AUGUST 2017
P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T F O R C A N A D A ' S O F F I C E S U P P O R T S T A F F
Administrative
Assistant's
UPDATE UPDATE
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INSIDE
More about sitting � � � � � � � � � 2
While researchers study, we can
reduce risks with exercise
Navigating Excel � � � � � � � � � � 5
Increase your efficiency and save
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Unproductive meetings � � � � � 6
Initiatives you can take to turn
things around
Networking tips � � � � � � � � � � � 7
It's more about listening than it
is about talking
By Jennifer Lewington
AAU Associate Editor
When Katherine Margard's boss,
a senior administrator at The Ohio
State University, was
recruited to lead an-
other university in a
different state in fall
2015, Margard found
herself in profes-
sional limbo.
For family rea-
sons, she was in no position to leave
central Ohio to possibly join her boss
at his new job in Arkansas. She also
had no guarantee that the person
replacing her boss would keep her
on in her role as executive assistant
to the executive vice-president and
provost.
But Margard had an advocate in
her corner: herself.
An admin professional who main
-
tains an up-to-date resumé, Margard
is active on LinkedIn, practiced at
developing networks and committed
to job-related training.
"You need to be ready for anything
that comes," she told a workshop
session at the Administrative Profes-
sionals Conference in Toronto last
May, she says of her commitment to
professional preparedness.
Her philosophy has paid dividends.
In October 2015, two days after
she learned of the upcoming depar-
ture of her boss at Ohio State, she
unexpectedly received a call from a
Do you know
Gen Z?
Jonah Stillman, a Gen Zer, and his
dad, David Stillman, have writ-
ten Gen Z at Work: How the Next
Generation Is Transforming the
Workplace.
Generation Z encompasses,
roughly speaking, people born be-
tween 1994 and 2004. Gen Zers are
successors to millennials and are
"much more independent and very
competitive," says David Stillman
in an interview with Knowledge@
Wharton ("What Employers Should
Know About Generation Z").
Whereas millennials may carry
a sense of entitlement, he con-
tends, "76 per cent of Gen Z say
they are willing to start at the bot-
tom and work their way up."
Continued on page 4
Katherine Margard
Credit: ESB Professional (Shutterstock)
Career pathways
Admin professional
steers her own ship