I've been planning loads of parties this week. This is the more exciting and glamorous part of my job that I love the most.

I think I enjoy it so much because I love to see people enjoying themselves at something I have planned. I'm also incredible controlling and bossy, but I'm sure that's only a very small part of my joy. On the flip side, I also get very annoyed when people aren't having enough fun, or don't like something about the party!

Although I love this part of my job, I do feel a great amount of pressure to get it right so that everyone will enjoy themselves, and it's hard to please all 80 or so people. We started thinking about our Christmas party this week. I know, how early is that, I hear you ask, but you need to book early or all the good places get taken and you end up having your party at a Weatherspoons pub!

Anyway, the place we have decided to go for has no turkey on the menu, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but I just know it's going to make a couple of people stand on their soap box.

Actually, taking about people getting on their soap box, I had a right ear full yesterday. We have started a cycle-to-work scheme here, which encourages people to get green and ride their bike into work. It's a brilliant idea from the government and allows you to buy a bike tax free and pay for it monthly out of your wages. This scheme is open to any member of our staff that would like a bike - obviously if you already have a bike you probably wont benefit from this!

Apparently, according to one employee, this isn't fair and we should all have equal rights to benefits. So, in the opinion of this one person, if he can't benefit from the scheme, why should anyone else. I wouldn't mind if this was our only benefit but they are all entitled to a discounted gym membership, a beer trolley every Friday, a kitchen full of free bread, milk, tea, coffee, condiments, fruit etc, discounted personal trainers, pensions, travel insurance (which this guy has claimed from) summer parties, Christmas parties and all the other events in-between!

What I hated most about this situation was that I heard my Dad's voice coming out of my mouth as I said, "life's not fair". I think we give people too much sometimes and consequently they end up wanting more, and never feeling like they have enough. Honestly I don’t think we ever stop being children, we are just bigger.

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This week, I have been thinking about how I can punish people. It would seem that there are only a small number of people in my office that keep refusing to act like normal people, as they consider themselves to be either too important or too busy to do what everyone else does in the office, such as re-filling the filter coffee machine or putting their plates in the dishwasher.

I'm getting fed up of sending out emails, as the only people that read them are the people who are already doing all the things they need to. And no matter how firmly I keep my tongue in my cheek, after a while I begin to hate every word I write!

I got really fed up last week so had to send a rant out, which I hadn't done in a while, and I received a few suggestions about how to punish people. One of the worst, I think, and maybe a little too extreme, was just to completely lock down the kitchen so nobody could use it for a day. In principle I like it, but then that means I don't get my 10 or so cups of tea! Another idea was to ban our beer trolley; I like this one because, in our office, it really hurts when you take people's alcohol away.

I'm not sure about this whole punishment thing though, because I can't single out who is causing all the problems so everyone will have to suffer, which isn't really fair.

When I was younger, I used to be a lifeguard in a fairly rough area and I had to constantly battle with teenagers who were causing trouble in our pool. I found the most effective way of punishing them, and making them leave the swimming pool, was to get everyone else out of the water.

Of course, then I had to do very little as a room full of cold people shouting and staring at you will soon make you leave! It's an extreme measure and I really don't want to have to start doing that sort of thing here - taking away something from all because of a few.

I think I might start by taking little things away, like their nutella and peanut butter. And if the coffee isn't refilled enough, then I'll just take it out of the kitchen; the sad thing is I know it probably won't make much of a difference, but I have to do something!

On a much more positive note, I have found some HR software that I don't think my CEO and FD can refuse. It does exactly what we ask - it's online and not very expensive. Hang on, a cheap, easy-to-use online system - that's probably not secure enough! Better go back to paper then.

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I've had quite a hard time at work recently, not because I have had loads to do, but I am finding it really difficult to get motivated.

When I first started this job I saw it as a challenge and I really wanted to improve the office and make it a better place for everyone to work in, but people seem to like working in a complete dump so why try and give them anything different? I wonder if other office managers have the same problem? Or am I doing something wrong?

I got a new house rabbit recently and it lives inside with me and my flatmates. I bought it a beautiful new home with a lovely soft floor, nice big litter tray and a cosy snug bed. This rabbit could not have it better but it has decided to sleep in the litter tray and poo in his bed!

Sometimes no matter what you do, people (or naughty rabbits) will do whatever they want so what's the point? Of course, I know I can train my rabbit, it's just a shame that people aren't as easy.

