Records Management Assignment

Missing File Case Study

The way that I would address this issue is to speak with Ashley, one-on-one. so not
to be singled out in front of her colleagues, therefore, making her uncomfortable and
angry.

There may be several reasons as to why Ashley is not dedicating the 20 minutes
each day to filing.

It could be that she is overwhelmed with work, and is, therefore, not managing her
time well to get to the filing; it may also be that she is not sure or confident enough
to do the filing, therefore, requiring a refresher or training session.

If the issue were that she is overwhelmed with her job, I would offer to help her
with what I can, so that she is able to commit to getting to the filing.

If the issue is that she is not confident due to lack of knowledge of the filing system, I
would set some time aside to provide her with the training she requires so that she
is able to immediately and confidently start on her filing.

If the issue is that she just does not want to do the filing, then this is a performance
concern that needs to be escalated to her supervisor. I say this, because her work is
not only affecting her, but that of the entire office.

Managing Email
Having had the opportunity to work in a very busy Durham College department, I
know, first hand, how out of control your email can get if you don’t have a good
structure in place to manage it.

As the Development Officer for Alumni Affairs, I was responsible for many events
and projects. The only way that I was able to stay on top of things was to set up
folders for the various events/projects and move daily emails pertaining to those
into their own folder. This method allowed me easy access to find an email and be
able to quickly address anything that is pressing.

Below are some examples of folders that I set up to help keep me organized:
Junk mail is also a big issue when you work in a large department. To minimize and
not be bogged down by junk mail, I would unsubscribe immediately to these, so to
have a clean inbox. There is nothing more annoying that looking at your inbox to see
that one of your folders has hundreds of emails, which really aren’t needed and are
taking up valuable space.

Another important factor as it relates to your email is how often to check it and how
quickly you respond to an email.

It has been my practice (and has worked well) to check my email 4 times per day.
Once in the morning, once just before and after lunch and lastly roughly 1 hour
before the end of day to stay on top of things.

I feel that if all you do is answer emails all day long, it will begin to take over your
workday and is not very good time management.

My emails have 4 actions. One, delete if it is junk, two, file it into an appropriate
folder, three to reply to the email immediately and lastly, file it in a to-do task folder.

As the above email management has worked well for me, I have instilled this
practice with my DC mail account as a student.

Below is a snapshot of my inbox.

I have added all assignments and emails from my various professors to their own
folder for easy access.
As a student and an administrative assistant, time is of the essence. Our days are so
busy getting assignments done and our job done, that wasting time trying to find
important emails should not be something that we have to endure.