you ever have a problem that you can’t solve no matter how hard you are trying? Then you step away for a few minutes and when you return the solution just comes to you? Sometimes you just need a fresh look at it.

At my Former Company, the rules for getting to the office in the morning were pretty laid back.  If you made it to work before 9:45, you were OK.  I never made a huge effort to get there before 9.  Here at Present Company, it’s a little bit different.  They are more structured.  There aren’t any time cards or anything, but if you get there by 8:30, you’re set.

Lately, I’ve been waking up early despite my crazy sleep patterns and I typically get there at about 8 am.  I’ve found that there are some definite upsides to getting to work early:

1. Badass parking – There is nothing better than having a short walk to the Princess Mobile after a long day of work.  It’s handy when it’s blazing hot, when it’s raining, and when it gets freezing cold, I’m sure I’ll like it too.  I think the next best thing to a badass parking spot is a nice glass of wine when I get home.
2. Distraction-free working – When you’re one of only a few people in the office, you can be sure you will be distraction-free for at least the first half hour.  That half-hour is soooooooo productive because you aren’t getting 500 phone calls or emails to interrupt your train of thought.
3. Fresh coffee – I’m not even a coffee drinker, but I know that the folks that are there early really appreciate the fact that they get first dibs on that magical elixir.
4. Early exits - I am 100% guilt-free when I need to leave a bit early.  You should always talk to your manager before you start setting your own schedule though.  While more and more companies are doing “flex-days” you shouldn’t assume you can leave early just because you got there early.  Leaving early can help you miss the stress of rush hour traffic.
5. Relaxation - I don’t know about you all, but when I don’t get to work early I am sooooooo stressed.  OHMIGAWD. WILL THIS LIGHT EVER TURN GREEN? HURRY UP AND GO.  NICE SIGNAL THERE, PAL. I NEED TO FINISH THAT REPORT BEFORE THE MEETING. I CAN’T BE AT THAT MEETING LATE, IT’S MY MEETING! When I get there early, I’m in a weird state of calm.  I know I’ll have plenty of time to take care of the little things and even crazy big things that might pop up before that meeting.  Hell.  I might even have time to organize my Outlook inbox while I’m at it.

Get to work early next week and give it a whirl!

It is my belief that the only people who should have a speaker-feature on their desk phone are the people who have an actual office… that can be shut off to the rest of the building with a door.

In past years, I think people in the office used the speaker phone to listen on calls out of pure laziness — they didn’t want to hold the damn receiver up to their ear.  Nowadays though, that’s not an excuse.  A lot of companies will happily purchase a hands free set for their cubicle worker bees.

Our dear friend Speaker Phone Seth uses the speaker phone feature for ALL of his calls…. like he’s the only one in the office and we all want to hear his entire conversation.

PROS: The ability to listen to all of Seth’s calls can help clue you in to handy dandy information that you might not already know or that might be useful to your own functional area.  Seth’s phone calls might also offer some entertainment value to your otherwise boring day.

CONS: Sometimes Seth’s phone calls can be ridiculously loud and can serve as a distraction.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: loud, annoying, entertaining

FRIEND OR FOE? I’m going to vote ‘Friend’ on this one – so that you nicely ask him to lower his speaker volume when you need to concentrate.  A friendly disposition beats out passive aggressiveness any day

Today was a gorgeous day – the high probably didn’t even break the 90-degree point.  I had another great, productive day and was looking forward to attending a fashion show this evening with some girlfriends.  I planned to leave work at 5, but there was that *one last thing* to do and *one last email* to send out.

The second I stepped outside, I knew I should have just waited until the following morning to finish up those tasks since they weren’t really ‘mission critical’.

I’m a very observational person.  I see the smallest details and notice small mannerisms that others might not see.  One thing I noticed my very first week at Present Company was that EVERYONE had an umbrella in their office.  I didn’t really know why…. it’s not like we live in Seattle or anything.  In fact, it very rarely rains here, except for maybe the Spring or when winter storms are blowing through – but even those are few and far between.

Since I started working here, I thought, “I need to get a cheap, small umbrella to keep here…. just in case” because the only umbrella I own is a huge stick umbrella that is designer, so I wouldn’t just leave it in my cube.  What if I need it on the weekend and I forget it there?!

And since I started working here (8 weeks now?) I have procrastinated in getting that umbrella.

All of that procrastination led up to today.

The second I walked outside, the skies parted, and it started POURING.  I’m not even being dramatic – that’s seriously how it happened.  I was running – I didn’t want to be soaking wet when I got to the fashion show… and I didn’t want the water to stain my cute leather handbag.  I was in the middle of the parking lot when I realized that I had no idea where I parked that morning.  So I stood there – unsuccessfully trying to shield my bag from the rain – looking for my eff’ing car in the darker-than-normal parking lot.  I finally did find my car, but by then the hope of not looking like a wet dog was literally washed away.

Luckily for me, it was still pouring so the drive was long.  By the time I got to the show, my clothes appeared dry, though my hair was still somewhat stringy.

My lesson learned today is all about procrastination — Some things are OK to put off for a few hours or until the next day…. others need to be taken care of immediately just in case the skies part and it starts to pour.