Interview Much...? Stories from a Receptionist About First Impressions

By night I blog but by day I am an office manager.

I started as a receptionist which lead me to office manager. Despite the title, I am still a receptionist. My desk is in the lobby, I greet people, schedule rooms, and let vendors in. Well, all that plus more but for a good part of the day, I'm a receptionist.

I happen to love my job but like any great jobs, there are certain aspects that are not my favorite. Greeting people coming for an interview is one of those things. Don't get me wrong, I work with some fantastic people who once came for an interview. But, there is a larger percentage of would-be employees who don't make the cut. I can usually predict their outcome based on how they treat me.

I am no longer surprised by the rudeness I encounter from applicants. I also know how professional and nice they will be for the interview. What most fail to realize is that the manager doing the interview may ask my opinion or I'll tell them. Rudeness to those who might not matter does not look good and speaks volumes on your character.

Cure for the Office Blues: Hot Chocolate Bar and some printables

This post contains affiliate links.

Winter is here, snow has finally coated my corner of Northeast Ohio and to help ease the pain of the winter blues in our office we hosted mini hot chocolate bars set up all over the office.

Hot cocoa bars are all over Pinterest. In fact, it is hard not to scroll through Pinterest this time of year and not see at least one pin dedicated to hot chocolate. And, if you follow me on Pinterest you know I have been pinning those types of pins to my kids’ annual cookie party board. When the opportunity to do something like this in the office came up, I could not resist. Who doesn't like hot cocoa? (Well, I had them covered too with hot apple cider, but that is another post.)

The lovely Ali with her fantastic (and fun) creation.

I work for a fairly large office with four coffee stations so we loaded up the fun stuff on trays and set them up near our coffee machines. Each tray had: marshmallows, candy canes, nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips, pirouettes, candy, mints, cinnamon, whipped cream, and of course – hot chocolate.

Putting everything on trays made set-up and clean-up uber easy.  Also, the coffee stations are pretty tight on space and the trays are easy to move.  It occurs to me now that it would have been way more interesting to have different toppings at different stations to encourage everyone to see different parts of the office but, I'll save that for next year.

Prepping for four coffee stations was more work than I thought it would be but judging from people’s reactions and creations – it was absolutely worth it. And, it was a lot of fun. The hard part was keeping it a secret! As a bonus, I can save all of the printables for next year and can easily recreate this for the big cookie party. Two for the price of one!

Thanks, Brett for the photo of your hot cocoa!

If you would like to do this in your office or home click here for the spoon signs and here for the sign. They are free and have no watermarks.

The spoon signs have guidelines to cut on but will not line up with any labels. I folded the cutouts in half and cut small slits above the words and below the words to thread a spoon through, taping the back.  Goodies that don't need spoons I taped the signs to large candy canes.





Cheers!

25 (pinnable) Ideas You Can Steal for Your Office Secret Santa (under $25)

This is not a sponsored post but does contain affiliate link for Amazon Prime. Prices subject to change.

In the spirit of forced comradery and holiday cheer, the office secret Santa is always lots o' fun. As an office manager, I feel like I may have some wisdom to share on what to buy those hard to shop for colleagues while trying to stay under $25.

And, thanks to the wonder of Amazon Prime and other various methods of express shipping you still have time to find, ship and sometimes even have wrapped that perfect gift for that special person you drew in the office secret Santa - even if you never met them.

25 (pinnable) Ideas You Can Steal for Your Office Secret Santa

 under $25 (for the most part)!

1. For the nosey cube mate

2. For the one who is always stressed

3. For that guy (or gal) who uses your trash can for practice

4. For the indecisive co-worker

5. For the playful colleague