Tag Archives: Office

Jan24

What Color Is Your Office?

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What Color Is Your Office?

During the New Year, I rearranged my home office with my back against an accent wall. The purpose was for the accent wall to serve as a background to video calls. I was pretty happy with the new arrangement as it meant I had more space to move around. However, a colleague pointed out that the accent wall was a bit problematic. For one, it was bright red. The kind of red you’d find at fast food joints. The color was distracting and it washed me out. Another problem was the color psychology behind the color red. While it does represent power, excitement, and energy, it also represents danger and anger. Too much stimulation makes me feel tired and irritable. Not good for video calls at all.

Our work environments have an effect on our performance. We spend so much time at work, about one-third of our lives. It would make sense to make it comfortable and optimized for productivity so that we feel energized and inspired.

Looking At Color Psychology

There is a general lack of research in the area of color psychology. However, we cannot deny the impact it has on our moods, feelings, and behaviors. Its symbolic impact is recognized universally. This is why areas such as marketing, art, and design rely so much on color psychology. 

Ever wonder why red is such a popular color for fast food joints and restaurants? Take McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, In-N-Out Burger, and Wendy’s for example. They all have predominantly red logos. This is because red is known to increase appetite and metabolism, making you feel hungry.

On the other side of the spectrum, cool colors such as blue, green, and purple invoke feelings of calmness and authority. This is why companies such as LinkedIn, PayPal, Twitter, and Walmart have predominantly blue logos.

Pro Tips:

  • When redecorating your house or your home office, keep in mind the colors of your surroundings and accent pieces. Muted colors are always a safe bet as a background color. Off-white, cream, or a light shade of grey looks better in the background when you are on a video call versus opting for more bold and dramatic colored backgrounds. 
  • You can also go for accent pieces instead of covering your office in one color scheme. If you want a pop of color, try hanging a painting or a poster against a solid-colored wall. 
  • Plants also add a pop of color to your office. They not only bring a bit of nature in, but also add style and beauty to your office. Not to mention their added health benefits as they purify the air inside your office and help you feel less stressed.

Make your workstation a place where you genuinely love spending time. Work is challenging enough, you shouldn’t be contending with an uncomfortable and distracting home office as well.

What does your home office look like? Describe it to us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Oct26

5 True Horror Office Stories

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5 True Horror Office Stories

Halloween is coming up, and we all love a good scary story for Halloween, right? Fans of a good scare know that the scariest stories are the ones that happen in real life, to real people. Here are 5 true horror office stories that can happen to anyone.

Send to all

This story is at the top of the list for a reason: everyone is terrified of sending out emails that are misspelled or mistakenly sent to an unintended recipient. The most horrifying one is a badly spelled email that has been “sent to all.” You will go down in history as that person who sent “I apologize for any incontinence” to everyone in the mailing list. So proofread your emails, make it short and to the point, and please only include pertinent recipients. 

The sick co-worker

In light of recent happenings, it is a huge no-no to sneeze or cough in public. If you want to disperse a team meeting, all you have to do is cough and watch how quickly everyone disappears from the vicinity. Now, imagine having a co-worker with allergic rhinitis who has a sneezing fit of 6 to 7 sneezes but does not leave the meeting room. This used to be a mild annoyance. Now, everyone sees this as an affront to their health and safety. If you are sick, please do not go to work and see a doctor. If it’s just a case of bad allergies, be considerate and work remotely so as not to scare everyone.

The “Legally Blonde” moment

Remember the scene in the movie “Legally Blonde” where Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) shows up to a college party in full playboy bunny costume, only, it turns out to be a regular house party. Remember this when you decide to dress up for Halloween. A costume theme only works when everyone knows that there’s a costume theme going on AND has agreed to join you. So make sure that the team knows that you all agreed to dress up in costumes for the day. Otherwise, you will forever be known as “The Office Clown” if you show up dressed as Pennywise to the office.

Too much Halloween fun

Do not overindulge at office parties. This goes not only for Halloween parties but for all office parties in general. And by overindulging, I don’t mean just drinks. This goes for food, candy, and even (God forbid) office supplies. Moderation is key. Be a team player and save some for the others. 

True story, bro

I leave you with a “true” office horror story. You can read more real-life office scary stories, here.

“We’ve come to believe a terrible accident took place during the building [of our coffee shop]. The first time I noticed anything, I was in the lobby alone, no customers, all co-workers in the back room, and I heard a man ask, “Where are my hands?!” I nearly peed my pants. Since then, every now and then, weird things will happen. We’ll hear someone asking for help or saying, “Hello? Hello? Hello?!” when no one is in the store.

There have been multiple times I’m in the back alone washing dishes and see something move out of the corner of my eye or hear something fall or shuffle. I’ll check, and no one will be there. We’ll hear the bell of our door opening, but no one is there. I definitely don’t enjoy my shifts when something like that happens. —Francisca, barista for a major coffee chain in Washington”

Do you have your own office horror story? Share them with us in the comments. Happy Halloween! Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Jun21

Quest for the Best: Do you have the courage to be part of us?

