Be Nice to your Administrative Professional

This Wednesday, April 23rd, is Administrative Professionals Day, which means it’s time to acknowledge and do something NICE for that special someone (or someones) in your workplace that make your life just a little bit easier. According to Wikipedia, “The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), the sole official sponsor of Administrative Professionals Week and Administrative Professionals Day, suggests that employers show their support for the holiday, and their staff, by providing training opportunities for their administrative staff, whether through continuing education, self-study materials, or seminars.” But most employers will probably follow the more traditional route of taking their admins to lunch or buying them a small gift to show their appreciation. Here are some nice ideas to show them you care:

~ E-Cards ~ You could start their day by sending them an e-card. One of the e-card services that I use is Hallmark.com, which is providing 15 free Administrative Professionals e-cards online. It takes only about 5 minutes to register and send the e-card. You can even send the same e-card to multiple recipients. If you have a great rapport with your admin, you could send them a funny e-card from someecards.com. However, make sure you both feel that great rapport, because some of these e-cards are racy, and could be considered inappropriate if sent to the wrong person.

~ Paper Cards ~ Another option is to send a real card. Yes, a real card made from paper. Hallmark, of course, carries Administrative Professionals Day cards in their stores. You can also find ‘thank you’ cards at your local grocery store, Papyrus, or Paper Source. You could even create your own card at Kodak Gallery or Snapfish. Of course, it will take time to personally create a card online, but it shows your admin that you really do care about all of the hard work they’ve put in all year long.

~ Flowers ~
One of the most popular gifts you can give your admin is flowers. There is a ton of places to get flowers online. Here are a few: 1800flowers, ProFlowers, FTD, and Virtual Flowers. If you’re in the LA or OC area, here are a few of my favorite flower shops: Standing Ovation in Los Alamitos, Devynn’s Garden in Seal Beach, and KaBloom (which used to have a shop in Irvine). You can also order flowers online from KaBloom and Standing Ovation. If you’re looking for more of a potted plant or unique flower gift, another great place in the OC is Roger’s Gardens.

~ Gifts ~ You could also give your admin(s) a gift along with the card and flowers, or in lieu of. Here are some websites that will make your gift shopping a little bit easier. Gifts.com is great because they have a section dedicated to Administrative Professionals Day, with over 30 great gift ideas. They have gift items such as the “Thanks a Latte Cookie Bouquet” and Starbucks gift sets. If you’re not sure what to get, you could always buy a gift certificate from giftcertificates.com. They have hundreds of gift cards to choose from and they list the top selling gift certificates right on their homepage. But if you know your admin loves a certain something like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Golden Spoon frozen yogurt, or Nordstrom, wouldn’t it be nice to buy them a gift certificate from one of these places to show them that you really do take an interest in what they have to say?

~ Lunch ~ And last but not least, it is important to take time out on Wednesday for lunch with your team. An easy way to find a restaurant and make reservations online is at OpenTable.com. They feature restaurants all over the country and make it easy to make a reservation through their convenient online reservation system. You even earn points for each dining experience, and after 2,000 points, you can redeem your earnings for a $20 dining certificate good at any opentable.com participating restaurant. Now how easy is that?

So don't procrastinate - start thinking and planning for Wednesday with one of the ideas from above. Or use your own creativity to make Wednesday a NICE day for those who are NICE to you!