Routine Inquiries
1. Assume that, as a student in your college or university's professional practice course - a course that gets students thinking about, and prepared for jobs - you are required to "shadow" a professional in your anticipated career for a day. Assume that you'll be writing a brief report on the experience for your professor. Also assume that you have already called a company and gotten an appropriate person's name, title, and email address. Write this person an email message asking if you may shadow him or her for a day. But before you do, think carefully about what the person will want or need to know, and about what you want to get out of the experience. Use your best you-attitude in this direct inquiry.
2. You are the personnel director for Professional Billing Services. Today you read an article in one of your human resources magazine about flextime - the practice of letting the employees determine, within limits, their own work schedules. The article pointed out many benefits of the practice: savings in overhead costs (because employees on different schedules can share office space and expensive equipment), the ability to attract and retain employees who need to balance job and home responsibilities, and overall improved morale. You think this practice might be attractive to some of your people.
While considering the idea, you recall that at last year's meeting of the International Society for Office Administration you heard a presentation on the subject. It was made by Frank Dog, the vice president of administration for an insurance company. You meant to pursue the idea then but apparently forgot about it. You recall that Frank reported on a three-month experiment with flextime at his company. But you don't remember the particulars. You know Frank relatively well. He might be glad to hear from you and to fill you in on the details.
Specifically, you would like to know how flextime worked at this company. What were the ground rules for employees' choosing their own schedules? Did the employees like the change? What were the cost savings for his company? You also wonder if it was difficult for employees to coordinate their activities when they couldn't count on seeing each other during "regular" office hours. How were meetings managed when people were on different schedules? Did the managers feel that it was difficult to coordinate everyone's activities? And what, if anything, happened to the spirit of camaraderie among the employees when they didn't see each other as much during the day? Does Frank's company still feel positively about the change? As you think about what you want to know, you realize that, if you do decide to propose this idea to your bosses, you'll want to be sure you have the facts they will consider important.
Write Frank a message asking for information that will help you think through this possible change for your company. As you prepare the message (and check Internet resources on flextime), other questions should come to mind and you won't forget the personal touch that will reinforce your good relationship with Frank.