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Quest for the Best: Do you have the courage to be part of us?

 

Welcome Summer! Not only are we excited for the warm weather and lots of sunshine you bring, we are ecstatic for the growing opportunities you’ve been blowing our way.

We’ve been very busy these past few weeks. The demand is soaring for virtual administrative assistance services. More companies and individuals (particularly those who run small to medium sized businesses) are convinced that setting up a virtual office through us help them save money on  office space, hiring, training, payrolls, pensions, and other employee benefits. Yet,   at the same time these companies  reap all the benefits of having a brick and mortar office with competent, reliable, and hard working workers.

The sentiment of The Help is brightening, as clients’ confidence improve and the company’s performance continues to rise. As higher demand for clients continues, we exert double effort in selecting new employees who are going to be an asset to us and our clients as well.

“Hiring someone simply because you need an “extra body” is foolish and inevitably results in poor performance, decreased productivity and decreased morale. So be sure to hire only someone who actually fits the job description you’ve created. In fact, shooting for the stars by knowingly increasing your standards to hire the best possible candidate–even it takes some time to find the right person–is well worth it.”

– DR. DAVIDG.JAVITCH

As a growing company, we consider workforce management as one of company’s most important tasks.  With that, we want to ensure that we have the right people — and the right number of people– to keep both our own and our client’s company running smoothly.

We are currently looking for our next superstar administrative assistant. Is it you? Let us know. E-mail us your resume and cover letter at admin@thehelpbyastrids.com. For more information, check our career page.

Jun13

“The Help” you’ve been waiting for!

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“The Help” you’ve been waiting for!

The long wait is over!

The Help’s website is now up and running! We received our business cards in the mail and are ready for our  marketing campaigns. We are excited to reach more potential clients and interact with them directly. Right now, we are in the process of accepting more projects, meeting with clients on-line and face to face.   We are ready to work hard and grow with them, providing services for their professional and personal life.

Administrative assistance is the biggest service that we offer and provide to our clients. We cater to  clients from different parts of the world such as United States of America, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Administrative assistants  play an important role in keeping an office running smoothly. They provide office services by implementing administrative systems, policies and procedures, and monitoring administrative projects.  Excellent Administrative Assistance is what we offer! We place second in the USA among the 2,744 companies providing Administrative support in Elance. Our feedback and rating  can attest to that.

Services that we offer under  administrative assistance:

• Virtual Assistant – provides administrative, secretarial, technical, or creative services to businesses externally.

• Calendar Management – involves scheduling meetings, advising others of the manager’s availability for whatever reason, knowing where the manager is at any given time.

• Data Entry – Information you work with might be text-based or numerical that needs logging into spreadsheets or databases.

• E-mail Correspondence – compose letters or electronic correspondence in reply to requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit and other information, delinquent accounts, incorrect billings, or unsatisfactory services.

• Customer Service –answers people’s queries and generally help them to address any problems they’re having.

•  Bulk Mailing– perform any combination of tasks in a post office, such as receive letters and parcels; sell postage and revenue stamps, postal cards, and stamped envelopes; fill out and sell money orders; mailing large numbers of identical printed items. (snail mail , electronic mail)

• Beta Testing – comes after alpha testing, software and game applications needs to go through a series of test to make sure that it’s bug-free, before it gets approval for the official release.

 • Telephone Handling – To deliver an effective and competent level of accurate call handling for callers to the Out of hours service. To deliver an efficient appointments service for face to face consultations in accordance with agreed protocols.

• Word Processing –set up and prepare reports, letters, mailing labels, and other materials on a computer using a keyboard and word processing software. The word processor uses word processing commands to format the material and instruct the machine to correct spelling or grammar errors, number pages automatically, adjust the margins or line length, or perform a host of other functions.

• Research – Researchers are required to search, discover, interpret and develop systems to improve human knowledge in various matters. They are responsible for every new discovery related to scientific issues and other areas.

• Social-Media Maintenance – oversee social media campaigns which include but are not limited to: research, campaign & content creation. You will also create public relations opportunities for the company you represent.

• Website Maintenance – Website content manager will be responsible developing the voice for all aspects of the organization’s online presence. In addition to writing, editing, and proofreading site content, this person will also work closely with the technical team to maintain site standards with regard to new development. The website content manager will also be responsible for crafting site promotions, email newsletters, and online outreach campaigns.

• Billing and Accounting – Accountable for creating invoices and credit memos, correcting, completing, and processing claims of all payer codes.

There’s so much to tell, but for now just let us share to you this milestone!

Our team and the company are being showered by blessings.

If you have any inquiries, please feel free to complete our “contact form” on the right upper corner of our page or e-mail us at admin@thehelpbyastrids.com.

If you have too much in your plate today, call us! We’ll provide you the assistance you need so you can focus on the more important parts of your business. 

We are “The Help” you’ve been waiting for!