Calendar gymnastics
In the secretariat we every day plan many meetings on behalf of our colleagues. We are also the backstop for many of the incoming phone calls if there is no one in the office to take the call. We would very much like to do this well and professionally!
From time to time, the colleagues with offices close to mine may hear me use abusive language concerning the lack of calendar updating by colleagues, but grumbling will probably not make me become more grey-haired than I already am. I also know from several of the secretaries in the department that they feel the same.
The planning of this year’s salary negotiation meetings contributed to my wanting to comment on the use of calendars in the department. I had to reschedule a meeting with very few participants three times before everybody accepted.
The Outlook calendar is an electronic tool that should make it easier to get an overview, both for yourself and for your colleagues. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In some cases the calendars are a mess of appointments and overlapping activities that have not been accepted, and in other cases there is nothing at all. That makes it difficult to see what you are doing.
Some times whole days have been reserved for meetings, but the status is set to “Free” and not “Out of office”. In these cases the appointment cannot be seen when you plan a meeting for several persons.
If you have booked a well-deserved holiday in the southern sun, it will be a good idea to enter it into the calendar right away so that your colleagues can see that you are not present at that time.
These are just a few of the examples that we see every day. I don’t think that there is a single excuse that we haven’t heard. Some secretaries try using a Doodle, but I don’t think that this is all right for an internal meeting for which the overview should be in Outlook. It means an extra work process for all who are involved.
If external persons call and we just can say that there is nothing in your calendar, then we ask if they would like us to leave a message for you or they want to try again later. In many cases they want to try again later. How does that make us look when they have tried 3 or 4 times and got the same answer?
I therefore have the following advice for you concerning your calendar:
- All members of staff must enter holidays and other types of absence.
- The calendar should – as a starting point – be open to colleagues in the department for read access.
- You must phone and report illness to the reception/the secretary who will enter it into the calendar and inform relevant colleagues. Please remember to report when you are off the sick list and back at work.
- It is a good idea to let the email groups ”#AGRO STAB Foulum” or ” #AGRO STAB Flakkebjerg” have access to edit the engagements in your calendar. You can see how to give this permission here. It also allows the secretary to plan meetings on behalf of colleagues without ”spamming” their own calendars.
- When you have an appointment planned, please enter it into your calendar at once. If it takes place outside our premises, then remember to include time for transport during which you are not available.
- If you tick off entire days in your Outlook calendar, remember to change the status of ”Show as:” from ”Free” to ”Out of office” or ”Busy”.
- If you have got any tasks for which you would like to set aside time, then please pay attention to whether it is:
- something you don’t want other meetings to “overrule” (then “Busy”)
- a reminder to yourself that you have to remember something (then ”Free”)
