Office1000 Blog May Archive

Gone are the days when we only have to contend with lecterns that are made out only of wood. Since the invention of polycarbonate, choices in lectern styles have become varied. Don't get me wrong. Wooden lecterns are good-looking, but they always give you the impression of stiff formality and old age. If every lectern on this planet is made out of wood (like it is before), it would be a boring place--not to mention that more and more trees will be cut up just to make lecterns.

Now here is one lectern that has some style, the Rumba Clear Mobile Adjustable Lectern from Safco. It's basically transparent in the sides (made out of polycarbonate) with an aluminum center, thus giving you a modern and metallic feel. Modern it really is, too, as it already has a built-in light above the lectern for easy note reading. The presentation panel is adjustable and opens to store some reference material inside. The lectern is easily adjusted with a lift-and-slide mechanism so that, during situations when there are consecutive speakers, adjusting between them is just a breeze.

Now, do you see the difference? A wooden lectern certainly is more difficult to adjust, as wood is less flexible than polycarbonate--and let us face it. I know you like a modern atmosphere inside an office, unless of course you are running some old-fashioned law firm.

Give your office a change in appearance. Make your lectern look more modern now.

Your task is to sign a lot of papers, but since they are soooo many, you just had a custom-made rubber stamp embossed on it. Usually, you just take out your stamp pad and stamp your signatures away on the forms. It can be really tiring, stamping around like a machine, but you should agree that it is much better than signing those papers manually. That will happen, however, if you just let your stamp pad run off like that. Imagine that!

So is the case with stamped company logos. I don't think they are that common nowadays since there are already computers. But let's just say that you still stamp your company's logo on forms as a sign of approval. Without the stamp pad, business is stopped as there's no proof the documents are approved. You can do some other things while thee stamp pad isn't found yet, though.

The situations above may seem far-fetched, but they do happen. Small things like lost stamp pads may result to big, time-wasting consequences. This does not go for stamp pad alone. It also talks about business management in general. A seemingly-negligible glitch should be acted upon immediately because, for all you know, it may spell the end of your business.

So how can you widen your vocabulary? The answer is EXPOSE and PRACTICE. Read a lot of books, especially those published in the 19th century when the more obscure a work is, the better. Just remember to bring in a dictionary. This way, you will expose yourself to more words that are not usually used in general conversation. If you are not so much of a bookworm, then joining in forums whose members are people you can consider the elite in your field would be a great idea. Nobody is saying you should join (though it would be much better). At the very least you can just pore over what these people have to say.

Constant exposure to such people will naturally lead to you practicing what you have learned. Start with your best friends, then your office mates, and eventually with the people you talk to inside the business.

Enriching your vocabulary is something that shouldn't be done only by people who usually deal with people in high-profile businesses. By enriching your vocabulary, your knowledge also expands. It's an activity that we should always undertake.

So how can you widen your vocabulary? The answer is EXPOSE and PRACTICE. Read a lot of books, especially those published in the 19th century when the more obscure a work is, the better. Just remember to bring in a dictionary. This way, you will expose yourself to more words that are not usually used in general conversation. If you are not so much of a bookworm, then joining in forums whose members are people you can consider the elite in your field would be a great idea. Nobody is saying you should join (though it would be much better). At the very least you can just pore over what these people have to say.

Constant exposure to such people will naturally lead to you practicing what you have learned. Start with your best friends, then your office mates, and eventually with the people you talk to inside the business.

Enriching your vocabulary is something that shouldn't be done only by people who usually deal with people in high-profile businesses. By enriching your vocabulary, your knowledge also expands. It's an activity that we should always undertake.

There will come a time when you have to contact him/her, naturally, but this time you are unable to travel there and visit personally, so you are compelled to call. Here's the problem. Your parent has an ordinary landline installed in his/her home and was not replaced ever since you left it. The phone is largely unused and your call was one of those rare times it rang. During the call, you always get, "Ha? What? I can't hear you!" from the other side. It seems that your parent cannot hear you, thanks to his/her poor hearing condition. Same goes when your parent is the one who has to contact you. The normally small keys in the phone cannot be seen properly by your parent who has impaired vision.

There is always a solution around things. This time the solution is installing this Ameriphone Amplified Corded Telephone from Clarity. Living up to its name, the phone is hearing-aid-compatible so that the person on the other line can hear you (assuming that he/she has a hearing aid on). Its high contrast and unusually large keys enables speedy dialing for those who have poor vision. In fact, this feature was also included for emergencies when the phone was to spotted and dialed fast.

Now, the only problem is convincing your parent/s to change phones after all these years that the other unit was there.

