Meaning & use
office manager
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Meaning
nouncountable
A person in charge of the daily running of an office, including supplies, staff schedules and administrative tasks.
Grammar: Countable: an office manager, two office managers.
Patterns
- office manager at a company
- work as an office manager
The office manager ordered new printers and arranged the staff meeting.
She has been the office manager at the clinic for ten years.
Please ask the office manager about the key.
Word forms
| plural | office managers |
|---|
Common combinations
- work as an office manager
- She works as an office manager for a law firm.
- hire an office manager
- The company hired an office manager.
- office manager duties
- Office manager duties include ordering supplies.
- talk to the office manager
- Talk to the office manager about your desk.
- experienced office manager
- An experienced office manager can solve most problems.
Synonyms and how they differ
- administrator
- Administrator is broader and may not include managing staff.
- office coordinator
- Office coordinator suggests a more junior role.
- secretary
- A secretary mainly assists one or more people, while an office manager runs the office.
- receptionist
- A receptionist greets visitors and answers calls, while an office manager has wider duties.
Word family
- manager noun
- person who directs others
- manage verb
- to be in charge of
- management noun
- the people who run an organization
- office noun
- a place where people work
Commonly confused: office manager or office worker?
office manager vs office worker
An office worker is anyone who works in an office; an office manager is the person in charge of running it.
Practice
Who is usually responsible for ordering paper and printer ink at a small company?
Choose one answer.
The office manager handles supplies and daily running. The other jobs are not usually responsible for this.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “office manager”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.