Folding Nightmare - An Office Supplies Problem

By Author: Ivan Cuxeva Jr
Total Articles: 782
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Have you ever been assigned a mindless office job which offends you to some point? Something like sharpen pencils, fold pieces of paper and your position involves management? Such clerical tasks not only discourage individuals but they lower overall business productivity. It's all about opportunity cost, why would someone have to spend their time doing a mindless repetitive task?

Many times people complain that they are not being challenged enough which is why they haven't advanced as much as they wish the had. Small business management should be smart enough to locate areas which can be improved in their business in order to increase employee productivity through tasks which are challenging and require actual brain activity.

Assigning a brilliant person clerical tasks bores the employee and makes her/him feel less effective. Task such as envelope and letter folding are one of these tasks which can be easily done by a machine. An average employee will take a lot of time to fold 100 letters and put them into envelopes, why would a manager even allow such a waste of time? The reason why this happens is the lack ...
... of knowledge about the great variety of office supplies which are available to small businesses in the 21st century.

Doing repetitive tasks by hand makes employees wonder if they'd be better of working somewhere else where their intellect is being challenged. There are two solutions to get these tasks accomplished, hire an employee which would be in charge of all the clerical procedures or simply purchase the right equipment to get the job done, for instance, folding letters is a very tedious tasks which is why letter folding machines have been invented, these devices can dramatically decrease the time spent on such repetitive task which can be allocated to something more productive.

The use of machines and office supplies in small and large businesses is about common sense, as time goes by technology changes the way we do things, often for the better. Can you imagine having to use a stove instead of a microwave during lunch hours? or copying documents by hand instead of using a copying machine? Sticking to old ways of doing things hurts our business and makes people feel less useful, as a business owner or member of the management team it is always wise to take some time to do a quick research to make your team of professionals even more productive and effective.