You have finally arrived--you have reached management; perhaps your are now the office manager. If this is your new title, make every effort to keep your office life sane.

Management Sanity

1. Meetings: keep them short and don't allow them to become events. Large amounts of food are not necessary for an hour meeting; coffee and hot water for tea will do just fine. Your supply the tea bags.

2. When you do call a meeting, keep to an agenda and start and end on time.

3. Monthly department head meetings: you may find this to be more productive than a full staff meeting.

4. Full staff meetings: a meeting of the full staff will keep everyone in the loop of need to know information.

5. Be a good guy: do something nice or unexpected for your staff, no reason necessary. A box of donuts can go far to lift your staff’s spirit and make them feel appreciated. It can also do wonders for your staff's morale.

5. If you have received hierarchy kudos after working on an important project, pass it on to staff members who helped to make the project a success.

Office Sanity

1. Managers, take a lesson from Nancy Reagan and "just say no." We are not talking about drugs here. Think before you response to this person's frantic cry for help--if it is something he or she does more than a couple of time a month, you owe it to yourself and her or him to just say no until you can find out if this is a real emergency or not. If it seems to be a "I have too much work" cry for help, investigate to see if it is a legitimate reason. If yes, make changes, if no, try to get to the real reason of the cry for help. You may find that the employee feels that he or she is getting more work than others in the office.

2. Staff, keep your technology quiet. If you do not need sound on your computer, turn it down or off. You do not need to hear a beep when you receive a new e-mail. When you are on the Internet (for research only, of course) advertisements often have sounds that are meant to get your attention. They also get the attention of those sitting near you, turn off your sound. Turn down the volume of your radio. Test its loudness by walking by or standing near your cubicle or your desk--if you can hear it, it may be too loud. If you feel you must keep your cell phone on while working, keep it on vibrate.

3. Take 5 minutes to walk to the restroom or get a cup of coffee. Move away from your desk a couple of times during the work day--stretch your legs and your mind.

4. Get rid of cluttered space. We all know them, office workers who live in gray, brown or beige cubicles with every space covered with a note, flyer or gadget. Are you one? Look at your desk and cubicle walls.