Our dress code, for all who do not have direct daily contact with our customers, is jeans and t-shirts or dressier.  Dressy flip-flops (the kind with a heel) can be worn as a sandal, or tennis shoes, or pretty much anything in between.  No shower shoes!  No shorts... no hats.... no t-shirts with inappropriate sayings on them.... basically, use some good common sense.  I love being able to wear jeans, but tend to put it with a dress shirt (something that would easily go with a skirt or slacks) and appropriate shoes.  Since I love my heels, that often means I'm in high heels and jeans, a look I absolutely love!  If you have contact with the public, then you dress in slacks and polo shirts for men, and skirts/slacks with appropriate blouses for the ladies.  No tennis shoes allowed there.  My fear is that our new Director will come on board and decide that the casual dress code we are all loving is too lax and will revert back to business casual through out the building, which though nice is not as comfortable or washer friendly.  I mean, our dress code states that jeans must be neat and clean with no holes.... and very few folks wear lounge suits anymore (though we had a few that were coming in in them!).... so I'd really like to keep my jeans!!!

LOL Claudia.... Wish I could have seen you pull the moving office one... quick thinking!!  I'm afraid I wouldn't have come up with anything quite so original and fun. 

I agree with all the previous posters, especially MsMarie about this being only a day of your life, not THE day of your life.  Having just celebrated 20 years, I can honestly say that a lot of our wedding day has faded or been replaced with other memories that involve more of our family, especially as it grows.  And that was with 2 weeks of planning and all on my wedding (meaning, no real stress, just lots of fun, laughter, friends, and a few family).

Do not change your date.  The fact that your boss said you'd have to talk about the fact you'll both be off for, one at a time, for 4 weeks, just means that he just realised that the dates bump up to each other like that.  Give him a chance to fret it out, work out what must be done, what can be postponed, etc.  Personally, i wouldn't even offer to be available via e-mail most days of your honeymoon... else what else will he expect when you take your vacations with your family in the future.  While bossie is trying to come to terms with not seeing his right hand and arm for 4 weeks, you be working on suggestions on how it can be minimized while you're gone.  Is a temp a possibility?  If so, have a suggestion on an agency, with contact info, on hand.  Have a suggested drop dead date for the temp to be on hand to have a fairly seemless handoff between you and her/him.  If a temp is not an option, perhaps another office can "share" someone.  If so, have a list of what HAS to be handled and timelines for them.  Basically, what I'm saying is do what you do.... help your boss... it just happens that this time you're helping him deal with you not being there for 2 weeks, directly following his absence of 2 weeks.  Heck, maybe he'll change his dates and come back a day or 2 early just to see you before your leave.

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials!!!  Remember to just enjoy the time with the person you love, the time to show and share with friends and family the depth of your love and devotion to each other.

So...  US government has managed to not pass a budget, yet again (isn't this 5 years in a row now?!?) and this time no continuing resolutions were passed at the last minute to keep it running.  So, for the first time in 17 years we are once again furloughed if we work for the Federal government.  We were notified, in my agency, that we had funding for everyone up through noon on Friday, but at that time we would be sent home with a furlough letter if no budget was passed.  How are other federal agencies handling it?

Personally, I'm blessed and able to not worry about it if we are off work for a couple of weeks, however I know that not everyone can afford that.  I'm really hoping for at least a week off, just to enjoy some down time after all the mandatory overtime we have been required to put in all summer long -- it'll be nice to have a break and rest.  But not sure I'd really want it to go longer than about 1 week.  And then, many of those in my office are considered essential and aren't even getting that break -- and may be working for no pay, since they are required to be here, but there is no guarantee that they'll be paid for this time.  Seems that if I'm not required to be at work, I can more readily accept the possibility of not being paid.  Those that are having to come in, yet not promised pay....  sucks and morale in this building, which was already low, is taking another critical hit.

How is this budget not being passed affecting you?  You don't have to work for the federal government for it to affect you, as showcased lately in the news.  You may rely upon the tourist trade from government parks and such, which is not going to be coming in since they are closed.  So.... share how it's affecting you, and if you're planning on enjoying the "vacation" or suffer through it, or a combination?

