Learning from mistakes: the almost success stories of an Administrative Manager

Over the years in office management, I've learned that what seems obvious to you isn't always obvious to others. With hundreds of suppliers, orders, and designs, documenting everything is the number one rule.

Make sure all prices, deadlines, and approved mock-ups are clearly stated in your emails. But the real trick is to ensure the recipient acknowledges and agrees with everything written.

In the era of messengers, emails sometimes get overlooked because exchanging information is much faster in chat apps. However, the same rule applies to messengers: clearly describe what you've agreed on and ensure the other person confirms it.

Once, I ordered 70 T-shirts as gifts for employees and verbally agreed with the supplier that each item would be in a personal bag. Imagine my surprise when all the T-shirts arrived in a single box, unpackaged.

After chatting with the supplier, I realized the manager who agreed to the personal packaging hadn't informed the warehouse because we discussed it weeks earlier, and he forgot. The supplier offered to take the T-shirts back and package them, but there was no time—I had to send them out the next day.

So, as I packed them myself, I became even more convinced that verbal agreements are a no-go from now on.

     2. Plan Events Ahead of Time

You’ve likely heard a lot about planning, and there's a reason for that—it's old but gold. Planning gives you more time and flexibility to handle things smoothly.

For instance, we once decided to hold a new company event on March 1st to celebrate the start of spring, inspire everyone to shake off winter, and give out presents. It was a fantastic idea—except we only came up with it on the evening of February 27.

I spent a lot of time contacting suppliers and managing the delivery process. Sometimes, tight deadlines give us that adrenaline rush we love. Everything was delivered on the morning of March 1st, but the cards the supplier agreed to sign looked terrible—they had simply printed out the greetings and glued them into the cards. People joked about it, and it made us realize the importance of planning ahead once again. Now, we have an event calendar, and we start meeting with all involved teams in November-December to discuss the next year’s events to ensure everything goes smoothly.

We also created an event deadline calendar, which helps us track when we should start preparing for each event. For example, we’ve been preparing for New Year’s in September for a couple of years now, and it’s led to better feedback from employees. With more time to brainstorm, negotiate, and deliver great ideas, we see much better results.

Needless to say, March 1st the following year was a success. We planned and gave employees branded kits for growing microgreens, and everyone was excited to share their progress in the group chat.

This experience reinforced the value of planning—when you invest time in preparation, you set yourself up for success.

Interested in articles from our Administrative Manager Maria Didyk? You are welcome to read another one, “Keeping the lights on: how Xpand responds to blackouts and challenges during the war in Ukraine”. 

      3. Be ready to quickly resolve issues

The worst thing you can do is assume everything is under your control when other people are involved.

We once had a Halloween party at the office and ordered pizza for dinner. I placed the order two days in advance and confirmed everything was set for the day of the party. It was evening, and everyone was hungry and tired. Dinner was supposed to arrive in 15 minutes.

Knowing couriers can be late, I prepared some appetizers. After 20 minutes, I called the delivery service. The courier said there was traffic and he’d be 30 minutes late. People started to get annoyed, but we decided to wait.

Then the courier called and said he couldn’t find our business center. In the middle of the call, we realized that he had mixed up the streets and was on the other side of the city. It was a Friday night, raining, and the traffic was a mess. It could be another hour.

At first, I panicked, but then I realized there was no time to waste—I had to feed the team. We went to a nearby café and bought a variety of little pies. Everyone was fed and happy. When the pizza finally arrived, we treated the remaining colleagues in the business center who were still at work and even made some new friends .

This experience taught me that you can do everything right on your end, but when life gives you lemons and you are expecting pizza, you make a lemon cake and share it with others.

     4. Know how processes work

At that time, I had worked at Xpand for two years and thought I knew everything about our office.

When a newcomer joined, I created an office access card for him. Business center guard was responsible for granting access, so I asked him to assist. Halfway through, I realized that only our cleaning lady knew how to grant elevator access. I had never heard about this because the guard always asked her to handle it, and I only saw the results. It became apparent when she went on vacation, and no one else knew how to manage it.

Determined to figure it out, I took the elevator master key. Together with our System Administrator, we Googled how to grant elevator access to the card. We followed all the steps and were proud—until an employee came from the stairs and said the elevator wasn’t working.

Confused, we investigated and soon realized we had erased all the elevator settings and deleted the access list. We called the repairman, but he was booked for the week.

For the entire week, employees had to walk up to the 7th floor, and they were not happy about it.

This failure taught me that there’s always more to learn—whether it’s about materials for wardrobes, printing techniques for T-shirts, or elevator settings. It’s valuable to know more about different processes. Also, while delegating tasks is important, understanding how processes work ensures you can delegate effectively with the right instructions.

     5. Remember that sometimes screw-ups just happen

As a company working with international customers, we often use delivery services to send presents abroad. We had a go-to guy for all the preparation—yes, it was more expensive than a standard delivery service, but he handled invoices, delivery details, and provided assistance throughout the process.

We worked with him on about five major deliveries, and everything went smoothly. That was, until one day when an employee asked for help delivering a large box of presents to his relatives. We called this guy, as usual, he picked up the package, and then... disappeared.

Well, not at first. He kept promising to send the parcel's tracking number. For a month, I waited and kept hearing excuses until I realized something was seriously wrong. Eventually, he stopped responding.

Did he steal the parcel? Or simply lose it? Thousands of questions were in my head during this month. I was devastated and unsure how to break the news to my coworker.

And that’s all. This story does not have a happy ending, because it is life. And sometimes bad things just happen. Sometimes you can’t resolve the issue quickly and must deal with it. 

Failures happen, but not as much as success stories (hopefully), and that is what makes it a balanced universe.

     6. Know that not all issues need to be solved

We planned a New Year party at the office—the first major party after COVID-19. Everyone was so excited! I wanted the office to look perfect, so we did a deep cleaning, updated furniture, and carried out some repairs.

One of the planned tasks was replacing a section of the old carpet. I met with the workers, we agreed on the location and color, and everything was set for them to replace it the evening before the party (very bad timing, see lesson #2).

At 7 am, I woke up excited and got a call from a colleague who was already at the office. "You won't believe what they've done," he said. "You won't be happy to see it." I rushed to the office in 20 minutes and saw it with my own eyes—part of the carpet was a different color.

But... I clearly remember that we agreed on the right one! However, halfway through, they realized they didn't have enough of the agreed color and decided (!) to change it. Imagine a huge carpet with a small (but very noticeable) differently colored section.

I was shocked and embarrassed. I didn’t know what to do—the teammates would be arriving any minute! But then I noticed something surprising—no one else seemed to see the problem. It was so funny—what seemed like a huge problem to me wasn’t important to anyone else.

When I started joking about it, we all agreed that it didn’t look that bad and decided not to replace it. Instead, we called it the "lucky spot!"

This experience taught me that not all issues, problems, or failures need to be solved—sometimes we just have to let them be. The best part of gaining experience is that you never know where it will come from.

Conclusion

Being an Administrative Manager has taught me to anticipate challenges, plan, and lead the team even in uncertain times. I believe my team and I are successfully planning for the future, foreseeing risks, and taking proactive steps to address potential challenges. However, it's impossible to always foresee everything. That's why the ability to adapt and approach situations with humor is crucial—it can turn a potential disaster into a memorable story and a valuable lesson. Every failure is an opportunity to grow, building resilience and preparing us for future successes. So let's grow together, which, by the way, is what our company's slogan, Xpand, says!

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