How are emails handled at your workplace?

[garbon]

That's not true. About 60% of the functions in Excel or Word, if you knew them, would make your job much much easier.

Seriously. I'd be super slow at my job if I didn't know many of them.

[Syt]

Alll you need to do is create mailing rules that handle the traffic by transfering emails of certain types into pre-defined folders which you can empty from time to time.

I know, I do that for some categories of my incoming mails. Other than that I don't know anyone doing that, even though everyone has received a primer on those functions. I am also the only one using the calendar feature for anything other than meetings, and there's only very few using the Outlook to do list feature.

[Syt]

Seriously. I'd be super slow at my job if I didn't know many of them.

Let me put it this way: three people in our department know how to handle pivots in Excel. When wanting to freeze the header rows on a sheet most people choose "split screen" instead of freezing panes. Data functions or the difference between formatting numbers as text or leaving them as is are lost on most people. I will not talk about macros or functions, because no one uses them.

Bear in mind that were are the FINANCE department. Being able to create a when/if statement with three or more functions makes me practically a god among them when it comes to Excel.

Then again I notice again and again that I'm the only one regularly wondering when faced with repetitive, manual tasks if there's not a way of doing it easier or automatically.

Others mostly counter that they don't have time to bother with that and that the gain wouldnot be worth the effort.

[garbon]

Let me put it this way: three people in our department know how to handle pivots in Excel. When wanting to freeze the header rows on a sheet most people choose "split screen" instead of freezing panes. Data functions or the difference between formatting numbers as text or leaving them as is are lost on most people. I will not talk about macros or functions, because no one uses them.

Bear in mind that were are the FINANCE department. Being able to create a when/if statement with three or more functions makes me practically a god among them when it comes to Excel.

Then again I notice again and again that I'm the only one regularly wondering when faced with repetitive, manual tasks if there's not a way of doing it easier or automatically.

Others mostly counter that they don't have time to bother with that and that the gain wouldnot be worth the effort.

How...sad.

[Syt]

How...sad.

Our analysts are a bit better (one is pretty sharp with Excel, but then again he's a PhD), but the accounting team is pretty hopeless and frustrating. I've reached the point where I let them fiddle with their stuff and do mine efficiently, using excess time to surf the net.

[Grey Fox]

How...sad.

Our analysts are a bit better (one is pretty sharp with Excel, but then again he's a PhD), but the accounting team is pretty hopeless and frustrating. I've reached the point where I let them fiddle with their stuff and do mine efficiently, using excess time to surf the net.

Excess time, that's what the others are afraid of. They are afraid that if they somehow come up with excess time it's either going to get them layed off or worse, more responsability.

For people like you & me, it just means we surf the web.

[lustindarkness]

When I was gone for a year to play in the sandbox, the emails kept coming in, 3k+ of them by the tme I came back, including a few hundred "You mailbox is over the size limit". 

[HVC]

Excel is gods gift to office workers.

[Syt]

Excel is gods gift to office workers.

It sucks, though, when people use it only for writing lists, adding, substracting, and maybe multiplying.

Colleagues trying to reconcile Excel sheets or finding anything in them are usually helpless beyond the simple autofilter.

[garbon]

Excel is gods gift to office workers.

Let's not be absurd.  While Excel might shine brightly compared to much of the Office Suite, it is hardly the case that it doesn't have its flaws.

[saskganesh]

I received a vacation email from a  government employee once.

it went something like this:

" I will be on vacation from December16 to January 16 th. On my return, I will delete ALL emails. "

I thought he was a genius.

[Malthus]

I received a vacation email from a  government employee once.

it went something like this:

" I will be on vacation from December16 to January 16 th. On my return, I will delete ALL emails. "

I thought he was a genius.

A month-long vacation ... I guess he *must* have been a gov't employee. 

[BuddhaRhubarb]

We don't have interwebs at my work. ???

[fhdz]

Let's not be absurd.  While Excel might shine brightly compared to much of the Office Suite, it is hardly the case that it doesn't have its flaws.

Indeed.  Having said that, though, it's a damned useful tool.

[vinraith]

Excel is gods gift to office workers.

What other spreadsheet programs have you used?