• The primary use of a magazine rack is to provide entertainment to clients while they are waiting their time to be faced by your employees. Some days can be really hectic, when dozens of customers go to your office/establishment at the same time. Keeping them just there doing nothing will surely irritate them as you go on with the other customers. Of course, having a television around is a better alternative, but many people would rather read. It goes without saying that once a customer has a good experience while in your office or establishment, he/she would likely return again when the need arises.
• If there are days when there are so many thing to do, days will come when there's nothing to do, though I think this is more unlikely to happen. During these times when your employees are not needed but they still have to stay around just in case something comes up, having a magazine rack around will keep their minds running. An idle mind is never good, you know.
• Other than the entertainment both for the customers and the workers, a magazine rack also has another purpose--a grand one, in fact--and that is to keep that corner occupied. I dunno, doesn't it feel empty when an important corner in the office or establishment is empty?

But as I have always said here in the Office 1000 blog, you will always be surprised by the items that we sell here. Need something? Office 1000 surely has it. So what does it have for me who does not own a flat panel monitor? This Mid-Range Monitor Riser from Safco.

What does this have to do with the arm with desk clamp? Like the other product, this raiser, well, raises the monitor to a level that is at line with your vision, hence, strain in the neck is lessened. Note that the raiser is made out of plastic with a maximum capacity of 60 lbs, good enough for computer monitors. I do not think there is a typical monitor that will exceed that weight, anyway.

Another thing to take note is that underneath the upper surface is an open space for you to put in some stuff like notebooks, books, or anything that you can fit there. This is a valuable tool for anyone who finds that space is scarce inside his/her office.

Whether you have a flat panel monitor or the conventional computer monitor, there's no more reason for your necks to be strained.

Career advice is a genre in books that is said to be on a decline. This is because a lot of the information normally listed here can be easily checked out in the Internet (i.e. Googled). but The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need by Daniel Pink (author of A Whole New Mind) is not your ordinary career advice book. As what was said in the trailer, it is the first American business book in manga, a kind of comic book that is widely famous in Japan (used both for children's and adults' publications) and is increasingly becoming popular in the rest of the world. We will still see if the manga approach will be successful in the American world.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko aims to help people choose paths that will lead them to career satisfaction. Like any career book, it aims to guide you to what we call 'the real world', where grades are not the all and be all of work success. Unlike any career book (in America, at least), it aims to present it in a manner that is both entertaining and can be easily absorbed. It is divided into six lessons, namely:

• There is no plan.
• Think strengths, not weaknesses.
• It's not about you.
• Persistence trumps talent.
• Make excellent mistakes.
• Leave an imprint.

I think every graduate needs to read a book like this one, because it's a whole new world out there. It is also recommendable (probably including you) for any person who thinks he/she has made wrong career moves. After all, nobody wants to stay in front of the same desk for the rest of his/her career.

How could browsing a website that supposedly sell boring office products be any fun? It is for the simple reason that you will never know what you'll see. I've seen a fair share of crazy products that can be still considered office products. It's like, though not exactly like, going through some store selling USB products. You will never know what you'll see. It's the reason why I dislike browsing through these products. I just might overbuy.

One product that is quite peculiar, though not really peculiar, are these corrugated shipping cartons from Safco. Hey, they are not crazy! That's probably you might think. But if you'll think about it--really think about it, you will realize that it isn't common to see sites selling boxes, isn't it? Who sells shipping boxes through an online store? The most interesting question I have in mind is how do we ship shipping boxes? Do we ship these boxes inside shipping boxes, just like how we ship other products? Well, I apologize, I haven't heard of such a case before. Maybe there was one before I was here. Why don't you try out so the both of us will know? Why don't I try out myself, no?

Anyway, browsing through the Office 1000 catalog can really reveal some surprises. Browse it yourself now and be surprised like I was. Who knows, you might even see a bargain that you won't see anywhere else, ever again.

It's really irritating since I am not the type of person who likes to shout a lot, so raising my voice on the phone is something that takes too much effort for me. Good luck if the one I am talking to understands me well. So, if it's really an important call, I will have to go somewhere quieter, if I can ever find such a place inside a mall.

That is why I am glad that there are products like the Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset. How does this help me? Well, the Bluetooth headset features a Noise Shield system that eliminates all kinds of background noise during a call while increasing the volume of your voice. This will ensure that calls, especially those very urgent and highly important ones, are better and clearer. And since it is a Bluetooth headset, you could wirelessly make calls within 30 feet (at most) from your mobile phone. The jawbone style also makes the headset non-obstructive.

So the next time you go to some public place, remember to buy the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset. You'll never know when will that mobile phone ring.