Been busy with school starting back up, Scouts starting back up, and life getting back to better footing (re: hubby and I)...  but looks like i may be slowing down a bit come Friday at noon.... if a budget don't get passed, my department runs out of funding at that time and we go home.  I'm actually going to honestly say I wouldn't mind a week off, whether or not they come back later and pay us.  But that's me....

Wow Jennika... Wonder how they even thought to bring it in.... seems odd, but you did so good with it.  I'm not sure I would have known anything to do but throw it back outside.  I'm not heartless, just so far out of my realm of thought, especially at work.

Advanced Task Killer -- a free app that helps turn "off" all the other apps that slow my phone down or wear down the battery!

Copiers, fax machines... definitely.  Printers quite probably.  As we move more and more electronic, with no paper being created or received or sent, anything that deals with hard copies will go away.  More and more will be electronic, meaning our "pc's" will be in our hands (like our smart phones, only smarter!), in our vehicles, etc. so we can do our work, view necessary items, whatever, all in electronic format.  (Think the "In Death" series of books by J D Robb (aka Nora Roberts) where she's in the future and there's no paper money, no paper anything.)

We have a community fax for our office, and it sits next to my desk... seems that none of the faxes get to anyone without me picking them up and taking them to them.  And no, it doesn't get done when I'm not here... they pile up and are waiting on me when I return.

I do not want something streamed in.... I like to control what I listen to.  Because there are days that something calming and soothing and relaxing is what I need to keep focused, and other times I need something with some punch to keep me alert.  So please, no canned tunes.... I'll bring my own and keep it turned down so no one outside of my immediate personal air space can hear it (or put on my headphones!).  :-)

I use excel extensively in my job, though the rest of my co-workers use minimally.  I adapted an excel "program" to determine retired pay withholdings for claims we work, which requires look-up tables, embedded if statements, tons of hidden coding in the documents, which means that I have a fairly higher-than-normal skill level with excel.  Once I get these queries, statements, formulas, etc updated for each cost of living increase, then the rest of the workforce only has to know how to click on a cell, enter a date or data, and wait for the behind-the-scenes math to be done (working from mulitple source tables) and then take the answers from the Excel document to our awards program.  I happen to love Excel, only surpassed by my love of Access, for the functionality and depth of the program, while not requiring a HUGE amount of knowledge by the user to access that functionality.  I find both very intuitive.  But it may just be my mind....

Interesting Atlanta.... as it's one of the few sites I CAN read at work.  Gotta love the consistency!

Ok, while I was surfing along in another of my professional websites (govloop.com), I came across an article written showcasing some simple icebreakers that could be used for meetings or team building items.  I'm hoping I can do this right, and post the link to the article, so that any of you who might need one, has a way to review what they suggested.  I really liked some of the ideas, and some were not ones I've used previously.

http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/on-the-rocks-best-icebreaker-questions-for-meetings-and-focus?elq=22bc93e5d4fe461893bdf1fddbc7dac4&elqCampaignId=3070

An excerpt from the article by Michele Bartram (link above):
"...■Skill Envy. If you could have any one skill or talent you don’t already have, what would it be and why?
 ■Slogan for Your Life. If you were to create a slogan for your life, what would it be? (Example: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow, we all die.)
 ■Shining Moment. What was the single most shining moment of achievement in your life?..."

For professional writing, we do the left block type... but for personal letters I prefer the old-fashioned look of indents, spacing, etc.

My current position, everything we handle is "confidential", meaning from the public as it's PII (personally identifiable information), so we're kept behind locked doors... locked elevators and staircase access to get from floor to floor, etc.

In my previous positions, I had a anti-glare and privacy screen on my PC, so anyone wanting to see what was on my PC had to be standing directly behind me, which was hard to do as my back was to a wall and the entrance was in front of me.  If it was hard copy documents, they were kept in a brown folder on my desk, pulled out as needed but slid back in if anyone entered my office.  I also had a private office with a door I could lock as needed, if the project was larger or it was cumbersome to slide in and out of the folder for any reason.  I kept the privacy screen for my PC wherever I went with that company, as I invariably would have to handle something on the PC that not everyone needed to be seeing, and even in a busy office that was an easy and effective method of maintaining privacy.  Do the same thing for my laptop, especially if I'm using out in public.