Of course my job isn't just about making sure people are clean in the office but it seems to dominate it sometimes! Another aspect of this job that seems to rule me completely is talking to Orange about our company mobile phones. They have been driving me crazy!

I've have been trying to order some new data cards which allow our staff to connect to the internet remotely. My IT manager told me which ones he would like and sent me a link from the Orange website so I was 100% on which ones they were. I rang Orange and tried to get the order number for this particular model and I was told that it didn't exist. I was told this while I was looking at the Orange website so I was a little confused.

After battling with one of the Orange representatives for about half an hour they finally found the model I was after - the confusion came because the medium business enterprise division of Orange calls it by a different name and I was looking at the small business enterprise site. You would have thought that they could have just all called it by the same name, but then I guess that would be far too simple.

I think as an office manager, you can sometimes feel very lonely and a bit desperate because everything feels like a battle at times. But then if an office ran smoothly by itself what would be the point of having an office manager!

And I complain bitterly about the people here but all it takes to cheer me up is for someone to bring me a nice cup of tea and ask how I'm doing and I'm back to loving them all again. I won't stop training my rabbit not to poo in my house, just like I'm not going to stop telling people at work to tidy up after themselves.

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I hate smoking. It is pointless and annoying, and it makes you smell and me cough! I am a particularly smug non-smoker - in my naïve teenage years I used to think it made me look both cool and hard, but I am very pleased to report that I have grown out of that particular habit; now I just need to stop drinking so much cider!

When the smoking ban was finally introduced in England, I was really pleased as I thought it would lead to some really good changes. Unfortunately it just means I spend more time sat on my own in a pub while everybody goes outside for their death stick. And it's not just in the pub when I find smoking irritating; it has also created more problems for me at work.

This week, a member of staff who went outside for a fag break was faced with putting out a fire due to the fact that so many people had left their cardboard cigarette boxes in the ashtray, and had then not stubbed out their cigarettes properly, so the whole thing had gone up in flames! On top of this, a lighter blew up in her face as someone had left a lighter in an empty box that they put in the ashtray.

I thought it was incredible that someone would really put a lighter containing a flammable liquid into something you use to put out things on fire! Saying this, smokers do fill their lungs with something that only does them harm while slowly putting them into an early grave - obviously they don't posess foresight.

And it's not just that smokers are lazy and put their rubbish wherever they feel like it, it's that smokers in my building are also forgetful. To get into our office you need to carry a pass with you, which unlocks the door. This is not a new concept and very common practice in many offices!.

However, smokers seem to think that they don't need to bother remembering theirs as they expect me to answer the door for them. Sometimes I am up opening the door for people more than I am sat down doing work. I have now decided that I am going to charge people every time I have to get up and open the door, giving all proceeds to charity. I don't think it will make any difference to the smokers but it will at least create some good from a nasty habit.

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My blog, or rant, this week is about HR software or rather our lack of it. I work for a company that employs about 100 people, and around 90 of them are based in our office. We are an online company that builds websites and hosts communities, yet all our holiday and sick recording is still done on paper!

I came here after working for a large company in London and was truly shocked that my current organisation were still following such an archaic system. It was actually quite a nasty culture shock. I think the trouble is that this is a small company trying to be big - it's one of the reasons I love it and the same reason it frustrates me. When I became the office coordinator I set about trying to change it; I have been here a year now and we are still using paper.

I have tried. I've looked everywhere and found some really good systems. But they also cost loads of money. I even found a free system that just recorded holiday and sick leave. I thought it was perfect but my CEO didn't like it. He said it wasn't secure enough and there wasn't enough privacy, despite the fact that it was password protected and only managers could sign off holiday.

Compare that to a paper-based system where all the records are kept on my desk for anyone to see! It actually makes my brain hurt when I try to see the logic there. I mean, I get that he wants it to be right but if they don't want to pay for it then they need to make sacrifices. Staying with paper can't be an option!

And it's not just the fact that it's not confidential. Because all of the records are on paper, and people in this office are lazy, they get lost. People put them on their desks, which are messy, and they clean them after the cleaner or I has had a rant, and their holiday and sick records are gone! Maybe I should back them up on an excel spreadsheet, but it would take forever and there is the chance I would forget or not be here and it wouldn't get marked. It just seems so silly that my company is not up-to-date with the modern world. Especially when we are selling into it.

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