As the autumnal weather starts to kick in, the clocks have gone back and children have returned to school, our thoughts turn to the remainder of the year. Even though the calendar year starts in January, there is an underlying feeling that the working one, a bit like academic terms, actually starts with the beginning […]

Are you helping to organise your company’s next exhibition or event, but not sure how to stand out from the competition? Chris Hutber introduces two new products, guaranteed to get you noticed and engage potential customers. How to get noticedPulling in potential customers from a crowded floor can be easy when you have an engaging exhibition […]

PAs asked to wrap their boss’s Christmas presents this year will be pleased to hear that Sellotape has launched a tool that will save them time and effort. Worn on your hand, the unique On-Hand tape dispenser is the first to allow you to wrap gifts using both hands while also offering variable tape length […]

Want to bag yourself some incredible bargains this autumn? Then why not join the PA Life Club and get access to a whole range of amazing offers. Here’s just a selection of what our partners are offering to members in November: Girl Meets Dress – 10% off designer dress hire Tippletreat.com – members accrue money […]

British workers say they need more admin support to help them be better organised at work, with nearly one in five suggesting that having someone to organise their physical documents would help. According to research by technology brand Brother, the average UK desk is weighed down by almost a stone of clutter and it’s leading to […]

Some of us might be a little guilty of wasting time that should be spent working browsing the internet for personal matters instead. As it turns out, nearly half of UK employees admit to doing this, though in a result for hard-working women, men have been shown to be the biggest abusers of internet privileges […]

As every good PA knows, keeping on top of a proper filing system is essential in order to protect a company’s confidential information. It appears that some office professionals need to up their game, however, as a new survey shows that sensitive records are being left in plain sight due to poor file management, putting […]

Winning through redundancy – Steve Preston (£12.99, Balloonview) Winning Through Redundancy is, due to its subject matter, a book that many would not read out of choice. However, the wisdom and uplifting advice of self-appointed ‘career catalyst’ Steve Preston will convince you that there is nothing to be worried about.   Whether you are simply […]

Leaders Ought to Know – Phillip van Hooser (Wiley, £14.99) Phillip van Hooser writes from a personal perspective throughout Leaders Ought to Know, lending both gravitas and realism to each of the 11 ground rules he covers. The first, “Leadership is a choice – reinforced by individual effort”, is certainly food for thought, particularly as […]

Mind Your Business: Thoughts for Entrepreneurs – Toine Knipping (Balboa Press, £12.15) Toine Knipping, founder of the Amicorp Group, has set us the task of achieving our entrepreneurial goals, along with the harder challenge of realising a well-balanced and meaningful life. We are promised an insight into how to attain realistic business and leadership success […]

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn (Orion, £7.99) This book has topped US and UK best-seller lists. It’s the fascinating story of a relationship, perfect for the daily commute. On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife Amy disappears. The first half of the book concentrates on and is narrated by Nick, with […]

Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz, £7.99) Probationary PC Peter Grant has been left to guard a murder scene in Covent Garden when he meets a witness to the crime. Unfortunately for him, the witness is a ghost. Swiftly re-assigned to the Met unit that deals with ‘the uncanny’, Peter combines his procedural training […]

Pre-register now for any of these four half-day courses and get 10% off when you confirm your booking. The courses will take place on 1st May 2014 at the Emirates Stadium in London, with 50 places available on each course. {sfg:12}

Job-hunting can be a pain, but it’s a necessary evil if you’re keen to progress in your career yet are stuck in a dead-end job. Now you no longer need to trawl through countless, non-specialist sites, or visit lots of individual agencies, all vying for your attention. You can breathe a sigh of relief, as […]

If there is one thing that PAs would change about their job apart from the salary, it would be to highlight the important contribution that they collectively make to UK businesses every day. After pay issues are taken into account, long hours, their colleagues’ misconceptions and feeling undervalued top the list of PA bugbears, according […]

Stressed office workers are suffering in silence and employers aren’t doing enough to resolve the problem. This was the principal finding of a poll recently carried out by mental health charity Mind. Almost half of all workers surveyed (45%) said they were expected to cope without mentioning stress at work, while a third (31%) claimed […]

The search for Britain’s longest serving PA has culminated in the announcement that the winner is executive assistant Avril Dibbens. The longest serving, current, full-time Ministry of Defence civil servant can now proudly add this title to her long list of career achievements. August 1962 is when Ms Dibbens began working in the typing pool […]

All the best institutions have an amusing anecdote at their origin and The Palm is no exception. If a New York City clerk had paid more attention, the restaurant would actually have been named Parma, after the home town of the founders, John Ganzi and Pio Bossi, but the gormless pen-pusher had trouble understanding their […]